China bars activist from UK visit

One of China's most prominent human rights activists was blocked from traveling to the UK on May 18, just a day after the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett called on Beijing to allow more freedom of expression during her visit to the country. Police detained Hu Jia, a pro-democracy campaigner and HIV/AIDS activist, as he prepared to catch a flight to Europe via Hong Kong. Organizations in several European countries had invited him to speak about human rights violations in China. Domestic security officials told him he was forbidden from leaving the country. He and his wife Zheng Jinyang were taken away for interrogation and told they were suspected of threatening state security. In previous cases, dissidents accused of state security crimes have been arrested, charged and imprisoned. "I will try again to change my flight, but now there are six police downstairs," Hu said by telephone from his home. "The government has stopped us from going so that we would not disclose negative information about China ahead of the Olympics… but this kind of action itself shows the dark side of the government." Hu said police asked him about critical comments he made to the media during a visit to Hong Kong earlier this year. On that trip, he showed a video of his house arrest and expressed support for other Chinese activists in jail or under house arrest. In recent years, the public security bureau has kept him under close scrutiny. In 2006, he was kept under house arrest for 168 days and abducted for interrogation for 41 days. He has remained defiant. Three years ago, he was detained as he attempted to lay a wreath on Tiananmen square in memory of the victims of the 1989 massacre. In Henan province, he helped to expose the blood-selling scandal that left tens–possibly hundreds–of thousands of villagers with HIV/AIDS. Hu is an unabashed admirer of the Dalai Lama, who Beijing accuses of "splittism." Last year, he joined a hunger-strike relay by Chinese rights activists that was the first nationally coordinated protest since 1989. Amnesty International said Hu had been stopped because he planned to speak out about human rights violations ahead of the Olympics, which the authorities fear would tarnish China's reputation. "This is the latest example in a growing pattern of arbitrary detention and growing surveillance of human rights activists in the run up to the Olympics. China should lift the restrictions on Hu Jia and Zheng Jinyang immediately so they can continue with their peaceful human rights activities," said spokesman Mark Allison.