Shanghai Petitioners Appeal to Central Discipline Inspection Committee over Renewed Crackdown

September 15, 2006 - 00:00

Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned of a renewed crackdown on petitioners in Shanghai following the arrival of the Central Discipline Inspection Committee for an inspection visit in mid-August. Sources in China told HRIC that a group of petitioners went to the hostel in Shaanxi South Road where committee members are staying and attempted to express to committee members their concerns over forced relocation, corruption and other issues. Sources say the committee agreed to meet with petitioners, but instructed them to select five representatives instead of coming in a large group. However, after the petitioners left the building to choose their representatives, police prevented them from returning to the hostel to meet the committee. Since then, local authorities have undertaken a series of repressive actions, including detentions, summonses and interrogations, against petitioners who attempted to meet with the committee.

The petitioners have now written an open letter to the committee appealing for help. (The full text of the open letter is appended to the Chinese version of this press release.) The open letter states that the new crackdown follows an earlier one around the time of the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in June. Petitioners targeted in recent months include the following:

Chen Xiaoming, who was secretly detained in mid-February after meeting with a U.S. consular official, was formally indicted on July 11 on charges of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” and is expected to be harshly penalized;
Tian Baocheng has been formally arrested, and his wife, Zhang Cuiping, has been sentenced to 18 months of Reeducation Through Labor (RTL).
Wang Shuizhen, detained while attempting to visit lawyer Zheng Enchong, was formally arrested in early July;
Du Yangming, an elderly man who recently completed a one-year term of RTL, was detained for “causing a disturbance in a public place,” and has been held under house arrest without formal warrant;
Mao Hengfeng’s case was sent to the procuratorate on August 28 after Mao was formally charged on June 30 with “intentionally damaging property.” She had broken a lamp in a hostel where she was being held in “soft detention” in May;
Qiu Meili was formally arrested on September 12 after attempting to meet members of the Central Discipline Inspection Committee. Other petitioners have also been detained or questioned in connection with the attempted meeting.

In addition, the open letter notes that petitioner Xu Zhengqing, who was sentenced to three years in prison after attempting to commemorate the death of former Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang in Beijing in January 2005, has experienced severe restrictions on family visits because of his refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing or to wear a prison uniform. Xu was finally allowed a visit from his parents and wife on July 14 this year, but police told Xu’s family that this visit was an exception, and that if Xu continued to refuse to admit guilt or wear a prison uniform, he would not be allowed more visits.

The open letter says that the crackdown on individuals during this period has been accompanied by a general police sweep against petitioners at the Beijing and Shanghai train stations, and that a number of individuals have been beaten while detained, including

Wu Dangying, Tong Liya, Zhu Jindi, Liu Hualin, Cai Zhengfang, Fang Wenbin, Zhu Libin, Sun Jian, Qiu Meili, Chen Youhe, Hua Yugui, Hu Peiqin, Xia Weimin, He Meijun, Sun Xicheng, Ge Xiuzhen and an unidentified elderly woman from Baoshan District. Apart from these beatings and detentions, some petitioners have also been forcibly sent to “Petitioners’ Study Sessions.”

After failing to meet with members of the Central Discipline Inspection Committee, the petitioners hope their open letter will alert the central government to the oppression they are suffering and cause central officials to bring pressure to bear on the local authorities.

HRIC supports the petitioners’ demands for justice and deplores the pattern of detention, interrogation, beating and imprisonment of these people for exercising their lawful right to petitioning, which is enshrined in China’s Constitution. It is particularly objectionable that local authorities have prevented petitioners from meeting with the visiting Central Discipline Inspection Committee, when committee members have reportedly expressed willingness to meet with petitioner representatives.

The Chinese government has publicly acknowledged that the vast majority of petitioners are expressing justifiable grievances against the authorities, but that only 0.2 percent receive any resolution to the issues they raise. HRIC urges the Central Discipline Inspection Committee to pay serious attention to the Shanghai petitioners’ open letter, to arrange a meeting with petitioners and to initiate inquiries into the abuses perpetrated by local authorities. In addition, HRIC urges the Chinese government to address the underlying problems and issues presented by petitioners, and to develop more effective mechanisms to respond to their concerns and demands.