The May 26 blasts were believed to have been a suicide bombing by Fuzhou native Qian Mingqi, who had been forcibly evicted from his home, and had been seeking compensation from authorities to no avail.
Qian died in the attacks, but seven other eviction victims who had futilely petitioned with him for nearly a decade were compensated for their troubles five days after the bombings, according to a June 16 report in the Chinese weekly Southern Weekend.
Qian and his fellow homeowners had brought up lawsuits for what they considered an unjust eviction and demolition of their homes in order to build the Beijing-Fuzhou Expressway.
Before the bombings, the petitioners could not get any attention from Chinese authorities, and no redress of their grievances, no matter how they presented their case. But after the bombs went off, Chinese officials took the rarely-seen initiative to meet some families of the petitioners and to propose a resolution to their case.
Finally, on May 31, the Intermediate People’s Court of Fuzhou city completed the re-trial of the case of Qian Mingqi and others with unforeseen efficiency. Zhang Laiyi, who had petitioned together with Qian Mingqi, received a sum of 38,000 yuan (approx. US$5,880) as his demolition/relocation compensation and others were also separately given varying amounts of money.
While the appellants were happy to have been reimbursed, Zhang expressed melancholy at how the case concluded a mere five days after the Jiangxi bombings, but fell on deaf ears in the seven years prior. Without Qian Mingqi’s death, they would have not seen a cent of the money.
Extreme Police Responses
Authorities in Fuzhou city and Jiangxi province reacted harshly and forcefully after the government building bombings.
Soon after the blasts, the police took Qian Mingqi’s youngest son Qian Hanxi away, saying that the police needed his assistance to identify his father’s corpse. It was five days later until he was released from the police.
Another petitioner, Xong Xiaolan, had called Qian Mingqi on the morning of the bombing and was subsequently detained by the police for three days and nights. Though cleared of wrongdoing, she still continued to be “accompanied” by the so-called “stability-maintaining” cadres for several days after her release.
According to Chinese media reports, Qian Mingqi’s friend Qiu Runwu, also a petitioner, was imprisoned for one year because of his petition efforts and was sent to a mental hospital twice; but he made several attempts at suing the Public Security Office and eventually won. On June 2, after being interviewed by reporters, Qiu RunWu was “invited” by a district police official for a “talk”; then he suffered three days of illegal detention before being released.
Xiong Xiaolan also disclosed to the media that for some time she found that local authorities knew about her every move, and were even aware of what kinds of foods she ate. Later, she met a district official and was explicitly told that an “inside agent” has been set up near her. Now she understands that a certain woman, posing as a petitioner to befriend and accompany her, was working as an undercover agent all along.
Read the original Chinese article
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