SUN WENGUANG, a 75-year-old retired professor, was attacked and badly beaten by a group of thugs at a cemetery on tomb-sweeping day at the weekend, when the Chinese traditionally honour the dead.
Prof Sun was at the graveyard to commemorate the death of reformist communist leader Zhao Ziyang, who was ousted for sympathising with democracy activists on Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Speaking from his hospital bed, the professor said he went to the graveyard on Yingxiong Mountain in Jinan, 230 miles (370 km) south of Beijing, to pay his respects to Zhao, the former premier and general secretary of the ruling Communist Party.
Prof Sun, a retired physics teacher from Shandong University, said he had paid his respects to Zhao on tomb-sweeping day, or Qingming, in previous years and had been told by police to stop.
Zhao, who died in 2005, was forced to step down for sympathising with pro-democracy protesters in 1989 and spent his last 15 years under house arrest.
The professor has been in trouble for holding dissenting views over many years, even during the era of Mao Zedong, and Qingming is traditionally a politically sensitive festival. This year he also posted some pro-Zhao remarks in the university, and plainclothes police came to stop him but his students intervened.
He took a taxi to the top of Yingxiong Mountain to meet his friends. “It was crowded. After I’d been walking for five minutes, five big guys, smiling, pulled me to the side of the road. Then two of the guys threw me down. I am an old guy, very light. Those five men began to hit me and kick me,” he said. He has injuries to his body, arms, legs and face, and three of his ribs are broken.
It was not clear who the men were. Plainclothes security agents or thugs hired by local authorities often intimidate activists involved in sensitive issues. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy activists.