U.S. NGO Reports that Official Abuse of Petitioners Is Rampant in China

January 3, 2006

Official abuse of Chinese petitioners is rampant, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) press statement and report released on December 8. Chinese citizens often petition Party and government xinfang ("letters and visits") bureaus for redress of their grievances. The HRW report notes that petitioners rarely succeed in obtaining redress, and also cites first-hand interviews with Chinese petitioners detailing official abuses, including beatings and torture.

Official abuse of Chinese petitioners is rampant, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) press statement and report released on December 8. Chinese citizens often petition Party and government xinfang ("letters and visits") bureaus for redress of their grievances. The HRW report notes that petitioners rarely succeed in obtaining redress, and also cites first-hand interviews with Chinese petitioners detailing official abuses, including beatings and torture.

The HRW report notes that official abuses of petitioners are linked to incentives given to local officials. Central officials often evaluate the job performance of local officials based in part on the number of petitioners from their jurisdictions that travel to Beijing to present grievances to the central government. Large numbers of petitioners can have a negative effect on a local official's career. Thus, local officials have an incentive to suppress citizen petitioning efforts. For more information, see Section V(e), Access to Justice, of the Commission's 2005 Annual Report.

The HRW report says that local officials often send plainclothes security officers called "retrievers" to Beijing, where they abduct or detain petitioners and force them to return to their home provinces. The report notes that Beijing police are complicit in these acts, often ignoring such abductions or detentions and sometimes assisting the "retrievers." Other local Chinese officials have employed plainclothes officers or thugs to harass or intimidate activists, journalists, and lawyers.

The HRW report calls on the Chinese government to make structural changes to address these abuses. First, it recommends that Chinese authorities clearly ban the use of "retrievers" to kidnap and detain petitioners. Second, the HRW report recommends that Chinese officials require that the Beijing police protect the rights of petitioners and halt their practice of condoning the abuses by "retrievers" or hired thugs. Third, the report calls on Chinese officials to release all petitioners who have been detained for exercising their right to petition. Fourth, the report recommends that Chinese officials change the incentive system that links local officials' career advancement to suppression of citizen petitions. Fifth, the report recommends that Chinese authorities make legal aid available to petitioners, allow petitioners to work in Beijing, and revise the petitioning system through a legislative process that incorporates the opinions of petitioners themselves. Finally, the report calls on Chinese authorities to create an independent judiciary capable of resolving petitioners' grievances and to establish genuine political accountability for local officials, who often are the cause of citizen complaints.

For additional analysis on recent government treatment of petitioners, see below.
 


Chinese authorities arrested or detained hundreds of petitioners in November and December 2005.
 

  • Beijing authorities arrested several hundred petitioners who gathered outside the offices of China Central Television on December 4 to present their grievances on "Popularize Law Day," according to a December 6 Radio Free Asia report.
  • Shanghai officials arrested over 200 petitioners who gathered outside the Shanghai Communist Party plenum conference seeking to present their grievances to municipal Party officials, according to a December 7 Radio Free Asia report.
  • In November, Chinese authorities arrested or detained dozens of petitioners in the days before an official visit by U.S. President George W. Bush.
  • Authorities in Beijing have begun demolishing the "petitioners village," a collection of low-cost residences, shacks, and tents near the city’s South Railway Station where many petitioners reside, according to a December 13 Kyodo News report (subscription required).