China: Hu Jia detained for ‘incitement to subversion’

Chinese rights activist Hu Jia, best known for his advocacy work on behalf of those living with HIV/AIDS, has been detained by national security police in Beijing on charges of “incitement to subvert state power,” a fellow activist said.

Hu was detained while in the middle of an exchange of instant messages via Skype with another rights activist, Qi Zhiyong, Qi told RFA’s Cantonese service (ZH).

“I was chatting on Skype with Hu Jia, and it was right in the middle of that conversation that he was detained. The charge was incitement to subvert state power,” Qi said.
“Hu’s wife Zeng Jinyan, and their child and his mother-in-law are now under surveillance.”

“They have cut off all their means of communication with the outside world, and confiscated all their communications devices,” Qi said.

Hu’s mother told RFA’s Mandarin service(ZH):

“我晚上给他们打电话，也都是‘无法接通’，试过大概有十多次吧，‘小灵通’就说是‘无法接通，线路故障’我也不清楚是怎么回事。”

“This evening I tried to call them but I just got a recorded message saying it was not possible to connect the call. I tried 10 or more times. Their short-range mobile phone service was also “unable to connect your call”, “Malfunction on the line”. I don’t really know what’s going on,” Hu’s mother said.

“因为我们离着比较远，这么晚也都不太可能了。我上班呢，不一定能过得去。”

“It is very late now and they are a long way away, so it’s not likely we’ll go there tonight. I’m not even sure if they’ll let her out to go to work in the morning.”

“今天中午我还跟金燕联系了呢，我让她明天早晨无论如何要到公司来，有些事情要做的。”

“I spoke to Jinyan this morning, and told her she really needs to come into the office tomorrow because there’s a lot that needs doing,” said Hu’s mother, who works at Zeng’s company.

Recent post by Hu Jia on Black and White Cat.