On December 10th, World Human Rights Day, a group of eight rights advocacy activists, including Gu Guoping, gathered for a meal at the Peninsula Hotel in the Huangpu District of Shanghai. During the gathering, they unfurled a banner with the words “International Human Rights Day” and “Focus on Human Rights Abuses.” This incident caught the attention of the Shanghai police, leading to the criminal detention of Gu Guoping and the summoning of other participants.
December 10th happened to fall on a Wednesday, which is the day designated for petitioners to visit the Shanghai Municipal Petition Office. Petitioners gathered in the northeast corner park opposite the back door of the petition office. At noon, Gu Guoping, Yang Yonglan, Zhang Yaqin, Zhou Guohuai, Zhou Rao Feng, Dong Shaoxing, Zhu Peifang, and a man known as Xiao Shaoxing met up for a meal at a nearby Peninsula Hotel.
Coinciding with World Human Rights Day, during the meal, Gu Guoping and others decided to commemorate the day and document their rights advocacy experiences by taking photos in batches and posting them online.
On December 11th, the Shanghai police summoned individuals from the photos one by one for questioning under the charge of “disturbing public order in a public place by gathering a crowd.”
Song Jiahong, the person behind the Shanghai Black Jail list, told a reporter from Da Ji Yuan, “The Shanghai police are treating this incident as a major criminal case. Gu Guoping has been criminally detained, even though he is a high-risk patient in the late stage of cancer. Zhou Guohuai was taken by three police officers to the Qiaoqiao Police Station for questioning. Yang Yonglan and Zhang Yaqin have also been summoned. It is said that all the individuals in the photos will be questioned.”
Song Jiahong pointed out that the police’s approach to the questioning was in violation of the “Procedural Regulations for Public Security Organs Handling Criminal Cases.” The police’s actions seem to be targeting the people in the photos rather than the actual content of the photos, indicating that they are following an outdated stability maintenance model. “The police are supposed to be the vanguard of law enforcement, but they are still resorting to deceitful tactics. Shouldn’t such actions be reflected upon, especially when they occur on World Human Rights Day?”
The incident has raised concerns among human rights advocates and observers about the handling of dissent and freedom of expression in Shanghai, especially in the context of increasing government scrutiny and crackdown on activism and civil liberties. The authorities’ response to peaceful gatherings and expressions of concern underscores the challenges faced by activists in China, where the space for dissent continues to shrink amid tightening control by the authorities.