May 8, 2013
Translated by Liu Jingyue

Chinese officials have started to talk about strictly enforcing rules that forbid the illegal interception and detention of petitioners in China.

Yesterday, in an online interview with People\'s Daily, a senior official from the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the party's anti-corruption watchdog, said that a there was a strict ban on intercepting "regular" petitioners in public places or at official reception offices.  

The quote raised questions from some commentators about whether "irregular" petitioners can still be detained and whether regular petitioners should still fear being intercepted in non-public venues.

China's petition system is the official avenue through which citizens are supposed to channel any complaints that they might have about negligent officials. To record their complaints, citizens need to visit one of the offices of the Bureau of Letters and Calls which are attached to departments at every level of government. If they feel that their complaint has not been properly addressed, they can take their complaint to the provincial or even central level.

In 2005, following a spike in the number of petitions lodged in the preceding two years, the Bureau of Letters and Calls began to publish monthly lists that ranked local governments based on how many petitions were lodged and how many "irregular petitioners" (非正常上访) were arriving in the capital from their districts.

These rankings were tied to the performance evaluations of local officials.

Regional officials therefore did everything in their power to prevent petitioners from reaching the provincial capital or Beijing.

Many local governments would hire people to intercept petitioners, sometimes using violent measures, detaining them illegally and sentencing them to Reeducation Through Labor.

To take just one of many examples, in 2007, a middle-aged woman called Chen Qingxia (陈庆霞) was locked up in a disused morgue in Heilongjiang after being released from 18 months in a labour camp after attempting to lodge a petition in Beijing.

The total number of petitions lodged nationwide has dropped for seven consecutive years since 2005, according to data published by Xinhua News Agency.

For years there have been calls to cancel the practice of ranking localities based on petitions lodged.

A report in today's Southern Metropolis Daily says that the Bureau of Letters and Calls has not published such a ranking of provincial-level regions since March. However, whether the practice will be cancelled remains uncertain.

The same report says that some local governments are no longer linking petitioner numbers to the performance evaluation of local officials.

Links and Sources
People's Daily: 就“做好信访举报工作，维护群众权益”做客“反腐倡廉在线访谈”
Beijing News: 中纪委 公共场所禁止拦截正常上访
Southern Metropolis Daily: 媒体称国家信访局已暂停公布各省信访排名数月
China Daily: Detention of petitioners denounced
Economic Observer Online: Saving Face in Beijing: regional policemen intercepting petitioners
China Smack: Female Petitioner Locked Up in Abandoned Morgue for 3 Years