Coronavirus lockdown: woman charged with organising protests against overpriced food, bad management

‘Brother Zeng’ was detained in March for rallying about 100 residents of the Sea Mountain community in Yingcheng, but is now facing the more serious charge of picking quarrels and provoking trouble

Social media users say the 45-year-old is being made a scapegoat for the city’s mishandling of the weeks-long lockdown

Reading Time:2 minutes

“Brother Zeng” was arrested for organising two protests at the Sea Mountain residential community in Yingcheng. Photo: Weibo

Published: 3:30pm, 19 Apr 2020Updated: 11:39pm, 19 Apr 2020

A woman in central China is facing criminal charges after being accused of rallying about 100 people to protest against poor management and overpriced provisions while their community was under lockdown in the fight against the coronavirus.

The 45-year-old, surnamed Zeng, is accused of organising two protests, on March 12 and 25, at the Sea Mountain residential complex in Yingcheng, a city of about 600,000 people about an hour’s drive from Wuhan in Hubei province, the municipal government said on Saturday.

Zeng was initially placed under administrative detention on March 27. While the term was not stated, the government said she was detained again on April 9, but this time on criminal grounds.

On Friday, she was formally arrested and charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – an offence often used by police to detain dissidents and social activists, and that can attract a sentence of up to five years in prison.

The Yingcheng government said that Zeng – who despite her gender has the nickname “Brother Zeng” – encouraged her family, friends and other Sea Mountain residents to take part in the protests.

But while she claimed her grievances regarded poor property management and overpriced supplies, the local authority said she had an ulterior motive: to dissolve the incumbent community committee and evade paying her property management fees.