Link
August 26, 2009
Human rights advocates and Chinese lawyers say that the office assistant of a prominent rights lawyer probably was not freed by the government over the weekend, as some of the advocates had originally said. They said it was unclear whether the assistant was in detention or had been released but remained under some sort of restriction. The assistant, Zhuang Lu, 27, worked at the Gongmeng legal center, which has tried to represent downtrodden Chinese citizens in cases that often involve official corruption. Ms. Zhuang and a founder of Gongmeng, Xu Zhiyong, were taken from their homes by security forces on July 29. Mr. Xu was released on Sunday.
Several rights advocates said Mr. Xu had been told by officials that Ms. Zhuang had also been released. But Teng Biao, another founder of Gongmeng, said Wednesday night that Ms. Zhuang’s mother had just received a brief, cryptic call from her daughter, who said she was awaiting trial and was not allowed to leave Beijing.
Showing posts with label zhuang lu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zhuang lu. Show all posts
Friday, August 28, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
UPDATE ON RELEASE: "Without Explanation, China Releases 3 Activists," by Michael Wines, The New York Times
Link
August 23, 2009
BEIJING — Chinese authorities unexpectedly released three political activists from detention on Sunday, including one whose case had drawn global attention.
Officials offered no reason for the releases, but they occurred one day after the new American ambassador to China, former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, arrived in Beijing.
The government did not say whether it had also suspended criminal tax-evasion charges made last week against the most prominent of the freed men, Xu Zhiyong, a public-interest lawyer, that could result in a prison sentence of seven years were he to be convicted.
The prosecution of Mr. Xu in particular has attracted scrutiny abroad because of his role in other cases that are seen as a test of the Chinese legal system’s fairness. Mr. Xu, 36, and a co-worker, Zhuang Lu, were released more than three weeks after they were seized in their homes on July 29. The authorities also shut down Mr. Xu’s Gongmeng legal center, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, from which Mr. Xu and others had taken on cases against government authorities.
Recently, Mr. Xu’s center represented parents whose children were sickened by chemical-tainted milk, a regulatory scandal that embarrassed the government and led to the collapse of one of the nation’s biggest dairy companies.
In a separate case, Beijing authorities also released Ilham Tohti, an economist, Internet activist and ethnic Uighur detained after deadly riots erupted in the western Xinjiang region in early July.
Mr. Tohti, 39, ran a Web site called Uighur Online, a popular forum for ethnic Uighurs, who live mostly in Xinjiang, to discuss issues important to them. After the July rioting, Xinjiang’s governor, Nur Bekri, charged that the site had helped foment the violence by spreading rumors. The Web site has since been closed.
The government has accused Mr. Xu of evading taxes on a $100,000 grant that Yale University gave the Gongmeng center for legal programs. The charges are widely regarded by outsiders as punishment for Mr. Xu’s advocacy of the rule of law.
China’s court system is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, and legal decisions — especially in cases with important political or social ramifications — are often regarded as skirting written law to reflect the dictates of party officials.
The accusation against Mr. Xu was filed during a general crackdown by Chinese authorities on independent activists, and particularly on those activists who receive financing from foreign sources. In a recent speech, China’s justice minister warned lawyers that their primary duty was to support the Communist Party and promote a “harmonious society,” and said that party minders would be sent to law firms to enforce that doctrine.
China scholars and political analysts have speculated for months about whether the crackdown is temporary, perhaps linked to government concerns about disruption of the October celebration of the 60th anniversary of modern China’s founding, or whether it is part of a broader and longer-lasting effort to curtail free speech.
Mr. Xu’s detention and later arrest have surprised many here because his Gongmeng center is regarded as among the most cautious and conservative of China’s small band of public-interest organizations.
While the center has pursued some high-profile cases, it has been careful to work within the parameters of Chinese law and to focus on helping Chinese citizens secure already recognized legal rights.
August 23, 2009
BEIJING — Chinese authorities unexpectedly released three political activists from detention on Sunday, including one whose case had drawn global attention.
Officials offered no reason for the releases, but they occurred one day after the new American ambassador to China, former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, arrived in Beijing.
The government did not say whether it had also suspended criminal tax-evasion charges made last week against the most prominent of the freed men, Xu Zhiyong, a public-interest lawyer, that could result in a prison sentence of seven years were he to be convicted.
