Very breaking news, but Chinese citizen reporter Zhou “Zuola” Shuguang has just tweeted his own detention as it was happening on Wednesday afternoon China time.
(As of 17:15, Zuola was back at his computer; he seems to have been placed under some sort of ‘town arrest’. Updates below)
Zuola recently bought a Blackberry 8320 to help him with his citizen reporting endeavors, and he appears to have been able to use it along with Twitterberry to send out a few short messages as he was being escorted from his home into a vehicle and driven off:
15:52:
煤炭坝长沙矿业集团的保卫处刘处长带了三个人来接我回煤炭坝镇。吓坏我父母了。
@
zuola: Head of security at Meitanba Mining Group Director Liu w/ 3 others taking me now back to Meitanba Village, scared my parents.
16:02
我被要求上他们的车，我要父母确认今天的事实，记住何时何地跟睡接触，坐什么车牌走了。我很好，在他们车内，感觉象是被截访。
@
zuola: I've been made to get into their car. I want my parents to confirm what has happened today, what time and place and w/ who, the license plate number of the car I was taken away in. I'm fine, in their car, it feels a bit like I'm being intercepted.
16:08
上午借口来找计划生育违归的俩人同保卫处长一起来的，果然是冲我来的。
@
zuola: The two people who came this morning under the pretense that I'd violated the one child policy are here with Security Dir. Liu now. Turns out they've forced me to go with them.
16:28
谢谢所有关心我的人，我还在车上。
@
zuola: Thank you everyone for your attention. I'm still in the vehicle.
Earlier this morning Zuola tweeted that he wouldn't be online today as he was being visited by “government people”: two from the birth planning office (mentioned above) following up on a report that he had violated China's one-child policy (Zuola has no children) and two to see take his parents out for “tea” and a chat.
Last month Zuola mentioned on his blog feeling nervous about being in Beijing for the Olympics as he had planned, and decided it better to sit it one out and return home to Meitanba, Hunan province. Prior to that he got busted in Shenyang just following the Yilishen incident, where he had traveled to do some citizen reporting for his blog.
Updates hopefully coming soon.
Updates:
17:16
我被长沙矿业集团保卫处刘处长把我从枫木桥接回煤炭坝了。他们要求我呆在煤炭坝就不管我，我一出去他们就要把我弄回来。我声明，我不是长沙矿业集团的员工，我爸在这个单位的前身退休13年了。
@
zuola: Changsha Mining Group Security Director Liu has taken me from Fengmuqiao back to Meitanba. They've demanded that I stay in Meitanba and that if I do, they'll leave me alone. If I leave, they'll bring me back. I stated that that I am not an employee of Changsha Mining Group, although my dad was until he retired from there 13 years ago.
17:20
我坐湘A94360回煤炭坝的，车上刚才四个人。
@
zuola: I'm in vehicle 湖A 94369 on the way back to Meitanba, there were four people in the vehicle just now.
17:23
看来是宁乡县国保大队、长沙矿业集团、枫木桥乡政府联合行动，工作效率还蛮高。先侦知我的手机离开煤炭坝镇区域，然后让枫木桥乡政府打前哨，再通知长沙矿业集团保卫处开车来接人，把我送回煤炭坝就完事了。
@
zuola: It seems they were a joint task force from the Ningxia
Guobao squad, Changsha Mining Group, Fengmuqiao Village government, pretty effective work. First they checked to see that my mobile phone had left the Meitanba area, then they sent Fengmuqiao government people to stand guard, later notifying the Changsha Mining Group Security Division to drive over and pick me up, and take me back to Meitanba, and that was it.
17:25
声明一下，除了我被强行要求我坐他们的车回煤炭坝之外，我现在的人身是自由的。不过，我希望有记者来长沙陪我去北京，那样会让他们不知所措，估计会是一件很生动的故事。
@
zuola: I'll just state that aside from having been forced into their vehicle to be taken back to Meitanba, my person is free now. However, I do hope that a journalist will be able to accompany me to Beijing, they won't know what to do then and I expect that it will make for a very vivid story.
