Petitioners Beware: Detainment, Detainment, Then ‘Reeducation Through Labor’

A Chinese billboard advises petitioners they will be sent to labor camps if they complain about government abuse.
Petitioners Beware: Detainment, Detainment, Then ‘Reeducation Through Labor’
2/23/2010
Updated:
2/23/2010
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/bboardlead_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/bboardlead_medium.jpg" alt="This billboard reads 'Persistent and Noisy Petitioners: First time&#8212detention, second time&#8212detention, third time&#8212Reeducation Through Labor,' set up by 'The Chinese Communist Party Tianxin Township Committee, Tianxin Township People's Government.' (Photo by anonymous citizen)" title="This billboard reads 'Persistent and Noisy Petitioners: First time&#8212detention, second time&#8212detention, third time&#8212Reeducation Through Labor,' set up by 'The Chinese Communist Party Tianxin Township Committee, Tianxin Township People's Government.' (Photo by anonymous citizen)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-100513"/></a>
This billboard reads 'Persistent and Noisy Petitioners: First time—detention, second time—detention, third time—Reeducation Through Labor,' set up by 'The Chinese Communist Party Tianxin Township Committee, Tianxin Township People's Government.' (Photo by anonymous citizen)
A billboard with a foreboding message erected beside a road in Jiahe County, China’s Hunan Province, is indicative of the ruling regime’s tighter control of dissent, according to commentators: “To All Persistent and Noisy Petitioners: First time—Detention; Second time—Detention; Third time—Reeducation Through Labor.”

According to an eyewitness, this sign is located in Tianxin Township in Jiahe County to the right of a highway. Standing in a fork in the road, the sign stood at 7-8 square meters and was inscribed with “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Tianxin Township Committee, Tianxin Township People’s Government.” Photos of forced labor detainees, large handcuffs, and policemen with austere expressions made it a startling sight, according to an observer.

The observer said that the sign has been there for six months. Over the past few years, local government activities such as deforestation, exploitation of mines, illegal land occupation, and embezzlement of agricultural subsidy payments have caused severe environmental damage and conflicts between the ruling Party and the masses.

In 2009, the committee secretary and mayor were fired and sentenced to 15 years prison for embezzlement. Unresolved long-term conflicts caused the recent appearance of a large number of petitioners. To control the activities of the petitioners and conceal the problems affecting society’s lower classes, the Tianxin Township Committee obtained permission from the Jiahe County authorities to put up a billboard warning petitioners—those who go to present their complaints to the government—about the consequences of their actions.

The eyewitness said that his experiences among petitioners confirmed that they have been detained for petitioning; those who petition continuously have also been sent to reeducation through labor camps.

The labor reeducation system is ad-hoc; prisoners can be sent to camps for three years without any court hearing or legal procedures. No appeal process exists. According to the book “The Great Wall of Confinement,” in setting up the system Mao borrowed from both Imperial China and Stalin’s Russia, exceeding both in his mission to “remold” the thoughts of detainees through forced labor and propaganda. These characteristics of the labor system remain today, and abuse, beatings, and unsanitary conditions are commonplace.

Back in 2004, another billboard’s slogan, “I’ll harass anyone for their entire life if they dare to disturb Jiahe” put the spotlight on rural Jiahe County.

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/bill2_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/bill2_medium.jpg" alt="Another view of the billboard (Photo by anonymous citizen)" title="Another view of the billboard (Photo by anonymous citizen)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-100514"/></a>
Another view of the billboard (Photo by anonymous citizen)
Regarding the reappearance of a similarly bold message six years later, a mainland Chinese lawyer said, “This startling slogan shows the lawlessness of many local authorities. On the one hand, local authorities publicly take part in embezzlement and corruption, and on the other hand, they suppress and harm the people by abusing their power—it is a common phenomenon. The CCP is extremely unpopular with the people.”

Lawyer Li from Beijing told an Epoch Times reporter that the slogan shows how local authorities use violence to suppress petitioners’ individual freedom and to conceal conflicts to give the appearance of a harmonious society—one of the current regime leader Hu Jintao’s key political slogans. Mr. Li said that from the public display of human rights violations, one can see the totalitarian rule of the Chinese government and the fact that democracy does not exist for the Chinese people. This lack of “respect and protection of human rights” further intensifies local conflicts, he said.

Heng He, a commentator with New Tang Dynasty Television, believes that petitioning is the last resort for victims of injustice in Chinese society. Since 2005’s petitioning policies to last year’s government document “About the Central Political and Legal Committee’s Further Strengthening and Improving of Petition Policies,” the Chinese government’s highest office has gradually resorted to a complete prohibition of appealing, he said. His remarks were paraphrased, rather than quoted, as is common in Chinese media.

The Shanghai authorities barring Feng Zhenghu from entering China for 90 days and the Hunan Province Tianxin authorities threatening petitioners with labor reeducation all follow the same pattern, Mr. Heng said. Drawing a metaphor, Mr. Heng compared the actions of authorities to sealing a valve on a steam boiler; it will eventually cause an explosion. Something won’t cease to exist just because people don’t admit it, he pointed out.

Read the original Chinese article.