BEIJING — Chinese authorities have detained a retired teacher who criticized the shoddy school construction blamed in the deaths of thousands of children in May’s earthquake, a Hong Kong human-rights group said Wednesday.
The report by the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy could not be verified. But observers say the detention of Zeng Hongling, who wrote of corruption in school construction and post- quake relief efforts, fit a pattern in which the Communist Party is closing ranks in an increasingly vocal society.
According to the rights group, Zeng, 56, a retired teacher at Southwest University of Science and Technology in Mianyang, was detained June 9 in Chengdu on charges of “inciting state subversion.”
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people detained in anti-government riots in Tibet three months ago have not been accounted for, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
Quake baby
