CHINA ACCUSED OF WIDESPREAD VIOLENCE AGAINST CITIZENS
HRW ALLEGES PETITIONERS FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES INTIMIDATED, ASSAULTED
11 December 2005

The human rights investigative and lobbying organization, Human Rights Watch, has issued a new report on China, which alleges widespread violence against citizens who seek justice. The report also claims officials deliberately block petitions to higher levels of the government.

In 2004, some 10 million petitions were filed, but the HRW report cites a study that estimates only 3 of every 2,000 petitions lead to a resolution. And of the other 98.5%? According to HRW, "Thousands of citizens who petition Chinese authorities for the redress of grievances are attacked, beaten, threatened and intimidated."

With roots dating back to ancient times, the system of petitions allows any citizen to report grievances on issues ranging from corruption to random violence, failing infrastructure to illegal expropriations of land, theft or other community ills, and sees large numbers of complainants camping at Zhongnanhai, the seat of Chinese government. But local authorities and police don't always look favorably on those who complain about official failings.

One petitioner, according to the report, said police had said "Eventually, we'll come and arrest you", if the petition wasn't given up. HRW describes refugees from rural violence stuck waiting in Beijing for resolution to their peititions, "ambushed by groups of plainclothes security officers on the street, beaten, and kidnapped."

Some of the petitioners interviewed by HRW had "lost the use of limbs due to torture in detention". The report goes on to note that perpetrators of the attacks and torture are allowed to act with impunity. "Retrievers" are apparently sent by local officials to stop petitioners from getting justice and intimidate them till they return home and abandon their complaint to higher levels of the regime.

It is routinely forgotten in talk of China, its economic growth, scientific pursuits and diplomacy, that its government remains strictly authoritarian and —for instance— has not yet disavowed the crushing of protests at Tiannenman Square in 1989 or sufficiently investigated the deaths. [s]

BACKGROUND:
CHINA PLANS "SMOKELESS WAR" AGAINST PRESS, DISSIDENTS
26 September 2005

In a high-level Communist party meeting, China's president Hu Jintao has reportedly called for an intensive crackdown on media liberties. While China's government has sought to project an image of a more market-oriented, open system, it continues to forbid basic press freedoms and still persecutes journalists at an alarming rate. [Full Story]

CHINESE HEALTH HERO DR. JIANG A POLITICAL PRISONER
18 July 2004

The doctor who blew the whistle on the Chinese government's cover-up of the SARS outbreak is currently languishing in a detention facility, without charges, and reportedly undergoing social "re-training" sessions. Dr. Jiang Yangyong became a problem for the sole governing Chinese Communist Party, when he exposed the truth about the SARS epidemic and revealed the clumsy official cover-up, which had endangered public health at home and abroad. [Full Story]