Beijing Authorities Arrest, Hold In Custody At Least 80 Men In Public Park Sex Sweep

The Associated Press reports that Beijing police raided a popular gay meeting place in a public park in the capital city’s Haidian district, an estimated 80 men taken into custody Saturday and Sunday nights, Guo Ziyang, a gay rights activist said. Ziyang, the project manager with the Beijing Working Group of Gay movement, a non-governmental group that advocates for gay equality said that during the raids – arriving ahead of China’s National Day holiday this Friday – the men were taken to a police station, questioned, and asked to show their identification cards. He added he was told some of the men were made to take blood tests. The Global Times newspaper quoted Zi Xiangdong, a spokesperson for Beijing’s Public Security Bureau, who said that the raids were a part of the city’s annual security inspection ahead of the National Day holiday, although he would not or could not say what, if any laws the men were suspected of violating. United States-based Chinese AIDS activist Wan Yanjhai, the founder of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute, said his organization “strongly condemned” the raids, calling them “extremely rude, violent and lacking in legal basis. He called on the police to issue an apology and to release the men, of all whom remain in police custody.