According to accounts on social media from women’s rights activist Ye Haiyan and supporters, security police forcibly evicted Ye and her family from their rental home in Zhongshan, Guangdong province on Saturday. After a night at a friend’s house in Guangzhou, the three were then moved on once more. Mimi Lau at South China Morning Post reports:
The 38-year-old single mother, her boyfriend and her 14-year-old daughter were put on a high-speed train to Hubei province from Guangzhou South station under police escort.
The three had arrived in Guangzhou on Saturday afternoon after they were made homeless by Zhongshan security police.
They were forcibly evicted from their newly rented flat in that city after their power and water supplies were cut off.
At 2am on Saturday they were put in a police vehicle along with their furniture, appliances and possessions and dumped on a roadside in the Guanghai district of the city of Taishan , nearly 120 kilometres from their home. [Source]
The forced eviction followed an attempt to settle in Guangdong after local authorities allegedly sent people to storm Ye’s home in Bobai, Guangxi. Ye was later detained there for 13 days after participating in a protest in Hainan, where a school headmaster was accused of raping female students.
Her boyfriend Ling Haobo posted an update on the family’s plight on Sina Weibo before they were relocated to Wuhan, Hubei. From Jonathan Kaiman at The Guardian:
Ling posted a picture online showing Ye – who has advocated on behalf of prostitutes, people with Aids and abused children – sitting on the roadside surrounded by the family’s belongings, suitcases, appliances and sealed cardboard boxes. “Zhongshan does not welcome you; Guangzhou does not welcome you either. I will break your legs if I ever see you again in Zhongshan,” one of the security agents said after leaving Ye on the roadside, according to Ling’s post on Sina Weibo, China’s most popular microblog.
Ye has returned to her hometown in Wuhan, Hubei province, according to Yaxue Cao, a Chinese writer and activist living in Washington. Ye could not be reached for comment. “If there’s a mishap, I don’t have any other demands — I only hope that my able and kindhearted friends help me look after my child,” Ye tweeted on Saturday. [Source]
Click through for more on Ye Haiyan and her campaign to improve conditions for China’s sex workers and AIDS victims, via CDT.