The prosecution of Mr. Xu in particular has attracted scrutiny abroad because of his role in other cases that are seen as a test of the Chinese legal system’s fairness. Mr. Xu, 36, and a co-worker, Zhuang Lu, were released more than three weeks after they were seized in their homes on July 29. The authorities also shut down Mr. Xu’s Gongmeng legal center, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, from which Mr. Xu and others had taken on cases against government authorities.
Recently, Mr. Xu’s center represented parents whose children were sickened by chemical-tainted milk, a regulatory scandal that embarrassed the government and led to the collapse of one of the nation’s biggest dairy companies.
In a separate case, Beijing authorities also released Ilham Tohti, an economist, Internet activist and ethnic Uighur detained after deadly riots erupted in the western Xinjiang region in early July.
Mr. Tohti, 39, ran a Web site called Uighur Online, a popular forum for ethnic Uighurs, who live mostly in Xinjiang, to discuss issues important to them. After the July rioting, Xinjiang’s governor, Nur Bekri, charged that the site had helped foment the violence by spreading rumors. The Web site has since been closed.
The government has accused Mr. Xu of evading taxes on a $100,000 grant that Yale University gave the Gongmeng center for legal programs. The charges are widely regarded by outsiders as punishment for Mr. Xu’s advocacy of the rule of law.
China’s court system is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, and legal decisions — especially in cases with important political or social ramifications — are often regarded as skirting written law to reflect the dictates of party officials.
The accusation against Mr. Xu was filed during a general crackdown by Chinese authorities on independent activists, and particularly on those activists who receive financing from foreign sources. In a recent speech, China’s justice minister warned lawyers that their primary duty was to support the Communist Party and promote a “harmonious society,” and said that party minders would be sent to law firms to enforce that doctrine.
China scholars and political analysts have speculated for months about whether the crackdown is temporary, perhaps linked to government concerns about disruption of the October celebration of the 60th anniversary of modern China’s founding, or whether it is part of a broader and longer-lasting effort to curtail free speech.
Mr. Xu’s detention and later arrest have surprised many here because his Gongmeng center is regarded as among the most cautious and conservative of China’s small band of public-interest organizations.
While the center has pursued some high-profile cases, it has been careful to work within the parameters of Chinese law and to focus on helping Chinese citizens secure already recognized legal rights.
UPDATE ON RELEASE: "China releases reform activists," by Kathrin Hille, The Financial Times
Link
August 23, 2009
China has released two prominent reform proponents in a twist following its recent crackdown on activists.
Xu Zhiyong, a law scholar and organiser of one of the country’s largest legal aid groups, who had been accused of tax evasion, and Zhuang Lu, his assistant, were released on bail on Sunday.
Ilham Tohti, an economist who belongs to the Uighur ethnic group and who was detained shortly after the July 5 riots in Urumqi, capital of the western region of Xinjiang, also returned home.
The detentions of Mr Xu and Mr Tohti drew widespread criticism because, although outspoken, both academics are committed to reform within the system.
Mr Xu’s lawyers say the charge of tax evasion lacks evidence but is connected to the fact that his non-government organisation, the Open Constitution Initiative, is registered as a company and has been accused of failing to pay its taxes properly.
China’s opaque legal system, where decisions in cases regarded as important or politically sensitive are frequently made by Communist party officials rather than judges, makes it hard to tell whether Mr Xu’s release lowers the risk of prosecution.
Li Xiongbing, a lawyer working with the Open Constitution Initiative, said he believed that it was now much less likely that Mr Xu would be indicted. But Zhou Ze, one of Mr Xu’s lawyers, said: “We don’t know what will happen to the case.”
The authorities' unusual move indicates that the government is seeking to avoid unnecessary damage to its reputation from the recent crackdown.
Mr Xu had been taken from his home by police on July 29, but his employer had only received notice of his formal arrest on charges of tax evasion last Monday.
The Open Constitution Initiative was closed last month after tax authorities fined the group Rmb1.4m ($205,000, €143,000, £124,000), saying it had failed to pay its taxes. Many non-governmental groups in China choose to register as enterprises to avoid the difficulties of getting official approval as an NGO. This imposes a heavier tax burden on them and makes them vulnerable to accusations on accounting errors.
