The Chinese doctor who exposed the country’s Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) cover-up last year has disappeared in what is believed to be part of a government crackdown on potential dissidents before today’s 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Jiang Yanyong, who is also a leading democracy campaigner, was reported missing along with his wife by their daughter on Thursday.
He is likely to be among dozens of people — including elderly mothers, young dissidents and ailing reformers — put under house arrest or taken out of Beijing by security agents.
The Guardian has learned that even the premier, Wen Jiabao, has been restricted from visiting a former mentor who attempted to prevent the killing of hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989.
After he became premier last year it was hoped that Wen would reopen debate about the darkest moment in the Communist party’s recent history. He had been one of the few party leaders to enter the square to appeal to the demonstrating students.
But in the run up to the anniversary a media blackout and police crackdown have led to questions about whether it is Wen or the party’s old guard who are really in charge.
In February, Dr Jiang released a letter to the Communist party in which he recalled treating dying students, who he said had patriotically been trying to improve their country.
Despite rumours that the letter was released with the encouragement of party leaders — possibly even Wen — it was not published in the Chinese media. Dr Jiang appears to have been the victim of a party power struggle.
Associates said he had probably been taken to a hotel in the countryside until the anniversary was over — a common way of dealing with dissidents at sensitive times. His children have demanded an investigation.
”While we do not want to speculate as to what happened to our parents, we believe that the authorities are deliberately withholding information from us,” his daughter, Jiang Rui, said in a statement. ”They have only told us he is safe.”
Dr Jiang is close to the most prominent of those who have been erased from public life since the Tiananmen massacre — notably Zhao Ziyang, who as the general secretary of the Communist party in 1989 urged the demonstrators to leave before the tanks arrived.
For more than a decade Zhao has been kept under house arrest, with access to and from his home near Tiananmen Square restricted by public security agents.
”Zhao is in the Chinese equivalent of the Tower of London,” an associate said. ”He is an old man in very poor health, but he is not free to move or talk to people.”
The associate said Wen — a former protege of Zhao — shared many of his beliefs about democracy and human rights, but there were limits on even the premier’s ability to contact a political ”non-person”.
”Wen cannot meet Zhao or send him a message unless it is first cleared by the central standing committee of the Communist party,” said the associate. ”That is the same for everyone. He is still too sensitive a figure.”
The man believed to be keeping the lid on Tiananmen is Jiang Zemin, who replaced Zhao as general secretary and later became president.
Although he stood down from the top post last year, Jiang remains arguably the most powerful leader in China, as the head of the military. His supporters control the central committee and the propaganda department.
The clampdown on commemorations of the massacre — unreported in the domestic media — has led to the detention of dozens of people, including the mothers of students killed by soldiers in 1989.
”There are police outside my house who won’t let me leave until after the anniversary,” said one, Ding Zilin. ”It would have been my son’s 32nd birthday today. I have ordered a cake because I want to celebrate; I’m very proud of what my son tried to do.”
Hu Jia, who was a teenager in 1989, has been arrested three times this year for trying to lay flowers in Tiananmen Square. Since March 22, he says, four public security agents have prevented him from leaving home.
”I will light some candles here to remember what happened,” he said. ”The Communist party is trying to split up activists, to prevent us from uniting, but the truth cannot be covered up. When the control is strictest, the urge to rebel grows stronger.”
But at Beijing University few people were aware of today’s anniversary. ”Most young students don’t know about Tiananmen because the media never raises the topic,” a postgraduate said.
The government says the ”Tiananmen incident” was justified to ensure the stability that has been the basis for China’s economic growth. A documentary, not for public broadcast, has been produced to drive home the message to officials who were students in 1989.
Aside from the internet, most outlets for dissent have been closed. In the Xidan district of Beijing, where activists once put up posters on the ”Democracy Wall”, the land has been cleared for a Starbucks, several banks and a shopping centre.
Asked about the significance of June 4, one shopper guessed it might be Father’s Day.
Memories are clearer in the Liu Bu Kou neighbourhood, where residents provided food and drink to the students in 1989 before the tanks and soldiers opened fire.
”It was a terrifying time,” a resident said. ”One man in this street was shot dead just for putting his head out the window to see what was going on.”
”We all wanted change. We still do but everyone is too scared to do anything now. Students can’t fight tanks — but we can hope.”
In Tiananmen Square on Thursday, the police presence was more obvious than usual, but visitors said they were unaware of the anniversary.
”We don’t need to dwell on that,” one young man said. ”People are more focused now on making money.” – Guardian Unlimited Â