SHANGHAI PETITIONERS UPDATE

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