The National Communist Party of China (CPC) Congress 17th meeting will be held in Beijing from 15 October. As with the Olympic Games, there is a certain image of the country that China wishes to portray during this major event. Leading up to the meeting at least one prominent human rights lawyer has been forcibly asked to leave Beijing.

The meeting occurs every 5 years and is the forum for reshuffling senior Government and military positions and where central economic planning takes place. It is a time when "disruptions" would be especially unwelcome.

On 28 September Li Heping, a Beijing-based human rights lawyer, was visited by police from the National Security Protection Unit and told to leave Beijing during the period of the Congress meeting. On 29 September Li Heping was abducted and assaulted by a group of unidentified men.

Li Heping was dumped in the woods in a suburb outside Beijing in the early hours of the morning after being abducted from his office, held in the basement of a building, stripped to his underwear and beaten with bottles and electro-shock batons. Heping released a public statement about his ordeal and has vowed that he will not be leaving Beijing.

Li Heping was already subject to tight police surveillance and restrictions in movement. Heping is known for defending sensitive cases, including Christians arrested for unofficial house church activities, members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, alleged victims of forced eviction and independent writers and has appealed to the authorities on behalf of lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

In the lead up the Olympic Games officials promised improvements in human rights, targeting lawyers such as Li Heping does not appear consistent with such vows. The National CPC Congress is a time for setting agendas, looking to the future and a time when the international community is paying attention to China, and in particular, Beijing. To think that peaceful lawyers are abducted, beaten and threatened in this context is alarming and raises major concerns for the safety of human rights defenders in China and leaves some doubt about the creation of positive legacies from the Congress meeting and the Olympic Games.