17:31
我被长沙矿业集团保卫处刘处长把我从枫木桥接回煤炭坝了。他们要求我呆在煤炭坝就不管我，我一出去他们就要把我弄回来。我不是长沙矿业集团的人。
@
zuola: Changsha Mining Group Security Director Liu took me from Fengmuqiao back to Meitanba. They've demanded that I stay in Meitanba and that if I do, they'll leave me alone. If I leave, they'll bring me back. I don't work for the Changsha Mining Group.
25 comments
@so_damn_lame,
Feel free to read up on Zuola, there’s no shortage of info on him out there. I’d say he doesn’t have a cause in the sense that you seem to be looking for: he blogs, leaves a lot of comments on other people’s blogs, he travels and tells other people’s stories, he wants to be a celebrity, etc.
sorry if my last post came off sounding too rude. thank you for your reply, and i understand now that it is just a simple case of translation. based on your comment, i can see now how it would be kinda confusing to catch some nuances in the chinese text.
here is my translation for zola’s blog:
我到家没多久，来了两个年轻人到我家问路，说是听说谁违反了计划生育，问我们知不知道这个人的名字。我们都说没听过这个人的名字，建议他去别的地方问问。他们走了十多分钟后又回来了，这次说是要找管计划生育的妇女主任，说是要考察妇女主作任的工作做得怎么样。然后我让他们去同村的小组长那里去打听。
soon after i came home, two young people came to my house to ask for directions. they asked if we (my family) had heard of a particular person (name not included in blog) who had violated the one child policy. we all said no, and we suggested that they ask around. ten minutes after they left, those same two people came back saying that they were looking for the female supervisor of the local one child policy bureau. they said they wanted to check on how well her office had been doing their job, and i advised them to check with the village official.
结果先后来了四个政府的人，一对是找被举报违反计划生育的人
as a result, there were four government people in all who came by, two at a time. the first pair were the ones who were looking for the person who violated the one child policy.
上午借口来找计划生育违归的俩人同保卫处长一起来的，果然是冲我来的。
(later i realized) the two government people who came with the excuse of finding the one child policy violator were actually coming for me.
so my comment is if you just read that one sentence that was quoted, i can understand how it is not very clear who is under suspicion of violating the one child policy. it is definitely not stated that zola was arrested under suspicion of violating the one child policy. it was actually a ruse for those government people to talk to zola and his family to get some information.
I wonder if — like Romulus and Remus — two babies were raised by wolves, in the wilderness, if this would violate the one child policy or are wolf-babies exempt?
Best of fortune to Zuola.
can you imagine living in a doom of 16 people for three years in high school and a doom of 10 people for four years in college, in which the only private space for you is a twin size bed, meaning you have to fit all your belongings, such as computer, cloths, snacks, and books on half of your twin size bed and yourself on the other half. the living condition for boarding school kids are improving now. most dooms have only 4 people, and private study desk and closets. but still, having a private room is such a luxury for chinese students.
can you imagine taking more than 2 kids to school every morning on a crazily crowded bus in beijing?
can you imagine your parents in law force you to have more babies until they get a boy, otherwise, you will face the threat of divorce, and the one child policy is actually your only legal weapon/excuse to fight against that tradition?
if you have no idea what im talking about, forget it and stop judging us based on your spacious life style in the so called developed countries. the existing chinese people also deserve living like you, to live like a real human being. if you think it is cruel to kill a life at conception, have you ever thought that it is also very cruel to torture a human being by putting him/her in such an inhuman living environment for his/her whole life.
btw, R.Elgin: if you decide to let your “Romulus and Remus” babies raised by wolves in the forest, not sharing the public resources, such as schools, buses, hospitals and etc. i bet the chinese government will leave you alone and might award you for your great contribution to the chinese society.
Sorry, “im chinese”, you missed the “wolf-babies” reference and the point. No cigar for you.