**Shanghai Retired Teacher and Rights Activist Gu Guoping Arrested**
Shanghai retired teacher and rights activist, Gu Guoping, was taken into custody by local police at his home on the morning of August 1st for his visit to Beidaihe a week prior.
July and August are the times when high-ranking CCP officials gather in Beidaihe for summer meetings, and many petitioners go to Beidaihe to seek redress from the central leadership. However, most of them are intercepted at the train station or several kilometers away from Beidaihe.
On July 21st, Gu Guoping and petitioner Liu Jiemei departed from Shanghai to Beidaihe. After bypassing multiple checkpoints, they spent two days getting close to the summer resort area of the top CCP officials. Unfortunately, both of them were taken away by the police. Gu Guoping admitted to the police that they came to seek redress, file complaints, and raise issues to the leadership, hoping the police would truthfully record it in the transcripts.
An informant Mr. Yu revealed to a reporter that, “To hide the fact that petitioners have no access to the authorities and the tragic situation of petitioning in Beidaihe, during the questioning process, the police instructed petitioners to say they were in Beidaihe for tourism. If the petitioners refused, they were threatened with criminal detention.”
“In Beidaihe, the police made Gu Guoping and Liu Jiemei undergo three rounds of interrogations, demanding they change their testimony, but they firmly refused. The police threatened Gu Guoping: ‘You have a criminal record, and you will be severely sentenced.'”
On July 24th, both of them were escorted back to Shanghai. After being interrogated and providing statements at the local police station, they were released. Liu Jiemei was besieged at home by the black security guards hired by the local government, while Gu Guoping went home to rest due to illness.
Several days later, the police from the Zhoujiaqiao Police Station in the Jing’an District of Shanghai repeatedly called Gu Guoping, questioning how he went to Beidaihe and what was said in the transcript. “It is estimated that Gu Guoping’s three interrogations at the Beidaihe police station have angered the Shanghai authorities.”
On the morning of August 1st, three police officers from the Zhoujiaqiao Police Station came to Gu Guoping’s home and took him away, stating they would criminally detain him, but with no formal detention procedures. Gu Guoping is suffering from a terminal illness, late-stage prostate cancer, and severe hypertension (level three, extremely high risk), which according to the CCP’s Criminal Procedure Law and Detention Regulations, he should not be detained.
Song Jiahong, a spokesperson for Shanghai’s black prisons, informed a reporter, “On the evening of August 1st, I called the Zhoujiaqiao Police Station and Officer Wang from the public security window confirmed that Gu Guoping has been criminally detained.”
“Gu Guoping and Liu Jiemei were arrested within moments of arriving in Beidaihe,” Song Jiahong said. “It reflects that the Beidaihe meetings of the CCP’s top officials are not about governing the party but controlling the people. The first to bear the brunt are ordinary people, tightly monitored (maintaining stability), not allowed to speak or act randomly. The cruelty has reached an extreme level!”
Recently, a female petitioner from Northeast China recounted her tragic experience of having her thigh broken by Dalian public security in Beidaihe. At that time, the police refused emergency medical services to enter her accommodation for rescue. She protested by cutting her wrist in the hotel room, while the hotel owner refused to allow the husband, who came to rescue his wife, into the room. Until now, the Beidaihe police have refused to file a case.
Ma Bo, a petitioner from Heilongjiang who currently resides in Beidaihe, told a reporter, “The atmosphere in Beidaihe is very tense now. Officials from all over the country strictly control temporary personnel in Beidaihe and basically do not allow outsiders to enter Beidaihe.”
In late July, Ma Bo noticed five Harbin-licensed cars parked in front of her residence, one of which was a black Iveco with 14 seats, coming and going in the mornings and evenings. “This abnormal situation has raised significant concerns about my personal safety,” she said.