Mr Xu rose to prominence for his fight against detention without a legal basis and other cases where the state violates or fails to protect an individual’s rights.
Lawyers working with the Open Constitution Initiative have tried to sue for compensation on behalf of parents of children who died or fell ill from melamine-tainted milk powder.
If found guilty of tax evasion, Mr Xu could face a sentence of up to seven years.
Mr Tohti was detained the week after the July 5 race riots that killed close to 200 people, most of them members of the majority Han group, according to the government.
He has done consultancy work for the government before. On his blog, he had criticised the government’s economic and social policies in Xinjiang, the Uighur minority’s home region.
August 23, 2009
China has released two prominent reform proponents in a twist following its recent crackdown on activists.
Xu Zhiyong, a law scholar and organiser of one of the country’s largest legal aid groups, who had been accused of tax evasion, and Zhuang Lu, his assistant, were released on bail on Sunday.
Ilham Tohti, an economist who belongs to the Uighur ethnic group and who was detained shortly after the July 5 riots in Urumqi, capital of the western region of Xinjiang, also returned home.
The detentions of Mr Xu and Mr Tohti drew widespread criticism because, although outspoken, both academics are committed to reform within the system.
Mr Xu’s lawyers say the charge of tax evasion lacks evidence but is connected to the fact that his non-government organisation, the Open Constitution Initiative, is registered as a company and has been accused of failing to pay its taxes properly.
China’s opaque legal system, where decisions in cases regarded as important or politically sensitive are frequently made by Communist party officials rather than judges, makes it hard to tell whether Mr Xu’s release lowers the risk of prosecution.
Li Xiongbing, a lawyer working with the Open Constitution Initiative, said he believed that it was now much less likely that Mr Xu would be indicted. But Zhou Ze, one of Mr Xu’s lawyers, said: “We don’t know what will happen to the case.”
The authorities' unusual move indicates that the government is seeking to avoid unnecessary damage to its reputation from the recent crackdown.
Mr Xu had been taken from his home by police on July 29, but his employer had only received notice of his formal arrest on charges of tax evasion last Monday.
The Open Constitution Initiative was closed last month after tax authorities fined the group Rmb1.4m ($205,000, €143,000, £124,000), saying it had failed to pay its taxes. Many non-governmental groups in China choose to register as enterprises to avoid the difficulties of getting official approval as an NGO. This imposes a heavier tax burden on them and makes them vulnerable to accusations on accounting errors.
Mr Xu rose to prominence for his fight against detention without a legal basis and other cases where the state violates or fails to protect an individual’s rights.
Lawyers working with the Open Constitution Initiative have tried to sue for compensation on behalf of parents of children who died or fell ill from melamine-tainted milk powder.
If found guilty of tax evasion, Mr Xu could face a sentence of up to seven years.
Mr Tohti was detained the week after the July 5 race riots that killed close to 200 people, most of them members of the majority Han group, according to the government.
He has done consultancy work for the government before. On his blog, he had criticised the government’s economic and social policies in Xinjiang, the Uighur minority’s home region.
UPDATE ON RELEASE: "Beijing Frees Jailed Activist Xu Zhiyong," by Sky Canaves, The Wall Street Journal
Link
August 23, 2009
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities unexpectedly freed from jail a prominent legal activist on Sunday after an increasingly vocal campaign against his detention by China's growing ranks of citizen activists.
Xu Zhiyong, a co-founder of the now shuttered legal-research and advocacy group, the Open Constitution Initiative, was taken from his home by police before dawn on July 29 and formally arrested for tax evasion three weeks later. The Beijing tax bureau had ordered the OCI to pay 1.4 million yuan (about $200,000) in back taxes on contributions, including hefty fines, a decision Mr. Xu was trying to appeal before he was detained.
Human-rights groups and legal experts said the tax charges were a pretext for jailing Mr. Xu and shutting down the group, which represented families of children sickened during last year's melamine-tainted-milk scandal, and also advocated against illegal detentions.
Mr. Xu said he didn't know the reason for his sudden release, but the public campaign "definitely could have had an influence." Speaking by phone, he said Zhuang Lu, another OCI staffer detained around the same time, also was released Sunday. Still, Mr. Xu said he might yet face prosecution.
Chinese Internet censors blocked Mr. Xu's name from search engines in mainland China. But activists managed to launch a campaign, largely online, to focus attention on the case.
