Chinese police detain hundreds in Shanghai urban clearance fight

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Chinese police have detained more than 150 people protesting against Shanghai's urban redevelopment projects, a human rights group said.

Shanghai residents heading to petition authorities in Beijing over forcible clearance and redevelopment of neighborhoods in China's largest city were rounded up by police at a railway station, the US-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) said Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

The incident is the latest in an ongoing bitter dispute between officials, real estate developers and city residents who have been pushed out of housing due to government approved urban clearance projects.

HRIC said that of the more than 150 people arrested on May 20 at the Shanghai train station 80 were still under police custody.

Shanghai police denied any knowledge of the incident.

"I don't know. I'm really not very clear about the situation," said one officer in charge of media relations at the Public Security Bureau.

Among the detainees was a Hong Kong resident, Shen Ting (Sam Ting), who was helping her mother, Mo Zhujie, resolve difficulties arising from the destruction of her home in a clearance operation, the report said.

Earlier this month police detained 132 people in Shanghai who were planning to petition authorities in Beijing for breach of property rights over the same issue.

That followed an incident in April when police arrested in Shanghai three community representatives setting out for the capital intent on presenting officials with the same grievances.

Some residents traveled to Beijing in March in hopes their complaints would be heard during the country's largest political meeting, the National People's Congress, but were rounded up by police shortly after their arrival and returned to Shanghai, the HRIC has said.