China Activist Against Forced Abortion Population Control Arrested Again

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 2, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

China Activist Against Forced Abortion Population Control Arrested Again Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 2, 2006

Beijing, China (LifeNews.com) — A Chinese woman who has been a victim of and leading protester against the forced abortion policies of China’s one-child population control program has been arrested again.

Police in Shanghai arrested Mao Hengfeng and other dissidents in advance of the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests to put down possible demonstrations.

Mao was “forcibly taken away by over 10 police officers" on Tuesday, according to the New York-based Human Rights in China, a watchdog group.

The Associated Press called police officers is districts overseeing Mao’s home to confirm the arrest and obtain more details, but they hung up without giving their names or any information.

Chinese authorities routinely crackdown on anti-government dissidents in advance of possible pro-democracy protests and the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacres is particularly sensitive. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Chinese people were killed in the incident.

Mao has been fighting for 15 years for the nation to abolish its one-child policy, which prohibits couples from having a second baby. The policy has resulted in forced abortions and sterilizations, imprisonment, revocation of jobs, fines, and harassment and assault of family members.

For her actions, Mao was forcibly imprisoned in a labor-concentration camp for two years and beaten and tortured while she was there.

Mao became pregnant a second time in the 1980s and was detained in a psychiatric hospital as a result. She was told she could keep her job if she had an abortion. Despite having the abortion, she lost her job anyway and has been a victim of persecution ever since.

Human Rights in China said that officers who took Mao away on Tuesday told her husband she had “been detained for violating rules of residential surveillance." Mao was arrested and placed on surveillance in February on grounds that she disturbed the peace in a protest.

The group said Mao’s daughter told them that Mao had been taken to an undisclosed location.

Mao’s husband was arrested in September for protesting a forced relocation effort that had some Shanghai residents displaced form their homes on a government order.