Dissidents Detained; Meeting Broken Up

Police in the eastern city of Hangzhou detained at least three members of a banned pro-democracy party and prevented others from meeting, a Hong Kong-based human rights group reported. Shortly before about 40 members of the China Democracy Party were to meet in a teahouse to discuss the would-be opposition party’s future, police detained leading members Wang Rongqing, Zhu Yufu and Zhu Zhengming in Hangzhou, about 800 miles southeast of Beijing. Other members who could not be found by their colleagues also may have been detained, the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said. The China Democracy Party has been a focus of a crackdown in recent months by authorities against would-be opposition groups.