{"id":79116,"date":"2017-12-12T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T14:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=79116 "},"modified":"2017-12-12T14:45:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T14:45:00","slug":"79116-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=79116","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Artist \\’On The Run\\’ From Police After Reporting on Beijing Evictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

2017-12-11<\/span><\/p>

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Beijing-based artist and activist Hua Yong as he documented the eviction of migrant workers from China’s capital, Dec. 7, 2017.<\/span><\/p>

Photo courtesy of Hua Yong’s friend.<\/span><\/p>

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Concerns were growing on Monday for Beijing-based artist and activist Hua Yong, who has been incommunicado since last week after documenting the plight of evicted migrants.<\/span><\/p>

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Hua, a resident of Beijing’s Songzhuang Artists’ Village, is believed to be hiding from the authorities after reporting on the authorities’ bid to rid the city of its low-income, migrant population in the wake of a fatal fire in Daxing district last month.<\/span><\/p>

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His last communication with the outside world came in the form of video footage shared with RFA that showed around 100 residents of Daxing district blocking a major highway in protest at being evicted.<\/span><\/p>

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In the video, Hua alludes to his forthcoming “disappearance,” and his desire to protect his loved ones from police harassment.<\/span><\/p>

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“This video today will be my last video, because I know that if I get arrested, a lot of my friends will be implicated, as well as my family,” he says. “So, I won’t be calling in to tell them I’m safe any more after today.”<\/span><\/p>

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The Daxing protest, the latest of several in the district, erupted into violent clashes after police tried to move the protesters off the highway, where they had brought traffic to a standstill.<\/span><\/p>

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A friend of Hua’s said the artist had been invited to observe the protest by its participants, and was last seen leaving the protest site under their protection.<\/span><\/p>

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But nothing has been heard from him since, she said.<\/span><\/p>

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“There’s been no news of him,” He said. “I haven’t been able to get in touch with him since about 1.00 p.m. last Thursday.”<\/span><\/p>

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A second friend of Hua’s who asked to remain anonymous said he had made inquiries and heard that his friend is currently safe.<\/span><\/p>

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“I think he actually went missing just past 3.00 p.m. [on Thursday], that’s when I lost touch with him,” the friend said. “His cell phone just said it was unable to connect the call.”<\/span><\/p>

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“I heard through [a contact] that someone had found out that Hua Yong is safe for the time being, but now [my contact] is also likely under surveillance,” he said. “I can’t really say any more than that, just that Hua Yong isn’t in danger.”<\/span><\/p>

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Mass incidents usually suppressed<\/span><\/p>

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Repeated calls to Hua Yong’s cell phone went unconnected on Friday. Calls to the political police department of Hua’s home district of Tongzhou also rang unanswered.<\/span><\/p>

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A third source who asked not to be named said Hua is currently on the run from police, and is no longer in Beijing.<\/span><\/p>

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“The police are looking for him, but he has already left Beijing,” the source said. “He’s safe for the time being.”<\/span><\/p>

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“I am getting dozens of text messages a day asking if he’s OK, but I have no way to respond to them,” said the source.<\/span><\/p>

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A handwritten note left by him and posted to Twitter said Hua had decided not to leave China, however.<\/span><\/p>

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“I didn’t expect things to get this serious,” the note reads. “It looks as if I am facing a lot of risks, including that of secret detention and even assassination, but I still don’t want to leave the country.”<\/span><\/p>

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“If I am caught, I’ll be as good as dead, and I want my blood, body and my ashes to be scattered on the earth of my homeland,” it says. “There, I hope it will turn into stardust, and contribute to even more people’s awakening … to civil rights for Chinese people.”<\/span><\/p>

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Fellow Songzhuang resident and poet Wang Zang said he thinks Hua may not last long if he refuses to leave China, however.<\/span><\/p>

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“I think he will probably be detained,” Wang said. “As we all know, China has such a thing as detention centers and black jails, and I worry that he will suffer.”<\/span><\/p>

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“It would be better for him to leave, as long as he has friends who are willing to help him.”<\/span><\/p>

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Wang said the authorities do everything in their power to crack down on “mass incidents” like the Daxing protest, and to ensure that news of them is never made public.<\/span><\/p>

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“They absolutely hate mass incidents, which is what they call them,” Wang said. “He may be able to evade capture for a few days, but it won’t take them long to catch him.”<\/span><\/p>

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For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<div>Hua, a resident of Beijing's Songzhuang Artists' Village, is believed to be hiding from the authorities after reporting on the authorities' bid to rid the city of its low-income, migrant population in the wake of a fatal fire in Daxing district last month.<\/div><\/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-79116","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\/79116","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=79116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}