An article in the Diplomat (September 15) said that Geng Xiaonan, a well-known Beijing publisher and outspoken supporter of the famously harassed former Tsinghua University law professor Xu Zhangrun presently under detention, is reportedly destined for “very heavy” punishment, not the 15 day maximum in an unpleasant detention cell usually imposed for minor offences not deemed sufficiently grave to constitute a “crime.” The initial “illegal activity” charge against her is vague enough to cover either her publishing business alone or her open support for Xu Zhangrun or, very likely, both. How long her husband, detained with her, will be held will depend on how important his interrogation seems to her case.
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