Jiangsu Zhenjiang rights defender Ma Yuzhen detained by police after taking her child to Beidaihe for tourism

（Rights Defense Network Information Center report）On July 16, 2026， this outlet learned that early on July 15, 2026， Ma Yuzhen took a train with her 12-year-old son in Yanjiao, Hebei， preparing to travel to Beidaihe. When entering Yanjiao Railway Station， Ma Yuzhen and her child were stopped by auxiliary police officers at the station， who attempted to withhold Ma Yuzhen’s identity card to prevent her from boarding the train， but relented only after Ma Yuzhen’s strong protest. Ma Yuzhen and her child then took the train to Beidaihe， but when exiting at Beidaihe， they encountered two checkpoints at the station exit. The first required scanning an identity card， and the second required facial verification. At the facial-recognition checkpoint， Ma Yuzhen and her child were stopped again. The police then asked Ma Yuzhen to scan her identity card， but as soon as she took it out， the police snatched it away and took Ma Yuzhen and her child to the railway-station inspection post of the Beidaihe Public Security Bureau branch， where they detained them for nearly five hours. During that time Ma Yuzhen called the 12345 complaint hotline， but the result was not only that she failed to gain freedom of movement， the three personnel from the Jiangsu Office in Beijing instead arrived and took Ma Yuzhen and her child away. The Jiangsu Office in Beijing personnel said they could take Ma Yuzhen to the Beidaihe Bureau for Letters and Calls， but Ma Yuzhen said that bringing her child to Beidaihe was purely for tourism and that she had no intention whatsoever of going to the Bureau for Letters and Calls. She demanded freedom of movement， but the official personnel did not permit Ma Yuzhen and her child to move freely from beginning to end， until they sent them back to Yanjiao.

Last week， when Ma Yuzhen took her child to Shanhaiguan for tourism， they were likewise stopped and sent back by personnel from the authorities. Ma Yuzhen’s experience shows that if Chinese citizens have ever pursued rights protection through petitioning even once， they will be placed on a blacklist by the authorities. Under the Chinese Communist authorities’ ubiquitous cameras and big-data surveillance， the freedom of movement of rights defenders is monitored and restricted everywhere.