The party and the peasant uprising

In the hardscrabble villages dug out of the yellow earth of Yan'an, Shaanxi, where Mao Zedong's rag-tag rebel army promised liberation when it arrived 65 years ago, the peasants are on the verge of a new rebellion. The reasons are the same as those that led to the Communist Revolution - harsh taxes and brutal landlords. 'Nothing has changed here after the Communists came. The revolution just benefits corrupt leaders. See what conditions we live in,' complains Jing Xiuhu bitterly. The tall, sturdy farmer with a white cap over his stubbled head is one of the peasant leaders who heads a fight by several hundred thousand similar farmers to reduce taxes and bring the corrupt local officials of Zizhou county to justice. 'If you don't pay their taxes they beat you and take away all your family belongings,' he says. Last year, there was a drought and the crops failed. Most years the net average annual income is less than 200 yuan (HK$188) but in 1999, it fell to just 10 yuan per person. 'We had to beg food from rich people to survive,' says another of the peasant spokesmen, Wang Weiyu, a blunt and articulate man in his 40s. 'The officials sit in their offices and make up figures. Last year they reported the income around here was 1,000 yuan a person,' he says. Reporting higher incomes raises cadres' images without attracting more central taxation as there is a limit on the levy demanded. The simmering rebellion among hundreds of thousands of peasants living in this part of the loess plateau, about 320 kilometres north of Yan'an, began in 1995 when the county party committee began milking the peasants for more and more taxes. The Zizhou peasants listed them: agricultural tax, grazing sheep and goats tax, feeding donkeys tax, township planning tax, militia training tax, retirement funds contribution tax, water conservancy tax, road maintenance tax, rain-making tax, tax on special products, tax on growing apples, birth control fee, army recruitment tax. To make sure all eventualities are covered, the latest is just called 'other taxes'. 'We asked what it meant, but there was no explanation,' says Mr Wang. In all, he reckons they pay 50 yuan a year in taxes. In a bad year, some have to go into debt to pay. The situation is no different in most parts of rural China, but in northern Shaanxi, the birthplace of the Communist Revolution, every third year there is a drought. Even in late March this year, when northern China is covered in green shoots, the fields and hills were still brown and bare. In the past three years, 20 million to 30 million jobs for rural labourers have disappeared. Many rural enterprises have closed down and rural governments have run up debts. As this is both a revolutionary base area and a designated poverty area, it is supposed to benefit from special relief funds, but the locals are convinced that officials divert the money into their own pockets. In Zizhou, the peasants believe the officials use the taxes to bribe their superiors but mostly to pay wages of their relatives. Low interest bank loans are only given to rich peasants who have enough assets. 'In Zizhou county we have 1,600 officials who do no work but just receive their salary,' claims Mr Wang. The growing anger among the hundreds of thousands of peasants in the county turned to astonishment in 1997, when a unique event took place. With the help of a government law office in Yulin prefecture, the villagers under the township of Peijiawan successfully lodged a case against their officials. The Yulin Prefecture Intermediate Court decided in favour of the peasants and ordered the officials to reduce the tax burden by 400,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan. Ten years ago, China passed the Administrative Litigation Law which for the first time entitled citizens to complain or bring charges against any state organ that violated the law. 'It is extremely rare for some one to win such cases, the resistance is enormous. The cadres have a vested interest in preventing this system from working,' says Professor David Zweig of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who has made a study of the law's effectiveness. It is the first time any of the Yan'an peasants can remember a court decision going against the local rulers' interests. 'Before [US President Bill] Clinton's visit to China [in 1998] and Premier Zhu [Rongji] becoming Prime Minister there was a reform push, and perhaps some local officials picked up signals that there was a more liberal political mood,' suggests Professor Zweig. 'Then the priority became social stability because there was so much rural unrest.' The case was given national publicity by the Legal Daily and Jiaodian Fangtan, the investigative programme of Chinese Central Television, and was picked up by at least one US newspaper. But later the Yulin party branch punished the judges and imprisoned two peasant representatives. In 1997, when news of the successful lawsuit spread, the excited peasants in the rest of Zizhou began to prepare more legal actions. They asked Ma Wenlin, a 58-year- old teacher from the No 3 Middle School in Yan'an, to help. Having been a radical Maoist in his youth, after 1979 Ma began devoting time to defending the underdog in the courts. 'He is famous. Whenever someone is wronged, they go to him,' says one local in Yan'an. 