What is the China activist saying from inside the prison?”
BEIJING – A Chinese activist who has spoken out about the country’s “black jails” said Saturday that he was being held against his will in one of the unofficial detention centers used to discourage people from complaining to the central government. Zheng Dajing stood behind a locked metal door, whose screen window was covered with semi-opaque plastic, and answered questions from The Associated Press. The location was a two-story building in the dim courtyard of an alleyside hotel in west Beijing. The stocky 48-year-old recited his wife’s mobile phone number to confirm it was him. “I have no idea when I can leave,” he said. China has denied the existence of “black jails,” but a state-run magazine last month described the secret detention centers where petitioners — citizens who come to Beijing with complaints about corruption in their home towns — are held and sometimes beaten. The report said officials are under pressure to shrink the number of petitioners from their localities to “zer
