Feng Jianmei wanted to go down and see what was going on but she was blocked.
They said she was under investigation and could not leave the hospital”.
Mr Zhang said that Mr Deng had not been seen for two days and that beforehand
he had been continually followed by agents. The tires of Mr Deng’s older
sister’s car were slashed.
The maelstrom around the couple deepened after a German journalist managed to
speak briefly to Mr Deng. Subsequently, banners were hung outside the
family’s house accusing them of betraying China by speaking to the
foreign media. “Strike the national traitor! Get out of Zengjiazhen,”
said one banner.
On Tuesday, Mrs Feng and her six-year-old daughter were still in the hospital
while her husband, his father and his two sisters had managed to leave the
premises. “I can’t imagine what will happen. But I think further
revenge by officials and suppression is very likely,” said Ms Deng.
“The banners put huge pressure on our family. After this incident, who knows
what the village will think of us. Maybe people will really think we are
traitors,” she added.
Because they lived in the countryside, the couple were entitled to have a
second child, but had to go through the bureaucracy of transferring Mrs
Feng’s residency from the city to their village.
The local government said officials repeatedly visited the couple’s home
to advise them on the process, a claim that has been rebutted by Mrs Deng,
who said she had remained with her sister-in-law throughout and had not seen
any officials.
Mr Deng, who earns about £300 to £400 a month as a coal miner, said his
family had some £7,000 of debt from remodelling their house and could
not afford to pay off the government’s demands upfront. He added that
the bureaucracy of transferring his wife’s residency had been “really
troublesome” and that he had been working on the process but run out
of time.
When the local government demanded the fee, he said he had been able to raise
£1,800 from friends and family, but officials refused to allow him to
split the fee into two payments.
The local government and the county Family Planning bureau did not respond to
requests for comment.
*Additional reporting by Valentina Luo
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