Some Good News for One Chinese Dissident

Good news indeed for the much put upon Hu Jia, about whom we have written regularly . He and his wife Zeng Jinyan had a healthy, 3.37 kilo baby girl yesterday morning. It hasn't exactly been a model pregnancy. We saw them early on, when their apartment was a refuge of Yuan Weijing, the besieged wife of jailed blind activist Chen Guangcheng, about whom we have also written before. Yuan was eventually kidnapped by security officials and taken back to her home village in Shandong. She is under strict house arrest now and sounds increasingly desperate. In a letter she wrote a few days ago to the All China Women's Federation asking for help, Yuan said she isn't even being allowed out to go to the dentist, despite being in considerable pain. Hu meanwhile is followed everywhere he goes by police, four of whom even camped out in the hospital hallway. A couple of days before the birth, Hu got into a scuffle with the plainclothes officers assigned to him when he tried to leave for a visit to the hospital. He suffered a cut lip and bruises. The theory always was that the approaching Olympics would bring an easing up on dissident voices like Hu, who campaigns on behalf of AIDs victims and other similar issues, particularly after the 17th Party Congress, which ended several weeks ago. So far there's no sign of a thaw. Just a long winter ahead.