Petitioners abused with psychiatry, earthquake victims imprisoned: a week in China 23-30 April 2010

This is an abbreviated translation of Radio Free Asia's April 23-30 2010 A Week in China program. Hosted by Ma Ping (MP) with Shi Dong (SD) and Zhang Weiguo (ZWG)

MP On Tuesday April 27 2010, at the General Assembly for Commending National Model and Advanced Workers in Beiing, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that front-line workers pay should be continuously increased, harmonious labor relations should be developed, coordination mechanisms of labor relations should be established and improved and labor protection mechanisms for the broad working masses to achieve decency at work should be improved.
Guangzhou City responded by deciding to raise the minimum wage of workers outside the state sector from a monthly minimum wage of 860 yuan to 1,100 yuan. Guangzhou Daily said the new standards will come into effect from May 1 Labour Day.
SD Hu Jintao's remarks sounds like they come straight out of the Cultural Revolution era, the only real thing he said was that wages should be increased, this "should" is so vague, it's unlikely to be put into effect. His "sincere regards" for long suffering workers is just an annual show for Labour Day. The rest of the year, workers are facing problems like layoffs, demolitions of their homes, health insurance; with all this on their minds, his remarks were very superficial.
MP China still says that it is a Socialist Country and that the working class is the " leading class", but we know that hard-earned wages are a social problem in enterprises and state industries.
ZWG We all know that China is a fake socialist country. Firstly they expropriated private property in the name of the working class, but then since the opening-up reforms, they have again plundered the accumulated surplus value of the common people, especially the urban residents, in the name of something else.
The key issue is: how is the value of Chinese labour determined? Is it decided by the market or by the government? Now they give the workers back a little bit at Labour Day, as if they are giving them a gift. The point here is that the value of labour is entirely determined by the Communist Party.
MP Between November and April, the party and administration leaders have been replaced in eight provinces and municipalities. Fujian, Henan, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Hunan replaced the provincial (regional) Party secretary. Most interesting is that the departure of Xinjiang's Party secretary was greeted with cheers. (After news spread, people set off firecrackers to celebrate Urumqi - rfa site)
SD Wang Lequan ran Xinjiang for 15 years which is a long time for a provincial Party secretary. He did a good job for the Communist Party of repressing Xinjiang, but he was very unpopular, not just with the Uighurs but even with many Han Chinese, so he had to be replaced. But another for removing him may be that Hu Jintao wants to replace Wang with his own man, so that Hu can carry on influencing politics after he retires.
ZWG Firstly the Communist party is incapable of solving ethnic conflict. Secondly the political system has really lost its way. Everybody was calling for Wang to resign but he wouldn't, now he has but he has kept all political benefits; the same time they've tied together summoning local officials, to make him comfortable; this system is worse than the one in the feudal period.

MP there has been a series of attacks on schoolchildren recently. In a primary school in Leizhou Zhanjiang, a man chopped 18 students and a teacher. In Taixing, Jiangsu, a man chopped 28 children at a kindergarten.
SD whenever there's a disaster in China, it's the children who suffer first. When they are earthquakes, it's schools which fall down first. When the milk was poisoned, is the children who got ill. Now there's this problem of security at schools; I think it should be improved. Maybe they can't afford security, and the local government doesn't seem to care much.

MP This week the man who killed eight kindergarten children in Fujian was executed.
ZWG I think Lu Xun once said that strong resist the strong and the weak take revenge on the weak. Government offices and buildings are all well protected by security and military police, while schools are wide open to this kind of attack.

China's first NPC Standing Committee has considered the revised draft Law on Guarding State Secrets. Once the revised draft requirements appear in the flow of information involving state secrets, the content must be immediately terminated. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that China is to strengthen the control of the telecommunications industry and Internet management, and customers require these companies report related to state secrets, commercial secrets may harm national security. Associated Press reported that Chinese authorities often arrested on charges of leaking state secrets to suppress political dissent. In China, the scope of the definition of state secrets, the breadth and uncertain, and even maps, navigation information and economic data may be a state secret.

This is a really outdated law, and against the trend. China has a lot of secrets. The Chinese government uses this to repress freedom of speech and the Internet. China is already the worst country for this; now they increasing this repression in the business world by making Internet service providers provide information to the public Security Bureau. China is just like a police state. And the Chinese government never clearly defines secrets, which gives them a free hand to repress as they wish. So it's a very bad law.

MP there is a clause in the law which requires Internet service providers and online service providers to delete information in accordance with the requirements of government departments.

ZWG This shows that Google was right to leave China. It would be a bad day for them if they had to co-operate with the government in this disgraceful business. In the past the Communist party used to " revealing secrets crime" to attack dissidents. With this revised law, they are now targeting companies. We can see from this that China's political trends and legal controls are not improving with the rising strength of the nation, but on the contrary, China is using its strength and science and technology to build a new Great Wall to cut China off from the world and take China down the wrong road.

MP Nearly two years after the Sichuan earthquake, ten parents of children who were killed in Mianzhu went to Beijing to petition, to publicise the jerry-built schools which let children die and called for someone to take responsibility. For parents were arrested by local authorities for " illegal petitioning" and taken back, where they face criminal detention. More than 100 parents from that school are under police surveillance, unable to escape.


SD in a normal society, like the United States for example, whenever there is a large-scale disaster like this whether or not it is natural, or human made, the government always sets up a committee to deal with these problems in an appropriate way. Very sample after the 911 incidents the American government had a big foundation to help the victims. In China whenever there is a disaster, and tens of thousands of people lose their lives, the leaders come and make speeches, shed a few tears, and after the media interviews are over, that's end of it. When these parents go to Beijing they are put under police surveillance and control, which shows how unjust Chinese society is.

ZWG this reminds me of two images from just after the earthquake which made a deep impression on me. The first was when the national leaders made very clear promises to the earthquake victims that the jerry built school issue would be thoroughly and rapidly investigated and dealt with and a verdict given, and the other is the local government officials going down on their knees in the road to beg local people not to petition the central government, to give them time, saying they would thoroughly investigate the jerry-building. Now after all this time the parents have become the target of repression, which is completely unjst. This kind of politics is a disaster for humanity.

MP Luohe City, Henan Province, Zheng Yi villager Xulin Dong has returned home from a mental hospital. Dong was arrested in Beijing and imprisoned in the Zhumadian by the local authorities after he helped a disabled villager to petition the higher level authorities. According to the Chinese media, Xulin Dong was detained for 6 years, during which he was tied up 50 times, was given electric shocks 55 times, twiced twice to escape and to commit suicide several times. Interviwed by Reuters on Tuesday, Xulin Dong said he will not allow this matter to such a past, he will to appeal to the higher courts for justice.

SD this is not surprising. The Communist Party says that they are always glorious and correct, so therefore anybody who doesn't agree with them must be mentally ill, so they lock them up in a mental hospital just like the Soviet Union used to do. This kind of thing happens all over China, we have discussed this kind of news story many times.

ZWG At least he's still alive, which means he is very lucky. In China's dark legal system the government is more and more fascistic; it has even made mental hospitals into detention centers.
The abuse of psychiatric hospitals is a serious problem for Chinese government and Chinese society.