Beijing puts dissidents under house arrest ahead of martial arts Olympics
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Qi Zhiyong has been disabled since he was injured during the Tiananmen Square protests of 3-4 June 1989, when the army crushed the pro-democracy student protests. On 24 August the police loaded him into a car and secreted him outside Beijing to an unknown destination where he is being kept under"house arrest".
Qi Zhiyong (see photo) on the night of the massacre was shot in the leg. He was taken to hospital three hours later. His leg beca,e infected and doctors were forced to amputate it. Speaking to Radio Free Asia, Qi said that "the police say it is because of Sportaccord Combat Games".
The Sportaccord Combat Games, the first international martial arts competition will be held in Beijing from August 28 to September 4. It involves thousands of athletes around the world in 13 different disciplines, from Korean taekwondo to Chinese kung fu and Thai muaythai or kick boxing. They are called the "Olympics of martial arts” and aim to encourage the admission of new sports to the Olympic Games. The event will be covered by television worldwide. The Hollywood star Jackie Chan, a kung fu expert, travelled to Beijing this week to record a song that will be the anthem of the competition. Chan has recently filmed the movie The Karate Kid, set in a modern prosperous, and technological China, free from problems, due to be released.
Qi said that the police is forcibly removing all the democrats and dissidents from Beijing to prevent public protests. They said that "with all probability I'll be free in early September. They themselves do not know when". "Through Twitter I sent a message to Li Jinping, who wanted to hold a demonstration" for the rehabilitation of former premier Zhao Ziyang, the restoration of [guarantees provided by] the Chinese Constitution and for greater political power to the people".
Li is a dissident who for years has been fighting for the public rehabilitation of former premier Zhao, disgraced for opposing the use of the army against the student movement of 1989 and who died in 2005 under house arrest.
Qi also makes a long list of other democrats and dissidents who have been put under surveillance or house arrest in recent days, such as Wang Xueqin, Hu Shigeno, and Gao Hongming Liu Shasha. He notes that before these "raids" occurred only during major political events and anniversaries. Now they are also made for a sporting event such as the Combat Games.
"The police – he says - said it was an international event with many foreign visitors, which held for the first time in Beijing necessitating security measures."
The dissident Wu Tianli says that it has become common practise for police to put all possible dissenters under control prior to any event, "be it major or minor." "Before [the police] could put you under surveillance maybe twice a year. Now its 4 or 5 times. We are put under surveillance for everything. "
From Beijing, away from all this, Chan said the state newspaper China Daily that he loves wushu (kung fu) and that he hopes it will be included in the Olympics. It really is another China.
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