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Waiting and Watching, Hoping to Be Heard
Wei Shougang, 61, left, Yuan Jitang, 57, holding papers, and Zhu Xinshi, 55, are among many Chinese who have traveled to the capital to petition authorities over various grievances.
(By Maureen Fan -- The Washington Post)
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At 8:30 p.m., Wei lifted his mattress to look for more paperwork. Because he is afraid of being arrested -- it's happened to him before -- he no longer rises at 3 a.m. each day to join the hundreds of other petitioners who try to get a number that allows their petitions to be heard. Now he lines up only several times a week.
"They have categorized me as an unreasonable petitioner whose complaint is invalid," Wei said. "A year ago, I smashed the sign in front of the National Petition Administration, and because of that, I was sent to a labor camp for a year." Actually, he has been sent to labor camps twice.
"Now I'm ashamed to go back home, because it will be the talk of my neighbors," he said.
"I've lived a hard life all my life, and my mother suffered more than me. I've got to find justice or people will look down on me forever," he explained.
At 9:30 p.m., a figure in one of the beds stirred. Xu Dalu, 52, who had been napping after writing all day, slowly sat up and put on his glasses, a second sweater and then a vest. He took out from the bed a sheaf of papers and methodically shuffled them. Officials sometimes tell petitioners what to add or delete from their complaints; the farmers then share notes.
Xu's brother was a Korean War veteran who was later labeled a political anti-revolutionary and killed. "The only reason was because he spoke the truth," Xu said, peering over his glasses. "In 1963 there was a famine and he said some people starved to death. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and in 1969 he was executed. I began to petition in 1978, after the Cultural Revolution."
Xu persists because he got a written response from China's Supreme Court in 1981, saying officials were looking into the matter and would resolve the issue. "But this ball has been kicked from one person to another and never solved," he said.
By 11:30 p.m., everyone in Wei's room was asleep. It was too cold, so no one washed up. In the morning, there would be work to do.
Researcher Jin Ling contributed to this report.
