Shanghai police detained hundreds of citizens who went to submit their petitions during the annual meeting of Shanghai political leaders recently.
The 2012 Shanghai meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a quasi-legislative and consultative body respectively, commenced on Jan. 11 at the Shanghai Expo Center. Hundreds of Chinese civilians went to the site to submit their petitions, hoping that the NPC would pay closer attention to their needs. All of the petitioners were detained by the police and only released in the evening, according to reports and interviews.
One of the petitioners, Wang Kouma, said: “We came here today to file our petitions, make accusations against judicial injustice and corruption, highlight relocation problems and various forms of unjust frame-ups. They would not accept our petition letters initially, but eventually did so under the strong urging of the petitioners. In the end, the police forcibly dragged us into police vehicles and sent us to detention. The police body-searched a female petitioner, named Chen Jianfang, forcing her to surrender her camera.”
The detained petitioners voiced their protests loudly against the treatment, yelling “Restore human rights! Restore justice! Restore freedom!”
Jin Yuehua, a female petitioner from Shanghai, said, “There were seven rooms and each room was occupied by about 80 people. In total, four or five hundred people were detained there. Surrounding us were steel doors and windows reinforced with steel grille. The place was completely sealed off, with no ventilation. A piece of newspaper was given to every arrested petitioner for them to sit on the floor.”
As the NPC and PPCC meetings were in progress, a petition signed by more than 1,000 people was sent to the representatives through express mail.
Jin said that the petitioners accused the Shanghai government of failing to carry out its administrative responsibilities. The authorities stole property from civilians through land grabs, and then shirked their responsibilities, she said.
Read the original Chinese article.
