SHANGHAI PETITIONERS UPDATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SHANGHAI 000773

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SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM AND DRL/PHD

E.O. 12958: DECL: X1 MANUAL REVIEW
TAGS: PHUM PGOV CH
SUBJECT: SHANGHAI PETITIONERS UPDATE

REF: A) SHANGHAI 414 AND PREVIOUS B) SHANGHAI 55

CLASSIFIED BY: Christopher Beede, Political/Economic Section
Chief , U.S. Consulate , Shanghai .
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Shanghai petitioner leaders Chen Enquan, Fu Yuxia, and
Wu Xuewei provided Poloff with an update on the political
atmosphere for petitioners in Shanghai during a meeting on
December 4. According to Chen, Fu, and Wu, local authorities
continue to harass and closely monitor petitioners in Shanghai.
Fu said that during the 17th Party Congress the local
government placed approximately 2000 petitioners in Shanghai
under house arrest to prevent them from traveling to Beijing.
Those placed under house arrest are frequent travelers to
Beijing, often going to Beijing two to three times a month.
According to Fu, most of those placed under house arrest have
now been set free.


2. (C) Fu and Chen also raised the case of Gong Haoming, a
long-time petitioner who was arrested on November 8, 2007. Chen
said Gong was targeted by police because he recently published
several open letters to Chinese Central Leaders on the Internet.
Gong has not been seen by his family since his arrest. Fu and
Chen are worried that the 50 plus-year old Gong will be
mistreated by authorities. According to Fu and Chen, Shanghai
lawyer and political activist Zheng Enchong is constantly being
detained and released by authorities. Because of these constant
detentions, Zheng has not been able to be very active, although
he does plan on publishing some articles on the Internet.


3. (C) Wu provided an update on his wife and prominent
political activist, Mao Hengfeng. He said Mao has lost a great
deal of weight and was forced by prison officials to go to a
hospital for a health check-up. Mao is not cooperating with
hospital officials for fear that they will force her to take bad
medication. In the past, Mao has been detained at psychiatric
hospitals. Wu said that he is trying to appeal Mao's
two-and-a-half year sentence for destroying a lamp when she was
held by police at a hotel (see ref. b). He is gathering
evidence that the authorities provided fake information about
the lamp's cost and plans on submitting an appeal to the
Shanghai High Court at the end of this month.


4. (C) Comment: In general, Shanghai petitioners have been
largely inactive. They did not indicate that there are any
plans for protests or organized activities. This is in contrast
to their attitude in August and September of 2005 when they
staged weekly protests to voice complaints against the
government. Constant government harassment and the arrests and
deaths of prominent leaders in the group have taken a toll on
the group.

JARRETT