2014-07-23
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Shanghai-based human rights activist Feng Zhenghu.
Photo appears courtesy of The Epoch Times Network
Feng Zhenghu never expected life to be easy.
The prominent economist-turned-rights-activist has made a habit of taking the ruling Chinese Communist Party to task over its treatment of the least privileged in society.
After serving a three-year jail term in 2001 for “illegal business activity,” Feng became a prolific online writer and critic of alleged malpractice by local governments, especially on the issue of forced evictions.
Returning from an overseas trip in 2009, he was refused re-entry into China eight times, remaining in the immigration hall of Narita International Airport for 92 days before finally being readmitted to his home country.
Undeterred, Feng continued to speak out on behalf of petitioners, ordinary Chinese who pursue complaints about the government, often for decades and in spite of extrajudicial detentions, beatings, and other forms of mistreatment.
In 2012, the authorities detained him without legal procedure for 268 days under house arrest at his Shanghai apartment.
This treatment prompted Feng to lodge official complaints with three state prosecution offices, naming police officers from the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau along with its Yangpu District Branch and Wujiaochang Substations, and accusing them of breaking the law.
When this yielded no result, Feng sent the same letter to China’s president Xi Jinping in December 2012.
