Yuan Weijing is turning into the Eveready bunny of activists in China. After being bundled back home (see earlier posts below) from Beijing airport, she made another break for it last Friday and managed to board a bus for the capital. However, Shandong’s cops aren’t quite as Keystone-ish as they have appeared sometimes in the past. They intercepted the bus and took her home once more. Both times she was forcibly returned, Yuan says she was handled very roughly (tho she also says she didn’t go quietly, at least the first time). She is now quote knocked around and says she will probably stay at home for a while to recover. Actually, of course, it is a grave mistake to regard any police force as comical, particularly in a country where they wield virtually unchecked power. Yuan is now be considering very carefully whether or not to make another escape attempt. Apart from anything else, she will be much more carefully watched, ( “I cannot go out at all”, she said on the phone today, “there are people watching at my door as well as the entrance of the village. I can only stay home”), particularly with the approaching 17th Party Congress, a time when official tolerance of dissidents is at a very low ebb. There’s also the fact that her minders are getting personally angry at her for making them look foolish, which could make them react more harshly the next time. It was after all the loss of face to local government officials caused by her husband’s Chen Guangcheng revelations about forced sterilization and abortions that seem to have got him imprisoned in the first place.
Yuan’s determination is formidable. But as with all activists in these situations, she now has complicated calculations to make about the limited returns further provocation will bring, Especially as she has her two young kids to look after. All these are factors she is painfully aware of: “For the moment I have to stay put,” she said, “for any action would inevitably drive them to do more harm to me. But I can never give up. I don’t know if I can achieve this–but I’m hoping my action can free Guangcheng from jail; clear his name; and have the infringment of my rights acknowledged.”