China Detains 1,000 Petitioners Ahead of Parliament

By RADIO FREE ASIA
March 04, 2008

Authorities in the Chinese capital have detained around 1,000 people with grievances against the government ahead of the country's annual parliament which opens in Beijing Wednesday, petitioners told RFA's Mandarin service.

"I'd say there were more than 1,000 petitioners from across the country in Majialou," Huang Caipiao, a petitioner from the southeastern province of Fujian, said after being sent to the unofficial detention center for petitioners south of the city.

"There was no one listening to our grievances there," said Huang, who was intercepted by Beijing police Monday as he headed towards the national prosecution service, the Supreme Procuratorate.

Huang, who was being held in a Beijing hotel by police from his hometown when he spoke to reporter Han Qing, said he was waiting to be sent back to his hometown of Lianjiang.

Huang, a shrimp farmer seeking compensation for business losses following his forced eviction, has made 15 petitioning trips to the capital, yielding nothing but a year in jail.

"Now I have lost all hope," said Huang, whose story is becoming increasingly familiar across China as local officials and big business cash in on soaring land values, pushing rural families from the land with little or no compensation.

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  在京访民被拦截 马家楼1000多人在押