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作者：Anonymous 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
March 8, 2004
Chinese Appeal to Beijing to Resolve Local Complaints
By JIM YARDLEY
New York Times
EIJING, March 7 — Dong Da says he has been beaten, arrested and harangued since he began complaining seven years ago that officials had stolen from him and other farmers. He has eluded the local authorities and taken his complaints to higher officials in Beijing, though each trip brings more risks at home.
Only last month, Mr. Dong said he and other farmers arrived at a Beijing train station, where he planned to meet a lawyer but instead found the police from his home province, Hebei, in northern China, waiting to detain them. Even though police officers now watch his home, Mr. Dong said by telephone last week, he is still trying to return to Beijing.
Yet if he again manages to slip away, he does not expect much in Beijing. "I've been protesting and appealing all these years, but nothing has come of this," Mr. Dong, 43, said in an interview last month. "The departments in Beijing simply kick the cases back and forth. Nobody takes responsibility."
Mr. Dong's plight is shared every year by thousands of Chinese, many of them peasants, for whom winning an audience in Beijing is a last hope, if usually a false one. Even so, the number of petitioners writing or coming to Beijing jumped sharply last year, as more ordinary citizens are demanding good government.
In a marked shift, high government officials, including President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, are acknowledging that many complaints have merit. In January, Zhou Zhanshun, director of the agency that monitors complaints, said 80 percent of them were reasonable and should be resolved at the local level. He said the number of petitioners in Beijing had jumped by a third in the first 11 months of 2003.
But acknowledging problems is not the same as fixing them. This is the high season for petitioners, who are eager to reach Beijing during the annual National People's Congress meeting. In his opening remarks on Friday, Mr. Wen offered encouragement to the poorest citizens, promising a crackdown on corruption and illegal land seizures.
Yet human rights advocates say the Beijing authorities, fearing embarrassing protests, have been blocking protesters from reaching the delegates. Some say they are under virtual house arrest.
The petitioners who make it to Beijing bring the full range of complaints percolating in China's cities and countryside: allegations of corruption and police abuse, claims of illegally seized land or wrongful evictions from city apartments and claims of unpaid wages. They also bring, in theory, the weight of Chinese law, which provides that petitioning in Beijing is a basic right.
Yet the system, which involves filing formal complaints with certain agencies, is largely considered a futile exercise. One longtime petitioner, Liu Jie, has taken the vain but symbolic step of suing the government over the process itself.
"I hope the case will set an example for other people as well," Ms. Liu said in an interview.
An article in a recent edition of Law and News magazine called for reform and said corrupt officials "resort to any means" to hinder petitioners. "In their eyes, `petitioning' is tantamount to `troublemaking,' and the petitioners are seen as `unstable elements,' " it said.
Lu Yuegang, a journalist who has written about the plight of petitioners, said the rise of complaints in Beijing was "because so many problems aren't being solved at the local level." Common people are now more aware of their rights, he said, but few find satisfaction in Beijing.
"In the end, the complaints are sent back to the people whom the complaints were made against in the first place," Mr. Lu said.
The discontent is partly fueled by China's growing divide between rich and poor, which is fostering growing resentments and becoming a major concern for top leaders. A recent survey found that the income gap between rural and urban residents had grown in the past five years, with urban workers earning 3.1 times as much as farmers in 2002.
Since taking power last year, Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen have spoken repeatedly about the need to lift living standards for the poorest people. Their populist stances have emboldened many petitioners. Earlier this year, Zhang Shufeng and her husband, Zhang Deli, appealed for the president's attention at the entrance of the main leadership compound, Zhongnanhai.
Their complaints varied from local corruption to allegations that a teacher had abused their daughter. For the first few days, Ms. Zhang said, the police escorted them away. Finally, she said, officers pushed her husband into a van and beat him.
Mr. Dong, the petitioner from Hebei, said he began petitioning after he and other farmers were relocated so a dam could be built on their land. Mr. Dong was moved in 1996, and he said local officials never paid farmers the full promised compensation. He said he was owed almost $3,000, about seven years income.
He said he was encouraged by the tone set by Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen but hesitated to expect much help. A decade ago, he said, other farmers from his region protested at Zhongnanhai and were sent to labor camps.
"I see how on the TV news they seem to be caring more about little people's problems," Mr. Dong said. "But for big problems like ours, we've been through three prime ministers already, and our problems haven't been solved."
A fundamental question, of course, is why people invest so much hope in a process that seems hopeless. Mr. Lu, the journalist, says nearly 20 petitioners a day contact him about their cases. Many frustrated petitioners are now turning to lawyers, even though few win in court.
Mr. Dong is part of a petition drive to oust his hometown mayor. He says organizers have surreptitiously collected 8,000 signatures. If he can slip away in the coming days, he hopes to present the petition to delegates at the National People's Congress.
He said he had to borrow nearly $4,000 to build a new house after his land was seized. His family has seven people living under the same roof on less than $400 a year. Why does he keep protesting? He says he has no choice. "We're owed too much money," he said.
作者：Anonymous 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org |
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农民报告又一章 胡温"新政"何处寻 zt: Chinese Appeal to Beijing to Resolve Local Complaints
