Ways That Are Dark

Last week a shocking incident of violence against foreigners in Beijing was perpetrated by the police in an apparent drug sweep. The Guardian writes about it in Beijing police round up and beat African expats.

According to five bystanders, teams of police, dressed in black jumpsuits and reportedly wielding batons and taser guns, cordoned off a street in the popular Sanlitun nightclub district at around midnight and rounded up almost all the black men there. Many of the men were beaten.

The raid took place in front of hundreds of stunned expatriates outside the packed bars and clubs of the neighbourhood, which is popular with Beijing’s burgeoning foreign community.

“I saw a guy being beaten by these kids. He wasn’t doing anything. He wasn’t fighting back,” said one witness, a white American college graduate working in Beijing.

“I have not really ever seen anything so brutal,” said another American. “There was blood on the streets. They were basically beating up any black person they could find.”

Among the victims were at least 20 black men, including students, tourists and the son of a diplomat.

If ever there was a year for China to work on their dismal reputation in the world, it should be this year. Unfortunately this seems to be only the tip of the iceberg. The harsh treatment once reserved for their own people, now seems to be extended to their foreign guests. In addition to the attacks on blacks, all refugees and asylum seekers who have sought safe harbor in China will also be deported or repatriated before next summer’s Olympics. It seems unlikely that attacks on foriegners safety and human rights will abate anytime before the Olympic Games.

Li Heping is a prominent human rights lawyer in China. The New York Times reports in Chinese Lawyer Recounts Abduction  that he was kidnapped and tortured in Beijing on the eve of China’s National Day holiday.

In the telephone interview on Tuesday night, Mr. Li said he was followed after leaving his office late Saturday by a group of men who eventually grabbed him, put a bag over his head and drove him to a location where they beat him in a basement, sometimes tormenting him with a high-powered electric rod.

Later, he said, the abductors drove him to another location in the suburbs of Beijing, where they left him and told him that he and his family ought to leave Beijing immediately.

After being released by his abductors, Mr. Li said he returned home to discover that some of his personal belongings were missing, including legal files and his license to practice law.

In a statement released to a human rights group, Mr. Li said: “As a lawyer, I had the chance to experience electric punishment and torture. I was rolling on the ground and they continued laughing and beating me. This torture lasted about four or five hours.”

The complete article describes Li Heping as a lawyer who has become well known for his defense of environmental activists, imprisoned lawyers and church leaders.