By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Hundreds of thousands of police, security guards and volunteers patrolled Beijing to usher in China’s annual session of parliament.  Under China’s Constitution, the NPC is China’s highest law-making body. More than 2,000 delegates from across the country are in Beijing to attend the NPC.  The country’s 55 minority groups are all represented, as are the armed forces.  Delegates also come from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.  It provides delegates with a chance to pass on their views.  But because all power rests with the Chinese Communist Party, NPC delegates will merely approve party decisions.

Petitioners often come to Beijing during NPC, looking for a chance to let officials know about their particular grievances. But they are usually harassed and detained by security officials.  Petitioners told Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin service that authorities in the Chinese capital have detained around 1,000 people with grievances against the government ahead of the country’s annual parliament.

Huang Caipiao, 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. He tried to petition the Supreme Court, but was intercepted by Beijing police as he headed towards the national prosecution service.

Shanghai resident Cai Zhengrong, who has been trying to get compensation after his house was demolished to make way for luxury apartments, was detained shortly after arriving in Beijing to petition the central government, he told Reuters.  These stories are 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.

Around 1,200 petitioners wrote an open letter to the NPC calling for greater recognition of the rights violations they had suffered at the hands of officials.  While government Web sites have invited Internet users to air their grievances, authorities have taken great measures to ensure their complaints are not delivered to NPC delegates in person.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Main issues at China’s parliament – 04 March 2008.

Radio Free Asia – China Detains 1,000 Petitioners Ahead of Parliament – 04 March 2008.

Washington Post – China muzzles capital ahead of annual parliament – 02 March 2008.