On the eve of the annual “two sessions” of the Chinese Communist Party‘s National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, 300 citizens recently signed an open letter calling on the authorities to introduce a government law as soon as possible to regulate officials to correct wrongful cases fairly and impartially, and to prevent future wrongful cases from continuing to occur.
Urging the correction of wrongful cases in accordance with the law
Human rights website Rights Defense Network reported on Feb. 18 that more than 300 petitioners from all over the world said in the open letter that countless petitioners have been running for decades on the road to defend their rights without results, many of them have been framed and imprisoned by the public prosecutor and the law, and that authorities in various regions have seriously violated human rights, many local officials should be held criminally responsible, and petitioners who have suffered must be given spiritual compensation.
The open letter calls for and requests the central government to link up the “law-related” petitions from the central to the local level, to “implement military control in an integrated network”, and to include unjust and false cases in the mandatory judicial public hearing procedures, and to introduce the “Government Law” as soon as possible to monitor and restrain government officials’ negligence. The government will be able to ensure that each case is fair and just, and prevent the development of the case of fraudulent inquiry and negligence by deceiving the top and the bottom.
Petitioners in Beijing demand officials to disclose their private assets on February 10, 2019 (WeChat photo)
Wu Lijuan, a petitioner from Qianjiang, Hubei province, who participated in signing the open letter, said that there are already more than 400 signatures, and more people will participate one after another. And the purpose of the appeal letter is simple: to introduce the Government Law to monitor government officials as to ensure that each case will be handled and heard fairly and impartially.
The purpose is to be able to correct wrongful cases in a timely manner, and more explicitly to stop wrongful cases from happening,” she said. Because these unjust and wrongful cases mainly occur from the public prosecution and the law jointly create unjust and wrongful cases. The law enforcement of the arrest, the prosecutor’s office illegal public prosecution, the court and then in vain judgment, so that these rights defenders, visitors ah, citizens ah go to jail, the problem is not solved.”
Difficult to solve the problem
Another open letter signer from Shanxi interviewed by the reporter also said that he just hope that through the introduction of the “Government Law”, the law to monitor and restrain officials to be in accordance with the law administration, serious treatment and handling of the people’s problems, to correct wrongful cases. Just like his own case was wrongfully decided by the court without regard to the facts, and for years he insisted on defending his rights to several relevant departments without any solution.
He said, “The court’s verdict is purely written in chatoyance, ghost stories, lies and pure fabrication. This verdict is purely a perversion of the law. But you go to sue, to the discipline inspection, the Procuratorate, the court discipline inspection working group, the National People’s Congress to reflect the cadres of illegal, to sue the judge, sue on how many years is the same as not suing, simply does not work. The people want to sue the cadres, gee, it is simply impossible, it is very difficult to work.”
Wu Lijuan herself has been seeking legal rights since 2004, when she was laid off due to the forced buyout by Qianjiang Industrial and Commercial Bank, and has gone through all the legal procedures and petition windows of the local government, arbitration, courts, intermediate courts, provincial industrial banks, the State Bureau of Letters and Calls, the Ministry of Public Security, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and the Supreme Court. Not only were the initial problems not solved, but more administrative litigation cases of illegal detention were added.
Wu Lijuan said that over the past 16 years, she has been kidnapped and placed under house arrest, detained and reeducated through labor by interceptors, beaten, and suffered great physical injuries. Simple labor disputes are not clearly supported by the law, and public security, procuratorates, and courts enforce the law in an integrated manner.
The head of the Chinese Communist Party’s State Bureau of Letters and Visits has said that most of the problems occur at the grassroots level and that most of the problems can be solved at the grassroots level. The key to solving the problems reflected by the public is to adhere to the principle of “local management, hierarchical responsibility” and “whoever is in charge, who is responsible”, and to strictly implement the responsibility for the work of letters and visits. In recent years, the authorities have emphasized the role of the main channel of online petition, guiding people to “visit more online, less visit”, saying that the first responsibility system should be strictly implemented to reduce the accumulation of conflicts and iterations.
Local officials directly “solve” petitioners
Every year, a large number of petitioners from the mainland go to Beijing to seek redress. However, critics say that while the top brass is perfunctory, local officials try to “solve” petitioners by intercepting them, suppressing them, detaining them and locking them up in black jails, rather than solving the problems they raise.
Wu Lijuan said officials from the State Bureau of Letters and Calls have boasted that many petition problems have been solved, but they have not.
She said, “Every year at the two sessions of the National People’s Congress, the director of the Bureau of Letters and Visits answers questions from reporters, saying how many petitions have been resolved, 80 percent or 90 percent. The number of our petitioners has dropped. All these declining numbers are suppressed, imprisoned and intercepted everywhere. A lot of people can’t go to Beijing, so they say these numbers are going down. The fact that it’s not declining is not that it’s solving the problem.”
Stability maintenance intensifies as two sessions approach
According to the rights network, the ninth day of the first month of the lunar calendar on Feb. 20 was adjusted to a work day due to the long Chinese New Year holiday. However, due to the proximity of the “two sessions” of the National People’s Congress and the intensification of the authorities’ efforts to maintain stability, there were not many visitors in front of the State Bureau of Letters and Visits near Beijing’s Yongding Gate, but more groups of interceptors from around the country who were on guard.
On the first day of work on the seventh day of the first month, there was still a crowd of visitors in front of the bureau. Some visitors who were interrogated at the Qianmen subway entrance in Beijing and taken to the police station said that it is estimated that many visitors were taken back, while others disappeared on their own after hearing the news of the arrest.
In addition, nearly 40 human rights activists in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, signed a joint letter on Feb. 19, accusing the local party and government of restricting the personal freedom of human rights defenders by kidnapping, detention and summoning them during the “two sessions” of Wuxi and Jiangsu Province from Jan. 18 to 29. Some people are still not free.
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