Chinese Authorities Support the Detention of Lead Poison Victims for Months

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

JIAHE, China – Police stopped a bus carrying 53 villagers suffering from lead poisoning. The citizens were traveling to get medical care when the officials blocked the bus.

In September 2009, police in Jiahe, Hunan province, prevented a vehicle occupied by parents and children who were contaminated by illegal emissions of heavy metals from a rural smelting factory. The factory in Jiahe was operated by Tenda Corporation, a company that had been ejected from other, wealthier areas because of its dismal pollution record. The regional government in Jiahe allowed the factory to operate despite warnings from the local environmental department that the plant was breaking toxic emission regulations. Jiahe is one of China’s poorest counties and needed the funding that Tenda Corporation offered. The cost, however, was the health of local citizens.

The officials not only stopped and questioned the vehicle filled with sick passengers, the police detained two of them for six months, mistakenly believing the villagers were planning to protest. The local government responsible for stopped the sick passengers was unapologetic for causing the tremendous delay.

According to Ou Shudong, the chairman of the local People’s Congress, “The villagers’ intentions were unclear. Even if they were going for a medical examination, they should have informed the government.” Beijing News cited a Jiahe county report as saying the punishment of a few people “served the purpose of public education for the majority.”

Other government officials tried to justify the event and the prolonged detention by responding to an investigation of the incident, “We may have blocked the wrong visit, but they should not have been on that road,” stated Li Ying, deputy secretary of Jiahe county political and legislative committee.

This type of occurrence is not unheard of, as it reveals the feudal control that local officials exercise over citizens in much of rural China. It also exemplifies the widespread strategy of stifling dissent by making an example of suspected insurgents, a tactic known as “killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.”

Recent testing results since the September detention confirmed that the passengers were in fact in dire need of health care, and were not attempting to protest. The latest results, received on 24 February 2010, revealed that 250 of the 397 children in the village had excess levels of lead in their blood. The victims included four of the five children of Liao Mingxiu, one of those still in police detention. Further investigative reports state that local people complained of health problems and unusually outrageous behavior and poor performance in school among children, but local petitions to the authorities were ignored for more than three years.

Nevertheless, Chinese authorities still defend the six-month detention of lead poisoning victims, claiming it was a punishment necessary for “public education.”

For more information, please see:

Tibetan ReviewMistaken punishment justified as education for majority – 19 March 2010

The Sydney Morning HeraldPoisoning victims used as an example – 19 March 2010

The GuardianChina defends detention of lead poisoning victims who sought medical help – 16 March 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive