POLICE have stepped up their intimidation of war reparation campaigners by detaining almost all activists in Beijing and Shanghai during Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa's three-day visit to China.
Although Beijing yesterday released more than 100 elderly anti-Japan activists after two days of investigations, Shanghai police rounded up war reparation activist Bao Ge just before the Prime Minister's arrival in the east China city.
The release of the elderly dissidents coincided with a report which said 500 intellectuals had signed a petition to the National People's Congress (NPC) calling for their release and a public apology by the police.
According to Bao's friends, the 31-year-old medical researcher was picked up by police officers yesterday morning.
Yang Zhou, a friend of Bao, said the activist had no plans to demonstrate or embarrass the Government during Mr Hosokawa's visit and he believed Bao would be set free soon after Mr Hosokawa left Shanghai.
''He [Bao] has no plans to do anything . . . But the authorities obviously don't want to see even the slightest trouble. Although the issue [war reparation] is not related to the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) debate, anything ugly could affect MFN,'' Mr Yang said.