The movement shows an "increasing awareness of the important role of law in society," says Li Fangping, one of Mr. Xu's lawyers.
After the OCI's Web site was shut down, other members of the group, a loose association of lawyers, academics and volunteers, relaunched the site on a server outside mainland China. Through Aug. 13, its online campaign had raised almost 850,000 yuan from mainland citizens to help pay the fines.
Another coalition, including bloggers and college students, started an offshore Web site dedicated to Mr. Xu's defense, www.WeZhiyong.org. Slogans on the site read, "Anyone can be Xu Zhiyong" and "tens of thousands of Zhiyongs are not in jail, but they are on the road to jail."
Joshua Rosenzweig, a senior researcher with the U.S.-based human-rights group Duihua Foundation, said Mr. Xu's release on bail indicated that authorities were treating him differently from political dissidents, who often are charged with more serious crimes of subversion.
"It shows the difference between this kind of case and a purely political case," Mr. Rosenzweig said. "Xu Zhiyong is not a dissident, unless you really stretch the definition of dissident."
Mr. Rosenzweig said the rare use of bail shows that the authorities "might be wavering" over Mr. Xu's case, although he doesn't rule out tax evasion and other charges.
The campaign for Mr. Xu attracted unusually wide support. "Many people who seldom talk about politics have come out" in support of Mr. Xu, says Jean Yim, a Ph.D. student in the sociology department at the University of Hong Kong. Ms. Yim and a friend organized a talk on Mr. Xu's case in Hong Kong on Saturday, which they made available to Internet users in mainland China via Twitter, and through video and audio files.
One computer programmer, who normally sells tech-geek-themed T-shirts on China's largest online shopping platform, Taobao.com, said he was moved by the unfair treatment of Mr. Xu to create an iron-on badge to sell to supporters, with all proceeds going toward Mr. Xu's legal defense. The programmer, who declined to be identified, said he had sold about 200 badges reading "Xu Zhiyong, True Man" before his Taobao account was suspended on Aug. 20 for selling prohibited items.
Wen Yunchao, a blogger from Guangzhou, urged people to send postcards to Mr. Xu's detention center calling for his release. Last month, Mr. Wen organized a similar postcard campaign on behalf of a fellow blogger detained by police in eastern China. The blogger was released after two weeks, though Mr. Wen says it is difficult to say whether the postcards had any direct impact on the outcome.
"What's important is for people to become aware and to participate," says Mr. Wen. "This promotes civil society."
August 23, 2009
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities unexpectedly freed from jail a prominent legal activist on Sunday after an increasingly vocal campaign against his detention by China's growing ranks of citizen activists.
Xu Zhiyong, a co-founder of the now shuttered legal-research and advocacy group, the Open Constitution Initiative, was taken from his home by police before dawn on July 29 and formally arrested for tax evasion three weeks later. The Beijing tax bureau had ordered the OCI to pay 1.4 million yuan (about $200,000) in back taxes on contributions, including hefty fines, a decision Mr. Xu was trying to appeal before he was detained.
Human-rights groups and legal experts said the tax charges were a pretext for jailing Mr. Xu and shutting down the group, which represented families of children sickened during last year's melamine-tainted-milk scandal, and also advocated against illegal detentions.
Mr. Xu said he didn't know the reason for his sudden release, but the public campaign "definitely could have had an influence." Speaking by phone, he said Zhuang Lu, another OCI staffer detained around the same time, also was released Sunday. Still, Mr. Xu said he might yet face prosecution.
Chinese Internet censors blocked Mr. Xu's name from search engines in mainland China. But activists managed to launch a campaign, largely online, to focus attention on the case.
The movement shows an "increasing awareness of the important role of law in society," says Li Fangping, one of Mr. Xu's lawyers.
After the OCI's Web site was shut down, other members of the group, a loose association of lawyers, academics and volunteers, relaunched the site on a server outside mainland China. Through Aug. 13, its online campaign had raised almost 850,000 yuan from mainland citizens to help pay the fines.
Another coalition, including bloggers and college students, started an offshore Web site dedicated to Mr. Xu's defense, www.WeZhiyong.org. Slogans on the site read, "Anyone can be Xu Zhiyong" and "tens of thousands of Zhiyongs are not in jail, but they are on the road to jail."
