Americans Detained in China May Be Held for 10 Days

The Washington Post

By Jill Drew
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 21, 2008; 2:09 PM

BEIJING, Aug. 21 — Six Americans detained by police earlier this week
could be held for 10 days, according to Chinese authorities, who appear to
be intensifying their efforts to shut down any public demonstrations
during the final days of the Olympic Games.

Police on Thursday also detained eight Chinese would-be protesters,
including a 14-year-old girl, as the group gathered to press their case in
front of the compound that houses the offices and residences of China’s
top leaders.

Since the Games began, no foreigners are known to have been detained for
more than a few hours. Most of the approximately 40 non-Chinese involved
in the handful of unauthorized, small-scale demonstrations to have taken
place have been deported.

A short statement faxed Thursday by Beijing police to foreign news
agencies said six foreigners who were apprehended for “upsetting public
order” would be subject to the 10-day detention. It identified one of the
six, detained Aug. 19, as “Thomas.”

A person answering the phone at the Beijing Public Security Bureau
confirmed that such a detention order existed, but would not provide any
details.

Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, said she
believes those facing detention are five video bloggers and one high-tech
graffiti artist, all of whom were detained by police Aug. 19.

“For the Chinese authorities to sentence them at all shows the
government’s paranoia and intolerance of even the most peaceful challenges
to its control,” Tethong said.

The five video bloggers had posted images online from the group’s
demonstrations in Beijing. Tethong identified them as Brian Conley,
Jeffrey Rae, Jeff Goldin, Michael Liss and Tom Grant. The graffiti artist
is James Powderly, who was preparing to use a laser to project a pro-Tibet
message onto a Beijing building when he was taken away by police on
Tuesday.

The U.S. Embassy would not comment on specific cases, but a spokeswoman
said officials there were seeking further information on reports of the
foreigners’ detentions. The embassy also issued a statement encouraging
China “to demonstrate respect for human rights, including freedom of
expression and freedom of religion.”

Chinese Olympics officials announced last month that Beijing would set up
special zones where people could protest during the Games, as long as they
applied for permission. None of the 77 applications received were
approved, however, and several other would-be applicants were stopped from
even applying. Two elderly Chinese women who applied were threatened by
police with a year of “reeducation through labor.”

Meanwhile, Hong Kong businessman Wang Wenjin and seven others are being
held by police after pressing for a meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao and
Vice President Xi Jinping. Police had twice denied Wang’s applications for
a permit to protest against local officials in a dispute over a
court-ordered settlement.

“We didn’t protest this afternoon,” Wang said in a phone interview while
in detention. “We were just trying to meet Wen Jiabao.”

Lu Yangyi, 14, said she was part of the group because “Wen once said that
people can turn to him if they are having problems.”

Lu’s mother, Lu Weiting, said in a phone interview that she had traveled
to Beijing in March to protest the unfair compensation she received from
the Shanghai government when a drinks factory she had invested in was
sold. Police stopped the elder Lu and sent her back to Hong Kong. She
tried to stop her daughter from traveling in her place, but said the girl
had written a letter to Wen and wanted to deliver it in person.

“When I read it, I couldn’t believe it was her who wrote the letter,” the
mother said. “I decided she was already grown up. . . . Although I cannot
say I feel optimistic about the future, if no one struggles for the right
to speak out, our next generation will continue to eat bitterness.”

Researcher Zhang Jie contributed to this report.