Beijing:
Chinese police have detained two rights activists who worked for a prominent non-governmental organisation (NGO), their relatives said today, the latest sign of an intensifying clampdown on the work of non-profit groups.
About half a dozen security officials from the central city of Zhengzhou took Yang Zhanqing, previously an office director of Yirenping, from his home in the southern city of Huizhou late last on Friday, said his wife, surnamed Bu. She declined to give her full name.
Bu said her husband had been criminally detained on a charge of "illegal business activity".
Police also detained Guo Bin, who was also an Yirenping office director who fought against discrimination of people with disabilities, into custody late on Friday on the same charge, said Guo's girlfriend surnamed Wang, who declined to give her full name.
Wang said Guo was taken from a hospital in the southern city of Shenzhen where his son was undergoing an operation.
The Ministry of Public Security did not respond to a request for comment. Calls to Zhengzhou police went unanswered. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he was not aware of the case.
The charge of "illegal business activity" has been used recently against many NGO representatives. In April, police charged the legal representative and administrative director of Transition Institute, a think-tank that researches business, business regulations, reform and civil society, with "illegal business activity".
"It appears that the greatest likelihood is that authorities are pressing false charges against him," Bu said, referring to Yang, who advocated for the rights of Hepatitis B carriers.
In April, China's foreign ministry said Yirenping must be held accountable for "breaking the law". Yirenping has defended the rights of people with HIV, Hepatitis B, women and people with disabilities.
President Xi Jinping's administration has detained hundreds of activists in the past two years, in what some rights groups say is the worst clampdown on dissent in two decades.
In late March, Chinese police officers raided Yirenping's office and seized laptops and details of contacts, Lu said.
© Thomson Reuters 2015