Late last month, Shanghai resident Pei was one of many people who came out in support of historic protests against China's COVID-19 curbs, including filming several seconds of footage of a man being arrested on a street corner.
Almost immediately, Pei said, five or six plainclothes police grabbed him. He was taken to a police station and held for 20 hours, at times with his arms and legs tied to a chair, he told Reuters.
"'Squaring the accounts after the autumn harvests' is the Party's way of dealing with people who have betrayed it," said Lynette Ong, a University of Toronto professor, referring to the practice of delaying score settling until the time is ripe. Asked about the protests, China's foreign ministry has said rights and freedoms must be exercised lawfully.Reuters was unable to establish how many protesters are still in police custody. Social media appeals for details on the whereabouts of a handful of missing protesters remain online., largely petered out in several cities after police mounted a heavy presence on streets.
Those who shouted slogans calling for the ouster of Xi or the Communist Party - as seen in a number of protests across China - potentially face heavier charges of inciting or engaging in subversion of the state, Zhang said, which in the most extreme cases carry punishment of up to life in prison.
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