Security steps up for petitioners as China parliament meets
A few miles from China’s National People’s Congress in Beijing, citizens who have travelled from across the country to tell the government about their problems face tight controls on this age-old right.
A few miles from China’s National People’s Congress in Beijing, citizens who have travelled from across the country to tell the government about their problems face tight controls on this age-old right.
China’s centuries-old petition system, developed under imperial rule, is meant to offer people with grievances against local officials the chance of redress from the central government.
But security has been stepped up for the annual legislative meeting, underscoring the way the scheme is undermined with authorities at lower levels deploying a vast network of “interceptors” to stop complaints being lodged.
During special occasions like the NPC gathering, the interceptors outnumber the petitioners
The Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an activist network, said that “countless” petitioners had been searched, assaulted and detained, with many forcibly returned to their home towns, including “hundreds” sent back to Shanghai.
The heavy-handed tactics not only ignore the individuals’ problems but also inflame their anger, driving them back to Beijing again and again and, critics warn, undermining the government’s legitimacy.
“In the beginning my issue was that my company owed me 12 years of unpaid salary and old-age insurance contributions,” said a 38-year-old former receptionist surnamed Liu, adding that she was badly beaten and hospitalised after she first came to Beijing in December, and was now on her third trip.
“This time I came because of my unpaid salary and old-age insurance, and my being beaten, humiliated and illegally detained,” she said, speaking angrily before breaking down in tears.
