Chinese Student Detained in Secrecy for Over A Month
On July 26, Netherlands-based Chinese student Hu Yang (胡洋) was detained at Shanghai Pudong Airport while returning home to visit family. He has now been held for over 35 days at Zhengzhou No. 3 Detention Center (郑州第三看守所) on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble (寻衅滋事).” Neither family nor lawyers have been permitted to see him, and police have reportedly compelled his mother to delete her public appeals for help. It is remarkable, given the extraordinary pressure placed on the family, that she has been able to speak out at all. The family believes Hu has been targeted for his speech, while urgent personal matters abroad—including housing, vital documents, and his planned enrollment at a Dutch university this September—remain unresolved.
Reliable sources indicate that more students have recently been detained under similar conditions, and that Hu’s friend Wu Haoyu (吴昊宇) has also been forcibly disappeared. The secrecy surrounding such cases, and the pressure on families to remain silent, is an ongoing problem which leaves students cut off from both legal protections and their international futures. Hu Yang’s mother is urgently seeking help from anyone in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, who may have known him or Wu Haoyu, and who could assist in retrieving belongings, ending tenancies, or liaising with universities.
If you have relevant information or contacts, please reach out to HRIC at communications@hrichina.org.
