Angry and powerless in China

Angry and powerless in China

Thursday, August 1, 2013 – 10:21

New Straits Times

According to the Chinese Constitution, “the People’s Republic of China is a socialist state … led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants”. Taken literally, that should mean that people such as farmers and migrant workers are the masters of the country. But, as events show, such is not the case; in fact, quite the contrary.

On July 20, Ji Zhongxing, originally a farmer from Shandong province but now paralysed from the waist down and unemployable, detonated a home-made bomb at the Capital International Airport in Beijing, losing his left hand in the process. However, after six frustrating years, he has finally succeeded in getting the attention of officialdom.The young man, now 34, tried to make a living in Guangdong operating a taxi business with his motorbike. But one night in June 2005, the then 26-year-old was savagely beaten by chengguan — low-level “city management” officials who often are little more than thugs — and ended up in a wheelchair for life.

As is often the case, the court in Dongguan, whose judges are paid by the local government, found the local authorities not guilty. This happens routinely across the country, a legal phenomenon known as “local protectionism”.

Then followed years of petitioning, to no avail. As Ji wrote in despair in a blog post: “We looked to the sky, and the sky looked away; we called to the earth, and the earth did not respond. We have been forsaken but have nobody to turn to.”

In the wake of the airport bombing, the Dongguan city government said it was reopening the investigation into the case. The Dongguan intermediate court, too, has reportedly reopened its investigation.

Perhaps Dongguan will finally give Ji Zhongxing the justice he seeks. But, of course, he will never get justice. He is still confined to his wheelchair, now minus his left hand. And he no doubt faces criminal charges.

News of the bombing came only three days after another incident that also put the chengguan in the spotlight. Deng Jiazheng, a watermelon grower in Hunan province, was reportedly beaten to death by “city management” officials in Chenzhou after they refused to let him sell his produce and hit him on the head with metal weights used to weigh the melons.

Media reports say thousands of people attempted to block law enforcement officials from removing his body to ensure that an autopsy determining the cause of death would be held. In the end, an autopsy was performed but the results have not been released.

More bad news for the chengguan followed. On July 23, they beat Ren Jia, a policeman in Xining, capital of Qinghai province, when he responded to a report that people were being assaulted by chengguan who were forcibly trying to clear a flower plantation for demolition. They seized the policeman’s baton and beat him with it.

Little wonder, then, that surveys show that chengguan are very much disliked. Even the Communist party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, concedes that complaints about them are increasing day by day.

“Perhaps this is the result of the violent and at times brutal law enforcement methods of chengguan and people’s sympathy with the underprivileged group of vendors,” the People’s Daily said.

“We have to decide what kind of chengguan a city needs,” the paper said. “It will help if chengguan are more human in how they deal with street vendors.”

That would certainly help. The problem, however, extends way beyond the chengguan, whose actions reflect the uncaring attitude of the powerful toward society’s weakest and most vulnerable members.

The chengguan would certainly behave differently if members of the Communist party’s Politburo and the central government showed more concern for the poor, the sick and the disabled, who lack the ability to look after their own interests.

In fact, these local law enforcers owe their very existence to the communist party. For the central government to allow such menial officials to bully honest, hardworking people trying to eke out a living while proclaiming them to be the masters of the country is the height of hypocrisy.

It cost Ji Zhongxing his left hand to get the attention of the powers that be. However, after 120 immolations, Tibetans still haven’t gotten the attention that they deserve and that the country needs.

The communist party is sitting on a powder keg. There are so many enraged, despairing and desperate people who feel they have nothing to lose.

To such people, it is meaningless to talk of a China dream. They are living a China nightmare.