On the Eve of the "Two Sessions," Vaccine Rights Activists Across China Face Increased Surveillance

File photo: On March 5, 2021, the day before the opening of China's National People's Congress (NPC), police patrol Tiananmen Square with dogs on a day of heavy air pollution in Beijing. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images.)

People News - As China’s National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)—commonly known as the "Two Sessions"—approach, authorities have intensified their surveillance of political dissidents and rights activists.

According to reports from the human rights organization Rights Defense Network, vaccine rights activists across multiple regions have been subjected to strict monitoring and restrictions ahead of the Two Sessions. In Shanghai, vaccine victim Tan Hua has gone missing. In Beijing, COVID-19 vaccine victims Qian Dalong and Liu Yan, along with Hu Dayan from Changzhou, Jiangsu, and He Sixiang from Jingzhou, Hubei, are under 24-hour surveillance and movement restrictions imposed by authorities. Tan Hua’s mother, Hua Xiuzhen, has been sentenced to one year in prison and is currently detained at the Hangzhou Detention Center.

In addition to vaccine rights activists, Radio Free Asia previously reported that several other dissidents—including veteran Beijing journalist Gao Yu and members of the Guizhou Human Rights Seminar—have faced forced travel ("being sent on vacation"), house arrest, or official warnings. The Chinese authorities' nationwide crackdown on dissent has once again escalated as part of their stability maintenance measures ahead of the Two Sessions.

(Source: Radio Free Asia)