Employee of Japanese newspaper arrested in China for 'picking quarrels'

A Japanese financial newspaper confirmed to the South China Morning Post today its Chinese news assistant in Chongqing had been detained.

The authorities handed a “so-called notification of detention” to the family of the assistant, a mother-of-one who has been named as Xin Jian by her husband, on Monday afternoon,

The document named “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – a controversial and vague charge for which offenders can be jailed for up to 10 years – as the reason for detention, the Nihon Keizai newspaper (NIKKEI) told the Post.

The newspaper issued a brief report on its website yesterday saying its Chinese assistant was taken away by local police from her apartment in Chongqing on May 13 to assist with the ongoing investigation of detained human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang.

Earlier this month Pu, who took part in the pro-democracy protests in 1989, was criminally detained on the same charge as the news assistant after attending a May 3 seminar marking the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.

His niece, together with a Beijing-based NGO worker and former journalist who was reportedly close to him, were also placed in detention.

“The only thing we can do at this moment is to confirm the facts [about the detention] … We cannot predict what charges the [mainland] authorities will press on our assistant,” the newspaper told the Post.