'He helped us study party documents and how to use the law as a weapon to fight corruption,' says Mr Jing. The peasants began to hold meetings about their grievances and to elect their own representatives. Though in theory villagers elect headmen in party-run village elections, in Zizhou at least, they were never allowed to put up their own candidates. Ma's actions initially had party support so he could even arrange a full page in the Legal Daily under the heading: 'Why are the farmers' burdens so numerous in Zizhou county?' complete with photographs of farmers who had been beaten for refusing to pay taxes. Yet in November 1997, several hundred peasants - who petitioned first the provincial disciplinary inspection committee, then the Yulin prefecture government and finally county, prefecture and provincial level courts - were turned away. 'They told us it was the same all over the country. If they took on this case, the party would have to do the same everywhere,' recalls Mr Wang. 'Local leaders told us 'Jiang Zemin is corrupt too. All the leaders are corrupt so who are you trying to fight against?' ' Early in 1998, farmers in Lao Shanmao seized an official, a bookkeeper, who had been sent to placate them. He was held hostage for six days and this appears to have triggered a crackdown. The party leaders sent 11 police cars to arrest the peasant leaders. Some farmers say they were arrested as many as five times but were resolved to continue as they knew the Central Committee had again issued a circular on 'reducing peasant burdens'. People were even arrested for talking to a local Xinhua reporter. 'Without some civil disobedience, something extra-legal, there is little chance of success in China. You need to attract the support of the upper levels,' says Professor Zweig. As social tensions mounted, Ma went back to Zizhou in April 1999 and decided to organise a delegation of representatives from eight townships to go to Beijing and petition the State Council. As they waited for their appointment, a posse of Beijing police burst upon them on July 8. 'There were no formalities, they took him away in the car. They beat him so he could not open his eyes and lost his teeth,' says one eyewitness. The Zizhou authorities prepared to put Ma on trial, charging him with 'disturbing social order' by organising the detention of the official. 'I've been detained and questioned four times,' Mr Wang says. 'They wanted me to admit that Ma Wenlin had organised the disturbances but I refused. Ma had nothing to do with it. He was in Yan'an at the time.' To frighten the peasants into submission, the Zizhou party arrested a dozen leaders, sentencing some to 18 months' jail. A defence lawyer for Ma found five witnesses to testify to his innocence but the police detained and beat them. Even so they could find no one to testify against Ma and had to postpone the trial to November. The defence's documentary evidence was seized and none of Ma's supporters were allowed to attend the court. 'They only gave entry tickets to party officials. Hundreds of peasants stood outside listening to the broadcast even though it was raining, the first rains in a year. Ma took over his own defence so it lasted for two days. They broadcast the proceedings except when Ma spoke,' recalls Mr Jing. 'He is a hero. He should be remembered throughout history,' says Mr Wang. After a two-day trial, Ma was sentenced to five years hard labour. His supporters are now campaigning to free him. In December last year, the Shaanxi Lawyers' Association and the Shaanxi Legal Institute organised a forum which issued a petition demanding justice. 'Ma should be regarded as a hero in defending the farmers' rights, and carrying out the policies of the central Government,' it said. Ma's relatives are defiant in the face of threats to keep silent. 'We have suffered a lot and spent all the family's money but we will fight to the end to rescue him. We will borrow more money to obtain justice,' one says. The peasants have been busy gathering signatures for more petitions. More than 10,000 have affixed their thumb prints to a document headed: 'Appeal to get rid of evil creatures and rescue Ma Wenlin from prison.' 'This is a typical example of corruption with the corrupt officials exploiting the power given by the party and breaking the law,' it says. 'They arrest the ones who speak the truth, those who try to reduce the burden of the farmers, who adhere to the laws. Although many media people had interviewed the farmers there, they dare not report the truth.' Supporters claim these appeals have been seen by Premier Zhu Rongji and are puzzled and angry that there has been no response. 'It shows that no one pays any attention to the law, only to power,' complains one embittered campaigner. The growing frustration could easily boil over into violent protests, according to Ma Yunhu, legal expert at the Yulin prefecture law school. 'The present system cannot protect ordinary people from persecution by government officials. When they violate human rights, they are well protected by the system. The same officials appear in court and sit in the judges' seats to judge the victims. In such a situation, things can turn violent,' he says. The peasants, whose hopes of change had been suddenly raised and then dashed so quickly, now say they despair of any real change. 'We want democracy. Ma showed us what our rights are under the law,' says Mr Jing.