Shanghai House Church Christian and Advocate for Petitioners Sentenced to Labor Camp for Third Time
ICC Note:
The Chinese government has been extensively cracking down on all groups considered “dissident” in the lead up to the leadership change currently taking place at the 18th Communist Party Congress. This includes house church Christians, one of whom, Mrs. Mao Hengfeng, was just sentenced to a year and half at a labor camp for having the bravery to actively petition the Communist government for justice. ChinaAid, one of the leading voices for persecuted Christians in the country, has noticed an alarming amount of Christian petitioners “disappearing” in the run up to the 18th Communist Party Congress.
11/11/2012 China (China Aid Association)- An influential house church Christian in Shanghai who has been targeted for repeated government harassment was given an extra-judicial sentence to a labor camp just days before the 18th Communist Party Congress opened, just one example of the ruling Communist Party’s harsh measures to maintain order in advance of this major conclave where the reins of power will be handed over.
Labor camp sentences were also meted out for several other people who had joined Mao Hengfeng in seeking redress by petitioning the government, and a large number of petitioners have disappeared into official custody, have been criminally detained or have had their freedom of movement curtailed in the run-up to the Nov. 8 opening of the 18th Party Congress.
Mao was sentenced on Oct. 30 to 18 months of “re-education through labor” for “disrupting public order.” (see scans below) This is the third labor camp sentence for Mao, who will be 51 next month and is in poor health with dangerously high blood pressure.
Her case is but one example of the clampdown on personal freedoms, especially for petitioners, in advance of the Party Congress. Famed Shanghai activist Feng Zhenghu has been illegally confined to his home for eight months already.
Mao is an influential presence among the tens of thousands of Shanghai petitioners. Not only has she long been trying to use the law to seek redress from various government departments for her own case and to protect her legal rights, she’s also worked on behalf of other petitioners. That Shanghai’s petitioners are more united, more knowledgeable about the law and government policy and more rational in using the law to protect their rights than petitioners elsewhere is largely due to the efforts of Mao, Shen Peilan, Jin Yuehua and other leading figures. It is precisely for this reason that Mao has been the focus of attention of the municipal, district and grassroots governments and why they have been ceaselessly targeting her for attacks.
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