Artist who filmed Beijing eviction aftermath detained, then released on bail

Hua Yong 华涌, the artist who documented the destruction and social turmoil that resulted from Beijing’s migrant evictions, had quite the weekend.

• He made it out of Beijing to Tianjin, where he filmed several tense videos in which he says that police “have arrived” at his door (he also records banging on his door and himself speaking with the people) and an emotional video in which he sings “Happy Birthday” to his three-year-old daughter and wishes that China could be “just, fair, free, democratic and have freedom of speech.”
• Police detained him for “gathering a crowd to disrupt traffic,” his friends told the AFP, but then released him on bail.
• The New York Times notes (paywall) that his form of bail “allows the police to continue investigating for up to a year,” and that though he likely won’t face charges, he “can be monitored and face restrictions on his ability to travel and speak publicly.”
• Hua is now far away from Beijing in Chengdu, the capital city of southwestern Sichuan Province, where his daughter lives, a friend said.

Today on The China Project: Be sure to check out Top News Searches in China, 2017, featuring Donald Trump, Belt and Road, the earthquake at Jiuzhaigou, and much more.

Top news searches in China, 2017

• Chinese air force near Taiwan and South Korea
  Chinese military aircraft again fly over seas east of Taiwan / Focus Taiwan
  “According to Ministry of National Defense (MND) open data, it was the 18th time since the beginning of the year that Chinese military aircraft had been observed flying from the Bashi Channel or the Miyako Strait toward the Western Pacific Ocean for long-distance training missions.”
  Beijing plays down South Korea’s claims Chinese warplanes breached its air defense zone / SCMP
• The price of dissent
  ‘I live like a plant’: Nobel winner’s wife ‘going mad’ under Chinese detention / Guardian
  “Liu Xia, poet and widow of democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo, [is] suffering deep depression after living under house arrest without charges since 2010.”
• Israel and Palestine
  China’s Foreign Ministry initiated upcoming Israeli-Palestinian meeting in Beijing / Haaretz
• Australian fears of Chinese Communist Party influence
  Chinese media mogul Tommy Jiang wants John Alexander in Bennelong / Sydney Morning Herald
  A free press is a magic weapon against China’s influence peddling / Lowy Interpreter
• China’s war on drugs
  Thousands in China watch as 10 people sentenced to death in sport stadium / Guardian
  “A court in China has sentenced 10 people to death, mostly for drug-related crimes, in front of thousands of onlookers before taking them away for execution.”
• Nepal’s communists
  Can Chinese investment help Nepal’s new communist alliance make the break from India? / SCMP