State urges out-of-court settlement of former cadre's libel suit over book about exploited farmers
The government is stepping up pressure on the publisher of a banned book exposing the dark side of rural life in China to settle a libel lawsuit with a former official named in the publication.
Chen Guidi, who wrote the award-winning An Investigation of Chinese Peasants with his wife Wu Chuntao, said he was told by sources the People's Supreme Court had approached the People's Publishing Group to pay former Linquan county party boss Zhang Xide to drop the lawsuit. 'I called a vice-president of the publishing house after I heard the news. He told me they were unwilling to pay but they could do nothing but pay if there was administrative intervention [from the government],' Chen said.
The book detailed years of mistreatment and extortion of farmers in Fuyang, Anhui province, and became an instant sensation, selling 150,000 copies before it was banned in March 2004.
Mr Zhang sued the authors and publishers over a section which, he said, falsely claimed he had imposed exorbitant levies on farmers and violated birth control rules.
When reached yesterday, Mr Zhang said he was not asked to withdraw the case, but admitted the Fuyang court was working to settle the case without passing a verdict.
Legal sources said the party's propaganda department and the General Administration of Press and Publication had also pressured the publisher to settle the case out of court because authorities wanted to avoid a court verdict. 'If they [court] ruled in favour of the authors, it would encourage people to criticise the government and the Communist Party is not prepared for that yet. But, if they ruled in favour of Zhang Xide, it would seriously undermine the credibility of China's judicial system,' one of the defence lawyers, Pu Zhiqiang, said.