Joshua Rosenzweig, a senior researcher with the U.S.-based human-rights group Duihua Foundation, said Mr. Xu's release on bail indicated that authorities were treating him differently from political dissidents, who often are charged with more serious crimes of subversion.
"It shows the difference between this kind of case and a purely political case," Mr. Rosenzweig said. "Xu Zhiyong is not a dissident, unless you really stretch the definition of dissident."
Mr. Rosenzweig said the rare use of bail shows that the authorities "might be wavering" over Mr. Xu's case, although he doesn't rule out tax evasion and other charges.
The campaign for Mr. Xu attracted unusually wide support. "Many people who seldom talk about politics have come out" in support of Mr. Xu, says Jean Yim, a Ph.D. student in the sociology department at the University of Hong Kong. Ms. Yim and a friend organized a talk on Mr. Xu's case in Hong Kong on Saturday, which they made available to Internet users in mainland China via Twitter, and through video and audio files.
One computer programmer, who normally sells tech-geek-themed T-shirts on China's largest online shopping platform, Taobao.com, said he was moved by the unfair treatment of Mr. Xu to create an iron-on badge to sell to supporters, with all proceeds going toward Mr. Xu's legal defense. The programmer, who declined to be identified, said he had sold about 200 badges reading "Xu Zhiyong, True Man" before his Taobao account was suspended on Aug. 20 for selling prohibited items.
Wen Yunchao, a blogger from Guangzhou, urged people to send postcards to Mr. Xu's detention center calling for his release. Last month, Mr. Wen organized a similar postcard campaign on behalf of a fellow blogger detained by police in eastern China. The blogger was released after two weeks, though Mr. Wen says it is difficult to say whether the postcards had any direct impact on the outcome.
"What's important is for people to become aware and to participate," says Mr. Wen. "This promotes civil society."
Friday, August 21, 2009
"Assistant to pioneering Chinese rights lawyer 'disappears'" by Tania Branigan, The Guardian
Link
August 21, 2009
Office worker for Xu Zhiyong, who himself faces trial for tax evasion, has not been seen for three weeks.
Almost no one in China has heard of Zhuang Lu, which is hardly surprising. Plainly dressed and introverted, the 27-year-old office assistant completed her mundane daily tasks – booking tickets, paying bills – with minimum fuss. Then, three weeks ago, she disappeared.
Family and colleagues believe she is being held in a detention house in Beijing. Like her boss Xu Zhiyong, a prominent human rights lawyer who has fought a string of high-profile cases, she was taken from her home at dawn on 29 July by security officials. But unlike Xu's detention, which has made headlines internationally, her disappearance has gone unnoticed outside her immediate circle.
"Information about her has always been out. But because the main focus has been on Xu, not many people have noticed her case," said their colleague Yang Huawei.
Xu – who was formally arrested for tax evasion this week – is well known for his tenacious pursuit of sensitive cases such as deaths in custody. Shortly before his disappearance he was featured in Chinese Esquire. He co-founded the legal organisation Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, which has helped the families of children made ill by tainted baby milk powder and issued a report criticising the handling of demonstrations in Tibetan areas.
In comparison, Zhuang's work at Gongmeng was essential but inconspicuous - the administrative grind without which no organisation can run. She is "thin and small, plainly-dressed, introverted, not talkative," wrote Teng Biao, another of the founders.
But though she appeared vulnerable to Teng, "one thing proved that she was not weak and maybe that is the most shining thing she did [at] Gongmeng," he added.
"In 2008, when summer was replacing spring, she was invited by police for a cup of tea. The national security people asked her to report on our work to them and told her that she would benefit. But Zhuang Lu refused. She told us about it. She had the courage and [they] must have been very angry and we are not sure whether today's 'serious result' has anything to do with them or not."
In his blog posting – since erased by censors – he described how she wept when officials came to shut the Gongmeng legal centre in mid-July.
"Such a gentle and honest girl was kidnapped by Big Brother without any legal justification," he added.
Xu's case comes amid a crackdown on activist lawyers. Zhuang's shows how others can be drawn into such investigations.
"I guess it is possible that they took her in the hope of getting some testimony from her against Xu," Teng told the Guardian.
Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, describes that as "standard operating procedure".
"It is also, of course, a way of putting pressure on Xu, because he is responsible not only for himself. Police like to make threats about consequences for relatives and people around [detainees] and he doesn't have family," Bequelin added.
