China's local 'kings' must be reined in
HU XINGDOU
On April 9th, two Beijing legal
newspapers published the story of three local Communist Party officials who
were arrested after writing an anonymous letter accusing the Party secretary of
Jishan County in Shanxi province, Li Runshan, of abuse of power. The letter was
sent to a higher level Party official, the mayor of Yuncheng City, and 36 other
officials.
The three men were Yang Qinyu, director of the
county-level legal committee under the National People's Congress, Nan Huirong,
retired official of the county Party Committee, and Xue Zhimin, chief of the
County Agricultural Machinery Bureau.
For writing the letter, the three were accused of
libel. Yang and Nan were given suspended one-year prison sentences; Xue has yet
to be tried.
The letter accused Li of misleading county residents
by appropriating land to build a government building, then selling the land to
a property developer. It also hinted at the misuse of foreign capital, asked
what work he did in his luxurious office suite, and how he had grown so wealthy
when there had been no wage increase in the county.
The anonymous letter was turned over to Li Runshan,
and immediately the Public Security Bureau, the Public Prosecutor's Office and
the courts all leaped into action as if pursuing an important criminal. All
handwritten files of the county's current and retired officials were sent to
the Public Security Bureau. Finally the letter's authors were identified by
their handwriting after over 1,000 files were examined by the Special and
Important Case Team of the police.
Yang and Nan were arrested and stripped of their Party
membership. They were forced to perform "self criticisms" in front of
over 500 county officials, and were sentenced to one year in prison with a
three-year suspension. Xue had left the county and a warrant was issued for his
arrest. Later he was captured by police in the city of Taiyuan.
This case highlights the serious crisis of local
government in China. The consequences of this type of behavior will be highly
destructive if not taken seriously by central authorities in Beijing. People in
charge of local governments, especially top officials, have turned public personnel
into their personal police, personal militaries, and personal courts. The
privatization of power, the personalization of law, and court rulings
influenced by personal connections have caused China to resemble Sudan, which
has many local kings. The political situation is becoming completely out of
control.
In this case, the report of abuse was handled by the
accused. County and city officials colluded to quash the accusations. When
individuals in a local Party Committee, the Discipline Inspection Commission,
the National People's Congress, and the government are in cahoots with the
offenders, who can control them? With this outcome, who will check whether the
accusations in the letter are true or not?
The accused, Li Runshan, said that he had told the
court to give his accusers light sentences in order to show his
"generosity." This is open intervention in the judicial system. If
ordinary people go to court against such privileged officials, how can the
ordinary people win?
If the anonymous letter was in fact libelous, the
secretary could take the case to court, and the prosecution and defense could
contend on an equal footing. Instead, Li used the Special and Important Case
Team of the police and treated his accusers as enemies. This type of corrupt
behavior has serious implications for China's future.
Li Runshan asked over 500 county officials to hear the
"self criticisms" and "confessions" of Yang and Nan. By
doing this, he demonstrated to all the officials, the people and the central
government that anyone who reports his behavior will meet the same fate. He
demonstrated that he is the local king!
Li claimed that the letter had "aroused public
indignation" as the content had angered 23 officials and heads of
enterprises. Therefore, he appealed to the public prosecutor instead of filing
a civil suit. If this case deserved public prosecution, it should have been
tried somewhere other than Jishan county, as the accused was the highest
official in Jishan and could interfere with the judicial system.
Imprisoning people for their writing was the privilege
of the emperor in China's feudal period. However, nowadays local officials,
even the small secretary of a county Party Committee, can do this. If there
were no Internet today, their vindictive behavior would never be known by
others.
To solve such a serious crisis of local
government, China has to reform its political system. This is the only possible
solution.
China should abolish the privileges of "local kings,"
including their right to appoint and dismiss officials and their financial
privileges. Supervision of local officials should be strengthened to prevent
them from demanding exclusive services and personal loyalty from their
subordinates. China should implement an absolutely vertical system among
personnel involved in discipline inspection, auditing, prosecution,
anti-corruption efforts and the judicial system. Media should be encouraged to
investigate and report on all aspects of local governance.
China should immediately formulate a law to protect
people who report abuses of power, and severely punish those who attempt to
take revenge on them. It should strengthen oversight of officials and stop
tolerating abuse through the current practices of meting out light punishments,
ignoring misconduct, suspending sentences, and especially the strange
phenomenon of granting promotions to those whose misbehavior is frequently
reported.
The government should also strengthen democracy at the
grassroots level, emphasize the authority of the National People's Congress,
and expand the participation of citizens in political life.
The Jishan case is only the tip of the iceberg. The
Chinese government must pay special attention to the serious crisis of local
government this case reveals, and prevent similar cases from arising.