Yong Xiong and Ben Westcott - Marxist student snatched on way to Mao Zedong celebration in China

By Dilip -
NB: What irony! It's now a crime to support worker's rights in the Peoples Republic, under the rule of a Communist Party. Even more ironic is that this student is probably ignorant of Mao's contribution to this state of affairs, and the number of Chinese workers and peasants whose deaths were caused by the famine that accompanied the Great Leap Forward; not to mention the GPCR. DS

A high-profile Marxist student activist was bundled into a car by suspected plainclothes policemen on Wednesday on his way to celebrations for the birthday of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Qiu Zhanxuan, head of the Marxist Society at China's distinguished Peking University, is the latest in a series of socialist student leaders to vanish in recent months following their attempts to support Chinese workers in labor disputes.

It has raised fresh questions about the Communist Party's Marxist credentials at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping is working hard to paint his government as an ardent supporter of ordinary workers and citizens. Qiu was on his way to attend a memorial on the 125th anniversary of Mao's birthday early Wednesday when up to eight people in plain clothes grabbed his arms and legs and bundled him into a car, according to a fellow student who witnessed the incident.

The student, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of official reprisal, said he heard Qiu yelling, "I didn't break the law, why do you want to take me away? What are you doing?" According to the witness, the men who took Qiu away identified themselves as officers from the Ministry of Public Security. CNN has reached out to the Ministry of Public Security for comment.

"What's wrong with remembering Chairman Mao? Which law does it break? How can they kidnap a Peking University student in public?" the student told CNN. Before his disappearance, Qiu had been vocal in his support of Chinese workers and had called for people to celebrate the anniversary of Mao's birth... read more:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/26/asia/china-marxist-mao-peking-university-intl/index.html

see also
'Death knell' of press freedom in Hong Kong has been a long time coming // Young Marxists are going missing in China after protesting for workers
Book review: The State as Faction: Mao’s Cultural Revolution
China’s gift to Europe is a new version of crony capitalism. By Martin Hala
'My hair turned white': report lifts lid on China's forced confessions
THE DISAPPEARED China’s global kidnapping campaign. By Zach Dorfman
China’s dystopian push to revolutionize surveillance. By Maya Wang
The Return of the Show Trial: China’s Televised “Confessions”. By Magnus Fiskesjö
The Crises of Party Culture: by Yang Guang
China’s Brave Underground Journal - Remembrance


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