Opinion | Remembrance of dissident Lin Zhao obstructed on 45th execution anniversary

On the back wall of a gravestone shop, the two fading characters Lin Zhao and an arrow point to a cemetery. The tomb-sweeping festival has already passed, but only one of the graves there still had fresh flowers on it. Behind it was barbed wire and a video camera.

The grave is of Lin Zhao, a dissident intellectual executed on April 29, 1968. Her final resting place on the southern slope of Mount Lingyan - at the outskirts of Jiangsu's provincial capital Suzhou - has become a gathering place for dozens of people seeking justice for those persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and freedom of expression in today's China.

Even though state security has previously tolerated quiet gatherings at her grave, remembrance gatherings to mark the 45th anniversary of her execution were obstructed on Monday.

Liu Shihui, a lawyer from Inner Mongolia now living in Guangzhou, and Chengdu-based activist Chen Yunfei told the Post they were stopped by plainclothes state security officials on a road leading to Lin's grave. They said they had been ruffed up and insulted by the plainclothes officials, who also deleted photos on their phones.

"Last year, I went to the grave and no one stopped me," said Chen.

"This year it seems to have become a sensitive issue. They are trying to tarnish Xi Jingping's constitutional Chinese dream," he said, referring to a slogan by the new president that stirred hope among liberals for an unprecedented enforcement of rights guaranteed in the constitution.

Ge Jueping, who lives six kilometres from the grave, said he and a dozen other locals had been placed under domestic surveillance over the last three days.