May 1st marked the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the Chinese Communist Party’s “Petition Work Regulations,” and many petitioners chose to travel to Beijing during this period in hopes of drawing attention from authorities. However, despite their efforts, very few petitioners’ issues are actually resolved. Gu Guoping, a retired teacher from Shanghai University who has been petitioning for over twenty years, commented that the design of the “Petition Work Regulations” is meant to mask the illegitimacy of the CCP.
Gu Guoping, who had just been released from detention, rushed to Beijing to petition before May 1st, but due to the large number of petitioners in the capital, the national petition registration was prematurely closed. Gu Guoping and others then attempted to reach Zhongnanhai, the Chinese leadership compound, but were stopped at multiple checkpoints before being eventually sent back to Shanghai.
Some petitioners remarked, “Zhongnanhai is a place to serve the people, not to treat the people as enemies. Going to Zhongnanhai to reflect grievances to the leaders is labeled as ‘illegal’ by local governments, essentially using repressive means to inform the people that the central government is not like a feudal dynasty, where even if the common people have grievances, they cannot present them!” This is what the so-called “Petition Work Regulations” are described as by petitioners: “It only resolves the person who raises the problem, not the problem itself.”
The petition system is a product of the socialist system under the CCP; what is its purpose? Gu Guoping told Epoch Times, “This system actually does not help our society return to a normal international environment, but is a system designed to extend the life of the CCP, created to cover up the party’s legitimacy flaws, known as the so-called ‘Petition Regulations.'”
“The ‘Petition Work Regulations’ include four basic principles once mentioned by Deng Xiaoping, which insist on the leadership of the party, adhere to Mao Zedong Thought, adhere to the socialist path, and insist on proletarian dictatorship. In essence, these four principles all contradict the basic ethical, moral, and worldview of human society and do not meet the fundamental requirements of science and natural development. Therefore, fundamentally speaking, these four principles are erroneous and do not align with the foundation and conditions for human survival and development, as well as violating the principles of international law and conventions.”
The CCP’s formulation of the petition regulations has reached its twentieth anniversary; what has been its effectiveness?
Gu Guoping stated, “At this critical juncture, I believe that the formulation of the petition regulations is itself an unfair, unjust, illegal, unrepresentative of public opinion and social reality, and harmful regulation or system that does not address the root problems.”
He described the system as not only a failure but also extremely evil because it limits the rights of petitioners while not restricting the rights of the corresponding party (government departments). “The territorial management of the petition regulations is self-deceptive. It lets you return to your local area to resolve issues, acting as both a perpetrator of grievances and then requiring you to seek out the perpetrator for problem resolution, fairness, and results, ultimately leading to an opposite outcome where the problems not only remain unresolved but rather escalate.”
“After twenty years of practical experience, it has repeatedly proven that the petition regulations are quite a failure, leading to a large number of rights defenders and petitioners. Everywhere there are petition issues and groups of rights defenders. The responsible government departments have used these petition regulations, not to address the appeals of petitioners but to suppress the individuals who raised the issues, creating a trap that is the most despicable and harmful aspect of the petition regulations.”
Having experienced the crushing oppression and persecution resulting in broken families and lives during twenty years of petitioning, petitioner Yu Zhonghuan also suffered greatly from the Petition Work Regulations. He said, “The party-state’s petition department has completely become a despotic agency against petitioners, intensifying suppression.”
After the implementation of the Petition Work Regulations, supplemental modifications were made to claim the introduction of the rule of law, decentralization of problem resolution (Fengqiao Experience), and holding officials accountable for inaction or misconduct. Is this the reality? “In fact, quite the opposite. Through my twenty years of petitioning, each year has been worse than the previous. The petition departments originally could report to leaders, but now they no longer even do that and have completely idled down.”
He recounted his own experience, “For a minor issue at my home that did not require the government to spend a single cent, just a street or neighborhood office worker to provide an emergency contact number for my daughter at the disabled care center in case of emergencies (due to my frequent detention, security monitoring, etc.), the street and neighborhood offices kept passing the responsibility, and when I petitioned at the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau and City Government, the letter was redirected to the grassroots level, with no further response.”
“But in terms of ‘stability maintenance’, they are particularly active, as the budget for maintaining stability is substantial and highly corruptible. For instance, the petition office at Jinqiao Town in Pudong New Area rented a remote farmhouse on Chongming Island for less than 50 RMB a day, but issued a receipt for 600 RMB, renting out the entire building and more than a dozen rooms in the courtyard, costing over ten thousand RMB per day. Plus security fees, with each guard receiving 700-800 RMB daily, but in reality, they only pocket less than 200 RMB. Renting black jails and security fees cost over twenty thousand RMB per day, over two million RMB if carried out for eighty days a year. The majority of this money is embezzled.” Both Yu Zhonghuan and many petitioners in Shanghai have been held in this farmhouse.
Yu Zhonghuan believes that the petition institution has become increasingly mafia-like, lawless, and rampant, where almost every day or every month, petitioners are detained, beaten, and mistreated. Instances such as Shanghai’s Chen Xiaoming and Duan Huimin being beaten to death, and Yu Zhonghuan, Gu Guoping, Cao Weicheng, Xu Peixing, and countless other petitioners have had their ribs broken.
He added, “In recent years, the petition office of Jinqiao Town in Pudong New Area not only detained me in a black jail and confiscated my phone but also broke into my home, stole my daughter’s life-saving medical treatment funds of 25,000 RMB.”
It is rumored that during the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Central Committee of the CCP, if petitioners register with the National Petition Office in Beijing, local governments will be penalized in their performance evaluations. Earlier this year, there was a message circulating among petitioners that the CCP central authorities intend to put great effort into resolving the appeals of petitioners. Yu Zhonghuan remarked, “The CCP is accustomed to lying, saying the opposite, lying year after year, month after month, day after day.”
May Day each year coincides with the anniversary of the implementation of the “Petition Regulations.” Petitioners in Beijing gather to defend their rights. Previously, there have been several larger-scale protests in the petitioners’ gathering area near Beijing South Station, leading the CCP authorities to intensify stability maintenance efforts during May Day, treating every plant and tree as a potential threat.