The New York Times reports that rights defense lawyer Zheng Enchong has been repeatedly beaten outside his Shanghai home in recent days:
The lawyer, Zheng Enchong, who has lived under house arrest for several months, has sustained serious injuries caused by plainclothes police officers who, in one attack, knocked him down, then repeatedly hoisted his body parallel to the ground and dropped him on the concrete, people who have visited him said.
…Shanghai police officials declined to comment.
Ms. Jiang said the beatings represent a sharp escalation of a recent campaign by the Shanghai authorities to quiet Mr. Zheng. Associates of the lawyer who have spoken with him say the beatings started after he began advising residents who have organized a campaign against a high-tech railroad project that would cut through middle-class neighborhoods in the city.
