Petitioners 'living in fear' as police crackdown ahead of third plenum

Police and local governments across the mainland have been rounding up petitioners, keeping activists under close watch and warning rights lawyers to keep a low profile as security is stepped up ahead of the Communist Party Central Committee’s third plenary meeting that begins on Saturday.

Large numbers of petitioners from across the country, wishing to bring their grievances to the attention of party leaders, have congregated in the capital in recent days ahead of the key four-day meeting where key decisions on the country’s future are expected to be made.

Since early imperial times, petitioning has been a traditional means for people to voice their grievances to officials. In modern times, it is more often a last recourse when attempts to seek redress through the legal system are unsuccessful.

Petitioners said that thousands of people had been detained by police or held at “black jails” – usually flats or hotels but sometimes much larger unofficial detention centres on the outskirts of Beijing where petitioners are held until they are sent back to their home provinces. Other petitioners had been barred by their local officials from travelling to Beijing, they said.

Petitioners say security in the capital has been tighter during the past week than during other politically sensitive periods such as the National People’s Congress, with squads of police and security officers guarding street corners near Tiananmen Square, train and bus stations and other places where petitioners tend to congregate.

Wu Lijuan, a petitioner from Hubei, said that about 70 redundant state bank workers who went to protest on Tuesday outside Zhongnanhai, the top leadership compound, were rounded up and sent to Majialou, one of the larger black jails.