MINORS' LEAGUE
HOVERING IN A Beijing hospital corridor, farmer Hou Yonghong was desperate. His 16-year-old nephew, Lu Ping, who suffered third-degree electrocution burns in a work accident, was about to be evicted from the hospital. After 10 days, the 30,000 yuan that the boy's employer put up for treatment had run out and the boss had since vanished.
But Hou hadn't dashed all the way from his impoverished village in Shaanxi to see his nephew die; a patient's tip to call a hotline led him to the Beijing Children's Legal Aid and Research Centre. With private law firms charging 200 yuan an hour for advice, the farmer was sceptical when the centre told him to come and explain his case but not to bring any money. Nevertheless, he took the bus to the capital's southern Fengtai district and climbed four flights of stairs to its offices in a nondescript, white-tiled building.
Hou entered to find centre director Tong Lihua having lunch. 'After I told him the story, Mr Tong put down his food and got his assistant and we set out for the hospital immediately,' Hou says, recalling the harrowing days in June 2003.
Shaken by the extent of the teenager's burns, Tong spent hours persuading the hospital in Haidian district to advance the money to treat Lu. He later successfully sued the boss, Ma Yunguang of the West Nursery in Beiqijia village outside Beijing, winning 300,000 yuan in compensation for Lu.
'We're still recovering the money as he had some cash-flow problems. But we have about half of it,' Tong says. Lu is now recuperating back in Shaanxi province.
Tong is a passionate and dynamic man who speaks in a hurried rat-a-tat, the words rushing out clipped and fast. Aged 34, the public interest lawyer is one of a group of young, idealistic mainland lawyers who work on behalf of the poorest and weakest in society - in Tong's case, children. 'Children are the future,' he says. 'A lot of people in China today don't have any faith in the law. They see how power and money take precedence. I want to help change that attitude. I want children to believe in the law because that will be good for our country.'