"This is scaring people who work for NGOs. They are thinking it's not only the boss who can be taken away; officials can also go for the 'small' people."
Zhuang and Xu were due to meet the tax bureau on the day they disappeared. Gongmeng's problems began when authorities slapped a 1.2m yuan (£100,000) fine for unpaid taxes on it last month. Its founders say it paid slightly late but in full and points out that the penalty is five times larger than the tax bill. Staff who tried to pay off some of the fine after Xu's detention were told they could not do so because he had not signed papers to appoint them as legal representatives.
Xu has now been formally arrested, allowing him access to lawyers, but Zhuang is still in limbo. Staff at the detention centre where she is thought to be held told the Guardian they were too busy to speak when asked about her case.
Zhuang's father, who rushed to the capital when he heard of her detention, has returned home to southern China without authorising lawyers to act for her. Now, like her colleagues, he waits anxiously for her return.
August 21, 2009
Office worker for Xu Zhiyong, who himself faces trial for tax evasion, has not been seen for three weeks.
Almost no one in China has heard of Zhuang Lu, which is hardly surprising. Plainly dressed and introverted, the 27-year-old office assistant completed her mundane daily tasks – booking tickets, paying bills – with minimum fuss. Then, three weeks ago, she disappeared.
Family and colleagues believe she is being held in a detention house in Beijing. Like her boss Xu Zhiyong, a prominent human rights lawyer who has fought a string of high-profile cases, she was taken from her home at dawn on 29 July by security officials. But unlike Xu's detention, which has made headlines internationally, her disappearance has gone unnoticed outside her immediate circle.
"Information about her has always been out. But because the main focus has been on Xu, not many people have noticed her case," said their colleague Yang Huawei.
Xu – who was formally arrested for tax evasion this week – is well known for his tenacious pursuit of sensitive cases such as deaths in custody. Shortly before his disappearance he was featured in Chinese Esquire. He co-founded the legal organisation Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, which has helped the families of children made ill by tainted baby milk powder and issued a report criticising the handling of demonstrations in Tibetan areas.
In comparison, Zhuang's work at Gongmeng was essential but inconspicuous - the administrative grind without which no organisation can run. She is "thin and small, plainly-dressed, introverted, not talkative," wrote Teng Biao, another of the founders.
But though she appeared vulnerable to Teng, "one thing proved that she was not weak and maybe that is the most shining thing she did [at] Gongmeng," he added.
"In 2008, when summer was replacing spring, she was invited by police for a cup of tea. The national security people asked her to report on our work to them and told her that she would benefit. But Zhuang Lu refused. She told us about it. She had the courage and [they] must have been very angry and we are not sure whether today's 'serious result' has anything to do with them or not."
In his blog posting – since erased by censors – he described how she wept when officials came to shut the Gongmeng legal centre in mid-July.
"Such a gentle and honest girl was kidnapped by Big Brother without any legal justification," he added.
Xu's case comes amid a crackdown on activist lawyers. Zhuang's shows how others can be drawn into such investigations.
"I guess it is possible that they took her in the hope of getting some testimony from her against Xu," Teng told the Guardian.
Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, describes that as "standard operating procedure".
"It is also, of course, a way of putting pressure on Xu, because he is responsible not only for himself. Police like to make threats about consequences for relatives and people around [detainees] and he doesn't have family," Bequelin added.
"This is scaring people who work for NGOs. They are thinking it's not only the boss who can be taken away; officials can also go for the 'small' people."
Zhuang and Xu were due to meet the tax bureau on the day they disappeared. Gongmeng's problems began when authorities slapped a 1.2m yuan (£100,000) fine for unpaid taxes on it last month. Its founders say it paid slightly late but in full and points out that the penalty is five times larger than the tax bill. Staff who tried to pay off some of the fine after Xu's detention were told they could not do so because he had not signed papers to appoint them as legal representatives.
Xu has now been formally arrested, allowing him access to lawyers, but Zhuang is still in limbo. Staff at the detention centre where she is thought to be held told the Guardian they were too busy to speak when asked about her case.
Zhuang's father, who rushed to the capital when he heard of her detention, has returned home to southern China without authorising lawyers to act for her. Now, like her colleagues, he waits anxiously for her return.
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