Liu Xiaobo

2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Liu Xiaobo is a writer, professor, and political dissident. In 2009, Liu was sentenced to 11 years for inciting subversion because of his involvement in writing Charter 08, a petition advocating political reform in China. Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”

News›Hong Kong

HUMAN RIGHTS

Hong Kong journalists, activist beaten outside home of wife of dissident Liu Xiaobo

Campaigner also attacked and taken away after trying to visit wife of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo

Saturday, 09 March, 2013, 6:25am

Verna Yu in Beijing

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TVB cameraman Tam Wing-man is attacked in Beijing yesterday.

Two Hong Kong journalists were beaten by unidentified men in Beijing yesterday while filming Hong Kong activist Yang Kuang's attempt to visit Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo's wife, who has been under extralegal house arrest for more than two years, the activist and journalists said.

Yang's whereabouts were unknown last night. A witness, a mainland activist who requested anonymity, said while Yang was waiting for a taxi shortly after 10pm a dozen men attacked him. He was taken away in a police car afterwards, the activist said.

Another activist, Hu Jia, posted on his microblog a picture he claimed to be the moment Yang was put in the police car.

A person who answered the phone at Yangfangdian police station, which detained Yang on Thursday night, said he was not there. Yang's mobile phone was switched off late last night. The Yuegezhuang police station near where Yang was picked up also denied he was there.

The Hong Kong government's Beijing office said it had not received a request for assistance from Yang.

Yang, known for his fight for recognition of the Diaoyu Islands as Chinese territory, tried to visit Liu after a failed attempt with three other mainland activists the day before. Yang, Liu Shasha, Zhou Ai and another supporter of Liu Xia stood outside her building on Thursday and shouted support through a loud hailer. They were later taken away by police and detained overnight at Yangfangdian police station.

Yang told the Post by phone yesterday afternoon that security guards at Liu Xia's residence refused to let him in after he registered at the gate and then about a dozen men came out of the compound to push away Yang and a group of Hong Kong journalists.

The unidentified men pushed Yang, before turning around to hit TVB cameraman Tam Wing-man and Now TV cameraman Wong Kim-fai, Yang said.

Tam said he was punched in the face, then pushed to the ground before five or six men trampled on him. Wong said they pulled him and tried to snatch his camera, before hitting him in the head. He said his camera was damaged during the scuffle.

After the beatings, the men continued to push the group of Hong Kong journalists away and yelled abuse at them, attracting the attention of bystanders.

Liu Xia has been confined to her home since shortly after her imprisoned writer husband won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

The Hong Kong government said it was highly concerned about the journalists being beaten and would look into it.

Additional reporting by Dennis Chong

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as HK journalists beaten while filming activist

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This article is now closed to comments

pimehk Mar 10th 2013
8:42pm

The beating of the journalists in Beijing is simply the sign of the low standard of civilisation in Mainland China. Unfortunately this low standard is slowly coming into Hong Kong too, thanks to the pro Beijing Government we have in Hong Kong.

superdx Mar 9th 2013
10:01pm

Might makes right

mrgoodkat Mar 9th 2013
9:29pm

That was to be expected, they can't claim they didn't know there would be beatings.

HiggsSinglet Mar 9th 2013
5:43pm

May be the only way to deal with these thugs is go back to the old ways. Catch them and mutilate them in the public.

Sunny Mar 9th 2013
4:32pm

I guess this is all part of the ‘master-plan’ of the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘peaceful rise’ that is repeatedly spoken to the rest of the world to calm their growing concerns… The reality is that, if they don’t get their way, they simply resort to the use violence and aggression to shut people up. Brainwash the citizens about ‘external forces’ and ‘unpatriotic Chinese’ and get them to attack others who can already see the clear picture of the dangers of this archaic regime that has no place in the modern world and the international community. The only power the CCP has is through mind control of its citizens as revealing by thugs who run around beating people up. Who wants to be real friends with such a regime? And they wonder why so many Chinese are unpatriotic to China. It doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to work it out! I guess they have North Korea as good buddies!
People need to keep revealing the abuses and horrors happening in the mainland for the international community to see the true intentions of the CCP. I applaud these brave journalists to keep doing their work of exposing the truth of such regimes with such low consciousness that results in such inhumane actions.

HiggsSinglet Mar 9th 2013
5:42pm

There is a big difference between patriotic and nationalist!!! Regime can change, but people and citizen remains. The current government puts party ahead of country.

HiggsSinglet Mar 9th 2013
3:29pm

Need to find out who these thugs are and as China opens up more down the road, need to bring these thugs and those behind them to accountability by stringing them up for public display!!!

jenniepc Mar 9th 2013
12:28pm

The thing that bothers me is, it seems to me, Many Chinese so-called dissidents, seems to me, exploit Chinese people for their own advantages rather than helping China's leaders to move in the right direction. It is a perfect storm; a Western media need said a tool to manipulate or to promote the Chinese Government and social instability and many dissidents desperately need to be known.
I don’t know much about Liu Xia ‘s case. It seems to me as from western media that her due process of law may have been violated. She should have an opportunity to be heard and to protect her rights before a court having power to hear and determine the case. Most of western media report only one side of the story, is the Chinese dissidents. It can not be the views of the fairness and accuracy of the assumed facts.
I do realize that China has never been perfect and like any other countries has many problem yet China will and must evolved its legal and political systems to meet the needs of its own people and global partners. Again, as a size of China with characteristic of Chinese people and to bear the burden of its 5,000 years bureaucratically historical system, it can not be rushed for a change as an uneven distribution of a level of the education and unsophisticated legal systems.
The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution officially abolished on December 6, 1865. African-American did not have their human right or their civil right until 1965.
Jennie PC Chiang/江佩珍03/09/13 美國

chaz_hen Mar 9th 2013
11:10am

All you blind panda huggers: this sort of thuggery makes you thump your chest proudly in favor of china? This is the "national education" you want children to learn about? This is the kind of rule you are willing to live under once the CCP totally takes over HK in a few short years in the name of stability?
Have fun...

RobinDeCaro Mar 9th 2013
12:06pm

It is inhumane and uncivilized to keep enemies on leash like stray dogs crawling and urinating on their corpses.National education never have this curriculum.
Respect them and treat them within the law,though they are dissidents.Insulting the others with different opinion reflects barbarism,low moral standard;and stupidity.