2014-08-06
Protesters gather in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 2, 1989.
AFP
Supporters of 10 detained anti-corruption activists took to the streets in the central Chinese province of Henan on Wednesday to draw public attention to their cause.
The “Zhengzhou 10” refers to a group of activists mostly being held for holding a memorial to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on a student democracy movement and two late former premiers, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang.
Police have also detained a number of campaigners who have flocked to Zhengzhou to call for their release in recent weeks.
Last month, civil rights activist Meng Xiaodong was detained by police after taking part in a rolling vigil outside two Zhengzhou detention centers where some of the activists are being held.
“Today, around a dozen of us split up to distribute leaflets on the streets and in places of leisure,” civil rights campaigner Zhang Shengyu told RFA on Wednesday.
“We are telling the citizens of Zhengzhou about this so as to help the Zhengzhou 10,” Zhang said.
“[The leaflets] include an introduction to the Zhengzhou 10 and how they ended up in the detention centers.”
He said the group was also displaying the leaflets in public places. “Some of us are sticking them up at bus stops and on power cable poles,” Zhang added.
The Zhengzhou 10 comprise seven activists who attended the memorial event, a journalist, and two lawyers who tried to represent them.
Zhengzhou petitioners Jia Lingmin and Liu Diwei, activists Chen Wei, her husband Yu Shiwen, Hou Shuai, Fang Yan and Dong Guangping were formally arrested on public order charges last month after being detained at the end of May.
Journalists Shi Ping, who goes by the pen-name Shi Yu, Yin Yusheng and Shao Shengdong were also detained around the same time, but Shi and Shao were later released on bail, according to the Chinese rights website Weiquanwang. Yin Yusheng is under criminal detention rather than formal arrest.
Two lawyers hired by those arrested, Chang Boyang and Ji Laisong, were themselves formally arrested.
