AFP
Authorities in Beijing have detained or dispersed hundreds of petitioners who tried to voice grievances against the ruling Chinese Communist Party in recent days, as state media said the leadership under President Xi Jinping is gearing up to announce a raft of reforms aimed at curbing growing unrest over social inequality.
Beijing police appeared to be on full alert after detaining or intercepting more than 300 former People's Liberation Army (PLA) officers last week en route to the third plenary session of the party's Central Committee, which began on Saturday, petitioners said.
"There are police everywhere today, particularly in the key areas, but there are also petitioners everywhere," Wang Jing, a petitioner from the northeastern province of Jilin, told RFA on Monday.
"There were more than 1,000 petitioners ... gathered outside the Beijing southern railway station this morning, all singing [the communist anthem] the Internationale, and shouting anti-corruption slogans," she said.
"They were dispersed by police at around 11:20 a.m."
She said dozens of petitioners had also surrounded the Beijing municipal police department headquarters on Monday to protest the beating on Saturday of petitioner Liao Dazhi by officials of the party's anti-graft body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
"We all went to demand an explanation from the Beijing police department for this illegal beating, to support him," Wang said.
Petitioners detained
Rights groups said police had detained a group of petitioners from Shanghai after they congregated outside the Jingxi Guesthouse, where China's leadership is meeting.
And Wang Yuping, an activist who revealed human rights abuses at the Masanjia Women's Labor Camp in northeastern China, said she had been held in the Jiujingzhuang detention center, or "black jail," on the outskirts of Beijing since her arrival last Wednesday, before being sent elsewhere.
"I'm in a vehicle again, but I have no idea where we're going," Wang Yuping said. "I haven't been able to take my shoes off in a week, and my feet have swollen up."
"My health is very poor, and I don't know where we're going, or where they're going to lock us up this time," she said on Monday evening.
Wang Yuping said she was traveling with around 40 others who had also been detained inside Jiujingzhuang.
"They fed us two steamed buns, some cabbage, and a small sausage.... I got diarrhea and asked to see a doctor and asked for some medicine, but they didn't even have that," she said. "It is terribly cold at night, and I've caught a cold."
Social injustice, inequality
State media said on Monday that "resolving social injustice and inequality" was one of the topics being addressed by the party leadership over the weekend, and would likely form part of a three-pronged reform package setting the agenda for China's economic development over the next decade.
Also on the table are slowing environmental pollution and cutting government red tape, the official news agency Xinhua reported.
And party mouthpiece the People's Daily said the pressure for reform has reached "critical juncture" amid intense demands for a fairer society.
According to the Global Times, an English-language tabloid with close ties to the People's Daily, growing urbanization will likely increase pressure for changes to China's "hukou" residency system, which links social benefits to a person's registered place of birth.
Currently, hundreds of millions of migrant workers who move from the countryside to cities are denied equal access to state medical insurance, education for their children, and other services.
"Such treatment has limited their purchasing power and raised social tensions," the paper said.
But political analysts said Xi is likely more concerned behind the scenes with consolidating his grip on the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
"Xi's grip on the PLA is somewhat tenuous ... as he has had to take three offices—those of president, party general secretary, and military commander-in-chief—in the short space of a year," Chongqing-based scholar Wang Kang told RFA's Cantonese Service on Monday.
"[China] currently lacks a strongman leader like Mao [Zedong] or Deng [Xiaoping], but also lacks a [strong] constitution like the United States," he said.
"Xi isn't the same as [predecessors] Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao," Wang Kang said. "Jiang Zemin didn't take over the military for a good long time, and Hu Jintao was only given command after two and a half years [as president]."
"What people want to know is, will the military do as Xi Jinping says?"
Limited focus on reforms
While President Xi and Premier Li Keqiang have promised a further round of reforms at the plenum, which runs in Beijing from Nov. 9-12, their comments have largely targeted structural economic problems like industrial overcapacity and retraining for millions of workers laid off from traditional state-run industries.
However, the number of ordinary Chinese traveling to Beijing to pursue grievances against the government typically swells ahead of key political dates, as petitioners hope their cases will get a more sympathetic hearing.
Instead, many say they are repeatedly stonewalled, detained in “black jails,” beaten, and harassed by the authorities if they try to petition a higher level of government.
Analysts say Xi's forthcoming economic reform package is aimed at reining in state-owned enterprises, opening up the energy, finance, and telecoms sectors and paving the way for full yuan convertibility, as well as major changes to the land and household registration systems.
But Beijing is widely expected to stay away from political reform in a bid to maintain party rule, they said.
Hu Xingdou, economics professor at the Beijing University of Science and Technology, said it is still unclear exactly how far the reforms might extend, owing to sharp divisions within the party on some issues affecting government revenue.
"It's very hard to say right now," Hu told RFA's Mandarin Service. "For example, whether or not collectively owned land can be put on the property market could result in some huge changes."
"Another example is hukou reform; this is largely opposed by most municipal party secretaries and mayors."
"Exactly how much will all of this cost? ... If it costs the government too little, then the people will be very disappointed."
Reported by Qiao Long and Xin Lin for RFA's Mandarin Service and by Ho Shan for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
