Petitioners

This article (Chinese only) describes how on August 20, 2012, more than 50 petitioners rushed the office building for the Tianjin Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection of Communist Party. The petitioners had requested to meet with the commission heads so they could discuss how to resolve their problems. They waited for over two hours, yet no one came to meet them; eventually, they charged into the building. All of the petitioners had sought justice from relevant government departments previously, all without any resolution. Their complaints included forced evictions, housing disputes, and medical malpractice. Dozens of policemen were called to stop the petitioners.

[Black Jails]Four Shanghainese petitioners were intercepted by authorities on July 20, 2012 as they attempted to go to Beidaihe District, Hebei Province for a weekend trip. The four were detained and forcibly returned to Shanghai. Li Yufang (李玉芳) writes of two of the petitioners' experiences upon returning—she was locked in a black jail, and Wang Kouma (王扣玛) was questioned by the police, became ill and had to be rushed to the hospital, and as of July 31, 2012 was under 24-hour surveillance in his home.

This short article (Chinese only) describes Shanghai petitioner Wang Kouma’s determination to continue to fight his case despite being categorized as one of the five types of people accused by a Chinese expert of being used by the United States to interfere with China’s rise. The five types of people were listed in the July 31, 2012 People’s Daily article “What Are Real Challenges for China?” by Yuan Peng, head of the American Institute of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

On Qingming (Tomb Sweeping Day, April 4, 2012), police in Beijing detained many of the petitioners from Shanghai and other places in China who visited Beijing’s Babaoshan Cemetery to pay their respects at various graves. At another Beijing cemetery, five petitioners were detained when they tried to visit the grave of Yang Jia, a young man executed for killing several police officers and regarded by many as a folk hero who fought against police brutality. The police also detained Beijinger Li Xuehui, who was trying to deliver food to the detainees.