Foreign minister asks China to explain award winner’s arrest

Foreign minister Uri Rosenthal has asked China to clarify why it has arrested the daughter of a human rights activist who was due in the Netherlands to pick up an award, Nos television reports.

Dong Xuan, daughter of activist Ni Yulan, was arrested as she was about to board a plane in Beijing and is now under house arrest. Dong had been due to receive a Dutch human rights award on behalf of her mother in The Hague next Tuesday.
Ni Yulan, who won the award for her work on behalf of people expelled from their homes during building work for the Olympic Games in 2008, is also under arrest. According to Nos, China says Dong Xuan did not have permission to leave China.
Rosenthal has asked China’s ambassador in The Hague for an explanation and the Dutch embassy in Beijing is also making inquiries, Nos said.