BEIJING (AP) – Liu Huizhen, a petite, soft-spoken farmer’s daughter who wants to serve her community, might seem an unlikely threat to China’s all-powerful Communist Party.
Yet, as Chinese vote Tuesday for low-level representatives, authorities have responded to Liu’s bid as an independent candidate in a southwestern district of Beijing by sending several dozen men with buzz cuts and barking voices to follow her around and prevent her from meeting with voters.
The controls reflect the ruling party’s determination to maintain a rock-solid hold on politics at all levels, galvanized in recent years by President Xi Jinping’s steady accumulation of political authority that has made him the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s.
“My reason for joining in the people’s congress elections is simple and innocent. Everyone has the right to take part in elections,” Liu, 45, said in a recent interview. “These people are really taking it too far.”
An initial attempt to interview Liu at the shack she’s been living in since her home was demolished was blocked by at least seven men who identified themselves only as “volunteers” and parked a car across the road to block access.