By Elizabeth O’Brien
BEIJING, August 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Friday Chinese officials at the Beijing airport blocked the wife of a well-known opponent of forced abortion from leaving the country. Friends have reported that she is missing and possibly kidnapped.
Yuan Weijing was trying to reach the Philippines in order to accept the noted Magsaysay Award, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Asia, on behalf of her husband Chen Guangcheng. Chen is a blind self-taught lawyer, who was sentenced last November to four years and three months in prison for documenting cases of officials who violently enforced China’s one-child policy in his home province of Shandong in eastern China. He had reported how Family Planning officials were performing forced sterilizations and abortions on women up to eight months pregnant.
Police tried earlier to prevent Yuan from reaching the airport when she was staying at the home of a friend Hu Jia. About 30 policemen blocked her exit, but they finally allowed her to go to the airport with Hu. Some attribute their permission to the fact that western reporters were at the scene, the Guardian Unlimited reports.
Yuan said, “I haven’t done anything wrong, so I’ll give it a try, and if they stop me then it’s not my problem.” As soon as she reached immigration control, however, officials declared that her valid passport was void. She attempted to call Hu, but calls were cut off, and her phone was confiscated.
“She has been detained by police at the airport,” Hu told AFP News, “and they declared her passport void. Her phone has since been taken away so we don’t know where she is kept now.”
Hu Jia recorded Yuan’s last phone call in which she said, “Hu Jia, I’ve been kidnapped. All my belongings have been robbed.” He asked her where she was, and she replied, “I can’t say. I’m in a bathroom.” Airport police claimed, according to the Washington Times, that they had not seen Yuan or taken her into custody.
Chen and his family have suffered a long list of abuses at the hands of the Chinese authorities, including house arrest, abuse of his family and severe beating in prison. In addition, during the court case that ended with his conviction, key witnesses disappeared and his lawyers were beaten (See https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/dec/06120406.html).
Read Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
Chinese Pro-Life Activist’s Final Appeal Rejected
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07011509.html
Wife of Chinese Forced Abortion Opponent Hauled in for 9 Hours of Questioning
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06081404.html”>https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06081404.html
Blind Chinese Activist to be Prosecuted for Opposition to Forced Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06061404.html”>https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06061404.html
Chinese One-Child Policy Protester Missing Since Arrest Last Month
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06040507.html