Shanghai resident Mao Hengfeng, along with other tourists, went to take photos and check-in at the Peace Hotel where US Secretary of State Blinken was staying. At 9:30 pm on the 24th, she was surrounded by more than a dozen police officers and taken to the police station as she was leaving. Inside the station, she was stripped naked and locked in an iron cage. Mao Hengfeng recounted her arrest to a reporter from The Epoch Times on the 26th.
Blinken arrived in Shanghai on April 24th to begin his second visit to China in 10 months. He was staying at the Peace Hotel located on East Nanjing Road in the Huangpu District.
In the evening of the 24th, Mao Hengfeng attempted to visit the Peace Hotel by the Huangpu River but was stopped by security and police at the entrance, who said she needed an appointment to enter as Blinken was staying there.
Mao Hengfeng left the hotel and went to the opposite side of the road. At 9:30 pm, she was taking photos and checking in like other tourists when suddenly more than ten police officers surrounded her and said, “Why are you at the entrance of the Peace Hotel where US Blinken is staying? Come with us to the police station.”
Mao Hengfeng replied, “Show me the summons, and then I will go with you to the police station.” A male police officer said, “The public security organs are summoning you orally.”
She was then taken to a police car parked on Sichuan Middle Road and brought to the Daqiao Police Station, where she was locked in an iron cage. Her clothes were removed for a full-body check, and even shoes were not allowed. Her wrists were put in handcuffs.
Subsequently, the police made her sit on a prisoner’s iron chair for interrogation until 6 am the next morning. Mao did not say a word or sign anything. Two police officers then took her to a nearby hotel and had four triad members watch over her. She was finally released at 5:30 pm that day.
After being released, Mao Hengfeng called the police to report, asking them to keep her summons and the police report. However, the police officers told her, “Why are you still reporting? Blinken is in the Peace Hotel. Why were you at the entrance? Our country is immensely powerful now, we are going to fight with the Americans soon, you’re in big trouble!”
Mao Hengfeng and the police returned to the Daqiao Police Station, where the officer in charge reported to the chief, who replied, “No summons for Mao Hengfeng.”
“I insisted on staying, made various complaint calls, and called the district public security bureau supervision hotline. In the end, the police station gave me a police report receipt, but it distorted the facts and did not include the incidents where two police officers from Daqiao Police Station took me to the hotel, followed by two street workers and four triad members to watch over me,” she said.
On the morning of the 25th, Mao Hengfeng’s husband, Wu Xuewei, found security personnel hired by Daqiao Street and triad members guarding their home. Wu Xuewei was also brought to the Daqiao Police Station for questioning and asked the police to show the summons. The police threatened Wu, saying, “Do you know where Mao Hengfeng went today? You must advise her not to contact foreign diplomats or foreign media; otherwise, the public security organs will arrest her and lock her up.”
Mao Hengfeng has been implicated due to her mother’s rights advocacy and was first detained by local government and police in a mental hospital at the age of 16 in 1978. She has been subjected to three detentions in mental hospitals and subsequently spent seven years in labor camps and prisons, enduring various forms of torture.
Now, her private apartment at No. 3, Lane 433, Hangzhou Road in Yangpu District, Shanghai, is facing forced eviction. She hopes that both international and domestic peace-loving individuals will continue to pay attention to her human rights situation.