The husband of Shanghai rights activist Mao Hengfeng (毛恒凤) told Human Rights in China (HRIC) that he has not been allowed to visit or contact Mao since she was first detained on September 30, 2012, and is deeply concerned about her condition.

Wu Xuewei (吴雪伟), Mao’s husband, said on January 31, “I have repeatedly asked the Yangpu District Detention Center and other related departments to let me visit Mao, or even just let her call me on the phone. The detention center said, ‘We have already asked the authorities in charge; she is not allowed to have visitors or make calls.’ Although Mao’s lawyer has met with her twice, I fear that her situation is much more serious than I know. Based on prior experience, in the past, she almost always suffered an immense amount of pain during the period when I was not allowed to see her. She told her lawyer that her blood pressure has been 240 at its highest. The detention center said that usually it is over 200. Mao is sick all over; it’s a very difficult situation.”

Background on Mao Hengfeng

Mao began petitioning after she was fired from her job in 1988 for refusing to abort a second pregnancy. She was subsequently incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals at least three times. In 2007, she was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for the trumped-up charge that she broke two lamps while under “residential surveillance”; while imprisoned, she suffered many types of abuse and torture. In 2010, Mao was sent to a Reeducation-through-Labor (RTL) facility in Anhui on charges of “disturbing social order” for voicing her support for imprisoned Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波). In 2011, just two days after she was released in Anhui on medical parole, she was sent to an RTL camp in Shanghai. She received an early release in July that year because of illness.

Mao went to Beijing in late August 2012 to petition for unpaid pension. She was intercepted by plainclothes police on September 30 and taken back to Shanghai and held in criminal detention at the Yangpu District Detention Center on suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disturb public order.” October 30, Mao was ordered to serve one year-and-a-half of RTL but was held in the detention center for three more months until her transfer to an RTL facility on January 30, 2013. The RTL facility refused to accept her because of her high blood pressure and returned her to the Yangpu District Detention Center.

For more information on Mao Hengfeng, see:

• “Rights Defender Mao Hengfeng Held in Illegal Criminal Detention,” January 7, 2013
• “Shanghai Rights Defenders Detained in Advance of 18th Party Congress,” October 02, 2012
• “Petitioner Mao Hengfeng Released from Reeducation-Through-Labor in Serious Condition,” July 07, 2011
• “Petitioner Recounts Abuses during RTL; Medical Parole Rescinded,” February 24, 2011
• “Shanghai Rights Activist Mao Hengfeng Starts Hunger Strike in Reeducation-Through-Labor Camp,” May 26, 2010
• “Shanghai Petitioner to Serve 18 Months of Reeducation-Through-Labor after Shouting Slogans,” March 09, 2010
• “Petitioner Mao Hengfeng Has Been Detained after November Release from Prison,” January 13, 2009
• “Mao Hengfeng, Petitioner on Family Planning Issues, Reports Continued Abuse in Prison,” September 16, 2008
• “Mao Hengfeng Sentenced to 2-1/2 Years for Breaking Lamps,” January 16, 2007
• “Family Planning Opponent’s Sentence Extended,” January 4, 2005

For background documents on Mao Hengfeng (Chinese only), see:

• Wu Xuewei, “Request to Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate to Fulfill Their Legal Responsibility,” December 28, 2012
• Wu Xuewei, “Request to Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress and Standing Committee to Fulfill Their Legal Responsibility,” December 28, 2012
• Wu Xuewei, “Application for Administrative Review [to Rescind Mao Hengfeng’s Order to Reeducation-Through-Labor],” December 27, 2012
• Wu Xuewei, “Application for Medical Parole for Mao Hengfeng,” December 27, 2012
• Yangpu District Detention Center, Certificate of Release, December 31, 2012
• Shanghai Municipal Committee on the Administration of Reeducation-Through-Labor, Notice of Execution of Reeducation-Through-Labor, October 30, 2012
• Shanghai Municipal Committee on the Administration of Reeducation-Through-Labor, Decision on Reeducation-Through-Labor, October 30, 2012
• Shanghai Municipal Committee on the Administration of Reeducation-Through-Labor, Decision to Discontinue the Execution of the Remaining Period of Reeducation-Through-Labor, July 28, 2011
• Wu Xuewei, “Mao Hengfeng Returns to the Devil’s Lair: Until Now There Is No News of Her Current Situation, “ February 28, 2011
• Wu Xuewei, “Looking for Eye-witness Testimony to Help Mao Hengfeng Redress the Injustice Facing Her,” July 16, 2010
• Wu Xuewei, “Secret Trial: A Letter to Huangpu Court,” July 5, 2010