Holiday resort is a hidden prison
By Li Xinran |
November 4, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A RESORT nestled in a mountainous area near the border of two provinces in northwestern China also functions as a detention center for locals who take complaints to Beijing, the Oriental Outlook magazine reported yesterday.
The resort was developed as a film location for Chinese director Zhang Yimou's "The Story of Qiu Ju," which follows a peasant woman, Qiu Ju, who travels to a nearby town, and later to a big city to meet with officials and seek justice after her husband was kicked by the village leader.
But the inmates at the detention center, though innocent, do not share the good luck Qiu Ju had in the movie, and are forced to stay in guestrooms under the surveillance of local officials until they agree to give up seeking redress in Beijing for ?grievances.
The dark side of the resort, which is also called "Qiu Ju," came to light when tourists from Xi'an, Capital of Shaanxi Province, complained online that some of their rooms had surveillance cameras installed.
The resort in Shaanxi's Longxian County, bordering Gansu Province, admitted to what the tourists posted online but defended itself by saying that the rooms were not meant to be used for guests.
Zhang Xuewu, one of the detainees, is among the last three people detained in the resort as he refuses to compromise, according to the Oriental Outlook magazine.
According to Zhang, he and several others were intercepted half way to Beijing and met by local law enforcement officers at the resort.
They and their belongings were searched by officials. A woman told the magazine that she was forced to stay in the a room having two female guards watching her.
A report by Caijing magazine cited one official in charge of monitoring complainants who said, "If I lose my target (complainant) the first time, I will be on my guard. Losing the target twice might ruin my future. In the eyes of my superiors, what else can I be entrusted with if I cannot even control a petitioner?"
The same magazine also exposed a Beijing-based security company called Anyuanding, which is hired by regional authorities to seize and lock up petitioners before handing them over to "envoys" who send them back to their home provinces, the Caijing report said.
The resort was developed as a film location for Chinese director Zhang Yimou's "The Story of Qiu Ju," which follows a peasant woman, Qiu Ju, who travels to a nearby town, and later to a big city to meet with officials and seek justice after her husband was kicked by the village leader.
But the inmates at the detention center, though innocent, do not share the good luck Qiu Ju had in the movie, and are forced to stay in guestrooms under the surveillance of local officials until they agree to give up seeking redress in Beijing for ?grievances.
The dark side of the resort, which is also called "Qiu Ju," came to light when tourists from Xi'an, Capital of Shaanxi Province, complained online that some of their rooms had surveillance cameras installed.
The resort in Shaanxi's Longxian County, bordering Gansu Province, admitted to what the tourists posted online but defended itself by saying that the rooms were not meant to be used for guests.
Zhang Xuewu, one of the detainees, is among the last three people detained in the resort as he refuses to compromise, according to the Oriental Outlook magazine.
According to Zhang, he and several others were intercepted half way to Beijing and met by local law enforcement officers at the resort.
They and their belongings were searched by officials. A woman told the magazine that she was forced to stay in the a room having two female guards watching her.
A report by Caijing magazine cited one official in charge of monitoring complainants who said, "If I lose my target (complainant) the first time, I will be on my guard. Losing the target twice might ruin my future. In the eyes of my superiors, what else can I be entrusted with if I cannot even control a petitioner?"
The same magazine also exposed a Beijing-based security company called Anyuanding, which is hired by regional authorities to seize and lock up petitioners before handing them over to "envoys" who send them back to their home provinces, the Caijing report said.
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