Chinese Police Warn Pro-Democracy Activist for Website

Chinese pro-democracy campaigner Qin Yongmin says when he left a computer store in Wuhan City last week, police surrounded him and detained him for questioning.

He told Radio Free Asia the police had ordered him to abandon plans to set up a website hosted overseas called Peaceful Transition Advice set to promote political change.

[Qin Yongmin, Pro-Democracy Campaigner]:
"They said that if I launched it in the morning, they would arrest me in the afternoon, and that they would pursue the harshest kind of punishment for me."

They also ordered him to stop posting articles overseas and giving interviews to journalists, he said.

Qin was released from prison in November 2010 after a 12-year sentence for subversion. He says police have since monitored him 24 hours a day.

[Qin Yongmin, Pro-Democracy Campaigner]:
"They told me that no matter where I went or whoever I would meet, they would know all about it."

Activists including Wuhan-based Shi Yulin say police ordered them not to visit Qin. Last time Shi tried to visit Qin, police detained him and forced him to write a 'self-criticism' letter.