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We've told you before about how candidates not affiliated with the Communist Party face harassment, surveillance and even arrest when they try to run in local elections. That's the case with a former professor who's trying to run in a local election in Shandong Province. We spoke to him about the harassment he's faced.

Independent candidates trying to run in China's local elections face a lot of interference from authorities. Sometimes they don't even get to run at all. In theory, candidates from any party or affiliation are allowed to participate in district and county level elections. But the reality is quite different. Communist Party candidates dominate. Even if independent candidates are elected, they usually are blocked from taking up office.

Former Shandong University professor Sun Wenguang is one such candidate. Sun is trying to run in local elections in Shandong Province. Yet when he went to Shandong University to see the local Communist Party secretary, he waited for four hours and in the end, the secretary didn't turn up. When he tried to distribute his business card to students, campus police harassed him.

[Sun Wenguang, Former Shandong University Professor]:
"Seven or eight security officers and police surrounded me, swearing at me and driving me away."

This is just the most recent case in a string of interference targeting Sun's campaign. On November 26th, Sun took six display boards to the university to advertise his campaign. The boards had slogans such as "uphold citizen's rights," and "elect Sun Wenguang." Shortly afterwards, all the display boards were torn down.