In Mid-September a uniformed police official came to the apartment of a French correspondent in Tuanjiehu Beili, Chaoyang district. At that time the correspondent was on holiday in Paris. The Chinese roommate of the correspondent opened the door. The policeman argued that he wanted to check the flat. Then he asked intimidating, “very weird” and personal questions. He specifically asked how the correspondent and his roommate met, if the correspondent had a girlfriend, how the roommate felt about living together with a French journalist, etc etc. The policeman then checked the rooms. He particularly checked the medicine cabinet and asked if these medicines (which were perchuased in France) were illegal drugs.
Shortly before that incident the correspondent had applied to the authorities to open a new news bureau.
This was the second time the flat was “visited” by police officials. The first incident occurred in April 2013. At that time, 3 uniformed police officials came unannounced at around 9am while the correspondent was at home. They said it was a regular, neighborhood check-up and they took pictures of the flat with their digital cameras. They also checked his visa and police registration certificate.
A few days before that incident the correspondent had covered a sensitive story in Henan.