Chinese poet faces jail for posing with umbrella
SHANGHAI — Outspoken Chinese poet Wang Zang is facing up to three years in prison after security forces raided his Beijing home after he posted a picture of himself posing with an umbrella — the symbol of the protests winding down in Hong Kong.
SHANGHAI — Outspoken Chinese poet Wang Zang is facing up to three years in prison after security forces raided his Beijing home after he posted a picture of himself posing with an umbrella — the symbol of the protests winding down in Hong Kong.
Until last month, when protesters in Hong Kong started holding major demonstrations seeking to hold fully free elections in the territory, the umbrella was generally viewed as a useful device to shield oneself from rain or sun. Now, it is a symbol of their so-called Umbrella Revolution, after the protesters used the object to protect themselves from police tear gas, turning it into a potentially subversive item in mainland China.
Mrs Wang Li, the wife of the Beijing-based poet, told The Daily Telegraph her husband was taken into custody on Oct 1 after the 29-year-old expressed his support of the protests by posting a photograph of himself holding an umbrella on the Internet.
The following morning a group of around a dozen agents, including two wearing police uniforms, came to the couple’s home “demanding to come in for a conversation” and searched through their home.
Along with Mr Wang’s light blue umbrella, police confiscated a computer, a router and, for reasons that were not immediately clear, a pair of spectacles. The raid left the couple’s two children — aged two and five — terrified, Mrs Wang added.
“Judging by the items police took from our home, I figure Wang’s arrest is related to the pictures he posted on Twitter supporting the Umbrella Movement,” she said.
Well-known rights lawyer Sui Muqing, who has taken Mr Wang’s case, said the poet’s arrest appeared to be part of a wider Communist Party crackdown on people with “different thoughts and opinions” and the items found in Mr Wang’s house, including his umbrella, would almost certainly be used as evidence against him.
At least 25 activists in seven Chinese provinces have been placed under some form of police detention since the Hong Kong protests, which started on Sept 26, said Mr William Nee, Amnesty International’s China researcher.
Those cases include several activists in Guangdong province who were “basically abducted by police” after unfurling banners backing the Hong Kong protesters and another activist who was “forcibly travelled” from his home by security agents after shaving his head for the same reason.
It was not clear if police had seized umbrellas from activists other than Mr Wang, said Mr Nee, but Beijing would seek to prevent the item becoming an emblem of opposition to Communist Party rule in mainland China.
“Clearly, they don’t want the umbrella as a symbol,” he said.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH