China: Citizen reporter Zuola under ‘town arrest’

Well-known citizen reporter and blogger Zhou “Zuola” Shuguang was detained for just over an hour today in his hometown in Hunan province, and he was able to tweet what was happening as he was led out of the house then forced into a vehicle where he was driven back to his hometown of Meitanba.

The incident was live-blogged here, where on Zuola's return to his computer it was revealed to us (and just shortly before, himself) that Zuola is now not allowed to leave Meitanba. In tidier form, here are the tweets Zuola sent out before and after his encounter:

15:52
@zuola: Head of security at Meitanba Mining Group Director Liu w/ 3 others taking me now back to Meitanba Village, scared my parents.

16:02
@zuola: I've been made to get into their car. I want my parents to confirm what has happened today, what time and place and w/ who, the license plate number of the car I was taken away in. I'm fine, in their car, it feels a bit like I'm being intercepted.

16:08
@zuola: The two people who came this morning under the pretense that I'd violated the one child policy are here with Security Dir. Liu now. Turns out they've forced me to go with them.

16:28
@zuola: Thank you everyone for your attention. I'm still in the vehicle.

[Word spreads quickly across the Twittersphere…]

17:16
@zuola: Changsha Mining Group Security Director Liu has taken me from Fengmuqiao back to Meitanba. They've demanded that I stay in Meitanba and that if I do, they'll leave me alone. If I leave, they'll bring me back. I stated that that I am not an employee of Changsha Mining Group, although my dad was until he retired from there 13 years ago.

17:20
@zuola: I'm in vehicle 湖A 94369 on the way back to Meitanba, there were four people in the vehicle just now.

17:23
@zuola: It seems they were a joint task force from the Ningxia Guobao squad, Changsha Mining Group, Fengmuqiao Village government, pretty effective work. First they checked to see that my mobile phone had left the Meitanba area, then they sent Fengmuqiao government people to stand guard, later notifying the Changsha Mining Group Security Division to drive over and pick me up, and take me back to Meitanba, and that was it.

17:25
@zuola: I'll just state that aside from having been forced into their vehicle to be taken back to Meitanba, my person is free now. However, I do hope that a journalist will be able to accompany me to Beijing, they won't know what to do then and I expect that it will make for a very vivid story.

17:31
@zuola: Changsha Mining Group Security Director Liu took me from Fengmuqiao back to Meitanba. They've demanded that I stay in Meitanba and that if I do, they'll leave me alone. If I leave, they'll bring me back. I don't work for the Changsha Mining Group.

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