US students claim they were wrongfully detained by Chinese police
Beijing: Nine students, including six Americans, who attend New York University in Shanghai, have been detained by the Chinese police recently, media reports said.
The arrests were reportedly made in two separate incidents on the same night.
Two of the U.S. students were apprehended at a bar, according to a student and university faculty. One of them, a young man, was kicked in the head by authorities and the other, a woman, sustained bruising as police in plainclothes attempted to apprehend her, the student told The Washington Post.
Seven students in a separate group, which included citizens of the United States, Finland, Morocco and Malaysia, were taken into custody from a house where they gathered for a birthday party, said students and university personnel.
The students tested negative for drug use and were released between 11 and 16 hours later, they added.
It is unclear whether the students were arrested as part of China’s increasingly aggressive anti-drug enforcement policies or targeted for political reasons amid worsening relations with the United States, the American newspaper reported.
Interestingly, the relationship between the US and China touched a new low in recent times.
A spokeswoman for NYU, June Shih, told The Washington Post the university does not know why Chinese authorities detained everyone at the birthday party.
“We believe that the police were focused on a particular individual,” she said.
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