{"id":58852,"date":"2016-08-26T17:48:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T17:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=58852 "},"modified":"2016-08-26T17:48:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T17:48:00","slug":"58852-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=58852","title":{"rendered":"Independent People\u2019s Congress Election Hopeful Jailed in China\u2019s Jiangxi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">2016-08-25<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2016\/34\/2016825image(21).jpg\" alt=\"2016825image(21).jpg (227&#215;320)\" \/><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangxi have detained an activist who tried to run as an independent candidate in elections to his local People&#8217;s Congress.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Yang Wei, also known as Yang Tingjian, was detained by police in Jiangxi&#8217;s Zixi county after he tried to fill out an application for candidacy in forthcoming elections to his local legislative body in Hecheng township, his father told RFA.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">He said Yang Wei&#8217;s bid for candidacy was initially blocked by the township government, so he tried to submit it at the county level.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">He went to the township to pick up a form to register his candidacy, but they refused to give him one,&#8221; Yang Wei&#8217;s father said. &#8220;They summoned him to the police station at about 4 p.m. on Tuesday, and then they took him to the detention center at around midnight.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">We received notification at around 9 a.m. today that he is being held for 10 days&#8217; administrative detention,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Administrative sentences of up to 10 days can be handed down by police to perceived &#8220;troublemakers&#8221; without the need for a trial.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">This was a verbal notification; they said they had given the formal notification to [my son],&#8221; Yang said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The ruling Chinese Communist Party has warned that there is &#8220;no such thing&#8221; as an independent candidate in elections, and that anyone hoping to stand for elections this year to the People&#8217;s Congress will first have to clear &#8220;due legal procedures.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">This means candidates must be approved by local party officials who usually ensure that anyone lacking their support doesn&#8217;t win, often by tampering with physical ballot boxes, paying for extra votes, or simply by having those who try to run detained.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Token &#8216;democratic parties&#8217;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">China<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> will &#8220;elect&#8221; more than 2 million lawmakers at the county and township levels across the country to local-level People&#8217;s Congresses in more than 2,000 counties and 30,000 townships over the next few months.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Opposition parties are banned in China, with the exception of a token group of &#8220;democratic parties&#8221; which never oppose or criticize the government. Anyone trying to set one up is likely to face a lengthy jail term.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Yang said his son had been under round-the-clock surveillance since he tried to register for the poll.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Officials from the township government had been monitoring and following him 24 hours a day for the past few days,&#8221; he said. &#8220;He had wanted to stand in the township People&#8217;s Congress elections.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">I think they were trying to provoke him, to pressure him into losing his cool, so that they could arrest him,&#8221; Yang said. &#8220;They really didn&#8217;t want Yang Wei to run in the elections.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8216;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Disrupting the election process&#8217;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Gansu-based rights activist Qu Mingxue said he had been formally arrested on suspicion of &#8220;disrupting the process of an election&#8221; after he tried to stand in June elections to the Yongjing county People&#8217;s Congress, although the case against him was later dropped and he was released.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">[Yang Wei] is an admirable young man who voiced the aspirations of young Chinese people for democracy and freedom,&#8221; Qu said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-family: \u5b8b\u4f53; font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">He went to collect an election registration form &#8230; and got into a dispute with them, and they put him under 10 days&#8217; administrative detention,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Qu said Chinese citizens have the right to stand as candidates in elections under the country&#8217;s constitution.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Last year, authorities in the central Chinese province  of Hubei also briefly detained grassroots election expert and former independent People&#8217;s Congress deputy Yao Lifa after he discussed independent candidacy with his followers on the popular chat room app QQ.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">In 1998, Yao became the first independent delegate to be elected to a municipal seat in a local People&#8217;s Congress, campaigning for poverty alleviation and the rights of local people. However, he was shunted aside five years later and has been harassed ever since.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Yao<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">, who inspired a national movement to field independent candidates in this year&#8217;s government controlled People&#8217;s Congress elections, reported torture and starvation during earlier periods in detention.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><br \/><\/p>  <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/independent-peoples-congress-election-hopeful-jailed-in-chinas-jiangxi-08252016105705.html\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;Yang Wei, also known as Yang Tingjian, was detained by police in Jiangxi&amp;#8217;s Zixi county after he tried to fill out an application for candidacy in forthcoming elections to his local legislative body in Hecheng township, his father told RFA.&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}