Nine foreign businessmen, including citizens of the United States, Canada and Australia, arrived in Beijing earlier this week. They wanted to go to Tiananmen Square and the United States Embassy to inform United States President Barack Obama about the pitfalls of investing in China.

[Shi Yuezhen, Hong Kong Businessman]:
“We want Obama, when he meets the leader of our country, to mention that many people investing in China have no access to justice.”

Wu Kui, an Australian citizen, invested in the biotechnology enterprise Enoch Group in Guangzhou in 2004. He says the success of his business attracted the “prying eyes” of local authorities.

[Wu Kui, Australian Investor]:
“The city government sent five separate departments to harass us every day, and this finally made us broke. We went to court over this but the court ruled against us. We believe the judgment is wrong, and against the law. We have nowhere else to go in Guangdong, and decided to appeal in Beijing.”

But as soon as they arrived in Beijing, they were monitored by State Security officials. Shi Yuezhen says they were followed everywhere.

[Shi Yuezhen, Hong Kong Businessman]:
“We went to Tiananmen Square, but they kept following us and told us to go back, we couldn’t get in.”

Beijing officials held the nine businessmen in a hotel. The men were granted a meeting with the head of the State Bureau for Letters and Visits of the Chinese regime to discuss their grievances, but on condition that they would not appeal their cases in public.