AP News, September 4th, 2007
China has arrested an activist who gathered 10,000 signatures on an open letter rejecting the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and demanding more respect for human rights, a watchdog organization said Tuesday.
Land rights activist Yang Chunlin was detained July 6 in his native province of Heilongjiang in northern China and formally arrested on suspicion of subverting state power on Aug. 3, said the China Human Rights Defenders, an international network of activists and rights monitoring groups.
Yang's family told the group the arrest was linked to Yang's campaign to gather signatures for an open letter titled "We want human rights, not the Olympics." It was not clear whom the letter was addressed to.
Before his arrest he had gathered more than 10,000 signatures, mainly from Heilongjiang farmers, the organization said.
Police told Yang's family that he was suspected of taking money from "anti-China" organizations abroad, it said, without giving details.
The case against Yang points "to the nervousness and political sensitivity with which the government views efforts to link the Olympics and human rights," China Human Rights Defenders said in a statement.
Yang, a laid-off factory worker, had been helping Heilongjiang farmers seek compensation for lost land over the past few years, it said.
Property disputes and illegal land grabs have accelerated as China's economy expands at double-digit rates and farmland is gobbled up for industrial parks and skyscrapers. Government officials often have sided with developers, touching off riots and protests.
Land seizures have become a particularly sensitive issue ahead of the Olympics. Some activists have accused Beijing of forcing more than 1 million people from their homes to make way for new sports venues.
