A WOMAN who was sent back to a labor camp after simply visiting her son in Beijing has been allowed to leave for medical treatment, for a second time.

    Police said Zhao Meifu was ordered to serve a year of labor reeducation May 14, 2010, after she had been punished several times since 2007 for violating public order. Zhao and her family say the public order charges arose from Zhao's attempts to discuss a land dispute at their home in Gansu Province with authorities in Beijing.

    The 2010 punishment was suspended when Zhao was diagnosed with hypertension and other medical problems, and she was allowed to go home to recover.

    But authorities found that Zhao had traveled to Beijing on several occasions since her first release and she was sent back to the labor camp Nov. 12, after visiting her son in the capital, where he attends college, Sunday's Beijing Times reported.

    She was again allowed to go home Friday, after a hospital diagnosed hypertension and heart problems.

    But police in the city of Lanzhou, in Gansu, are refusing to revoke her punishment.

    Guo Dajun, Zhao's son, said he would keep appealing and working with lawyers to end his mother's punishment.

    "They accuse my mother of violating certain clauses of some law, but they should show evidence, otherwise that would be libel," Guo said.

    According to a report from the labor camp in Lanzhou, Zhao was emotionally unstable during her 18 days in the camp, since Nov. 12, and was treated for heart problems five times. Zhao was taken to a hospital outside the camp on Nov. 19 and Nov. 30 and diagnosed with hypertension, a main cause of her heart problems, according to a camp deputy director surnamed Ma.

    In a separate incident highlighted in the media over the weekend, two young men are currently in a labor camp for provoking government officials in a village in Hebei Province, China Newsweek reported.

    The incident happened on the night of July 17, when Wu Yongyan and Zhang Guangsai, both 18, tried to provoke three government officials in a restaurant after drinking alcohol, police said.

    Wu and Zhang were punished with one-year labor reeducation terms July 26.  Wu's father, Wu Yuwang, said the punishment was too harsh and has launched a court appeal of the sentences.

    (SD-Agencies)