Chinese authorities scramble to house arrest, silence critics ahead of Beijing Winter Olympics

Chinese authorities have detained activists in their homes and sent others to jail, censors have shut down the social media accounts of prominent critics and officials have warned Olympians that protest could bring a prosecution soon before the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics, reported New York Times on Monday.

Participants, athletes and journalists are encountering some of the most intense security measures ever imposed at an international sporting event as they arrive in China for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Many of those are precautions against COVID-19, but others reflect the Chinese government's growing intolerance of dissent and criticism, said The New York Times.

A prominent human rights activist in Beijing has said that the Chinese police have confined him to his apartment. Hu Jia in January had criticised state security agents on Twitter for questioning, harassing and detaining critics ahead of the Winter Olympics.

Since then, the police have visited him four times in eight days. "They said if I do not stay silent, my rights to visit my mother may be affected," The New York Times quoted Hu as saying.

Hu also added that the authorities were determined to quash any overt criticisms of the Games online.

Chinese authorities across the country have scrambled to impose restrictions on domestic critics, whom Beijing believes might disrupt the communist regime's image through protests, criticism or any other way during the Games.

According to The New York Times, human rights groups have pointed to the detention or sentencing of five high-profile activists in recent weeks, including Xie Yang, a lawyer.

Xie was detained in January in the central city of Changsha for "inciting subversion" and "picking quarrels and provoking disturbances".

Last month, Chinese authorities had also revoked the law license of Liang Xiaojun, a lawyer.

Liang said that a police officer had visited him in mid-January to warn him that China was entering its "Olympic security period. Since then officials had been calling him regularly to check on his whereabouts.

Ahead of Beijing Winter Olympics, several activists and intellectuals have conveyed that the police have tried to silence them by shutting down their access to social media and the internet, a move which identifies China's face of imposing restrictions and silencing critics by use of arbitrary force.

( With inputs from ANI )