Gangster Tactics Employed Against Petitioner

Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that Shanghai authorities have begun using gangster tactics to dissuade Hong Kong resident Shen Ting from her campaign on behalf of jailed lawyer Zheng Enchong and Shanghai residents displaced by urban redevelopment schemes.

According to HRIC’s sources in Shanghai, around 8 o’clock p.m. on March 5, while Shen Ting’s mother, Mo Zhujie, was watching television at the home of another displaced resident, Ding Jundi, a group of 11 people, some wearing police uniforms, arrived at the premises. One of the police officers was identified as Yan Haipeng of the Shimen Erlu Public Security Bureau dispatch station. The group broke down Ding Jundi’s steel door, then rushed in and apprehended Mo Zhujie, loading her into a police vehicle with the license number “Hu 0359.” Inside the police vehicle, police officers pulled a plastic bag over Mo Zhujie’s head, and someone reportedly said to her, “Mo Zhujie, today you will die, and your daughter will never find your corpse. If you think Shanghai has no ‘black society’ [mafia], this is a real live black society. We’ll teach you a lesson for insisting that the government give you a house.”

After Shen Ting and her friend Jiang Meili (the wife of Zheng Enchong) heard of the incident, they called around to Shanghai’s PSB stations demanding that Mo Zhujie be released. The person answering the phone at the Shimen Erlu PSB station denied any knowledge of the incident. Finally, shortly after midnight the group of abductors dumped Mo Zhujie at Shanghai’s south ferry terminal and sped away.

Shen Ting commented, “The Shanghai government’s behavior is no better than that of gangsters. They’re completely out of control.” Shen Ting called on the international community to take note of this incident and pressure the Shanghai authorities to discontinue its barbarous treatment of Mo Zhujie, who has done nothing worse than demand her rightful compensation after being forced from her home.

“We deplore the Shanghai PSB’s use of gangland tactics to intimidate defenseless citizens,” said HRIC president Liu Qing. “This brazen disregard for basic human rights is particularly shocking, taking place just as the National People’s Congress prepares to consider incorporating human rights into China’s constitution. The central government should take steps to reign in the unlawful behavior of these local officials.”