More powers for the office in charge of people’s petitions. The leaders fear new protests after the demonstrations against the confinement and those of the retirees. During the National People’s Congress, the authorities lock up and put under surveillance defrauded checking account holders in Henan. Police lock up lawyers and humanitarian activists in their homes. Freedom House: China is still a police state.
Beijing () – Xi Jinping has granted more powers to the government office in charge of public petitions and complaints: in theory, a measure to deal with the growing protests of the population after three years of draconian zero-Covid policy.
But, as usual, these days when the National People’s Assembly (ANP) is meeting, the authorities prevented those who claim matters with sensitive files, lawyers and humanitarian activists from reaching the capital to present their grievances. Announcements aside, China’s effective police state continues to be active against those who might cause trouble.
The PNA unanimously confirmed today the third and historic term in power of Xi Jinping: Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party, Head of State and of the Central Military Commission. With the “new” direction, the National Administration of Public Proposals and Complaints should no longer limit itself to collecting petitions and assigning them to the corresponding agencies, but should act independently to solve the problems that arise.
Xi seems increasingly concerned about the public’s mood. Following the popular protests at the end of November, which led to the sudden easing of the anti-Covid-19 restrictions that he himself had promoted, in February thousands of retirees protested in Wuhan (Hubei) and Dalian (Liaoning) against cuts to health subsidies that had been applied to them by the provincial authorities. Experts noted that the reform of the petition system is precisely aimed at appeasing Chinese anger against local governments, often accused of mismanagement and corruption.
However, as reported Reuters, the authorities have intervened in recent days to prevent the movements of bank account holders defrauded by local banks in Henan province. Many of them have still not been able to withdraw their savings after $1.5 billion linked to the scandal was frozen. Security personnel detained some of them on trains leaving for Beijing. Others ended up under constant surveillance or discovered trackers in their cars.
The most intimidated were locked from the outside in their homes. This was also the case for the well-known human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang and his wife Li Wenzu, who is also engaged in humanitarian activities. The couple revealed to Radio Free Asia that on March 8, International Women’s Day, the Beijing police surrounded their residence and prevented them from going outside.
In its 2023 report, Freedom House once again put China at the bottom of the world’s freedom rankings, calling the country “not free” for the fifth consecutive decade. According to the US think tank, Beijing’s ability and sophistication in deploying technology in the service of state security remains unmatched, noting that “those who criticize the Party suffer severe punishment.”
