it was a freudian slip, perhaps.
But in any case, here is a continuing read on another read ... read progress, slow, painful, almost excruciating, but progress per anticipation worldmarket.blogspot.com , as opposed to brian_h's wishful non-thoughts and maurice's mindless echo.
Stratfor is starting to recognize the obvious, with great reluctance, but then what else is new?
China: Channeling Dissent in Beijing
Summary
A district court in China's Guangdong province has released Guo Feixiong and other activists after several months of detention. Guo and his associates were accused of instigating anti-government protests for their attempts to recall Taishi Village Committee Director Chen Jinsheng. The case highlights Beijing's ongoing efforts to control unrest and channel dissent and frustration into more manageable courses.
Analysis
The district court in Panyu, Guangdong Province, released Guo Feixiong and several Taishi residents who were detained in August and September amid escalating protests designed to lead to the recall of local Village Committee Director Chen Jinsheng. Villagers claimed Chen embezzled funds. Guo, who does not hail from Taishi, provided legal advice to the resident of Taishi regarding the removal of local officials.
Guo's detention and subsequent release without prosecution highlights the continuing efforts of Beijing to both keep social unrest in check and to redirect the rising frustration of China's rural population into more manageable channels.
Guo was detained Sept. 13 after a series of protests and sit-ins by villagers dissatisfied with the pace of their formal action to recall Chen. The protests eventually faded amid local pressure and security force intervention, along with the detention of Guo and other suspected protest leaders. Upon his release, Guo said he had been told by local prosecutors that they would not press a case against him because though he had broken the law, his infraction was minor.
Although the Taishi demonstrators eventually resorted to sit-ins, protests and hunger strikes, they had initially filed petitions to recall Chen, following the procedures in China's Rural Villagers' Organization Law. When their petition was rejected at the local level, they proceeded to the district level in Panyu, which also eventually rejected the petition. In the midst of the effort to remove Chen, however, elements of the Chinese media discussed Taishi as a showcase of local democracy in action in that the villagers were using their legal rights to remove an official.
For Beijing, Taishi sent a mixed signal.
On the one had, the government wanted to highlight the use of the legal process. On May 1, new regulations regarding the proper method of petitioning the government went into effect, making it easier to file such complaints, and ostensibly making the local officials more accountable for their replies. Taishi protesters' initial use of the official petition system made the village appear a good case study for Beijing to show how rural democracy was working, similar to a move by farmers from Hongjiao Village earlier played up in the Chinese media.
But when the petition process slowed and the villagers began sit-ins, blockades and other public protests, Beijing became less willing to showcase Taishi. Eventually, the official People's Daily ran an article titled, "A true story about Taishi village incident," saying the local and district governments were responsive to the villagers, but that the villagers were misled by instigators (including Guo).
Beijing faces difficulties not only in convincing locals to follow the petition process, but also in getting local and district officials to satisfactorily address the petitions of local citizens. The National People's Congress is looking at urban issues as well, and preparing a new law on the demolition of urban residences without compensation -- something giving rise to the same tensions requisitioning rural land near cities does.
Beijing has stated several times that local officials will be measured on their responsiveness to citizen petitions, yet there has been little evidence of follow through on these statements. The government also has reinforced its demand that petitions be filed properly and that civil order not be disrupted by protesters, but government figures show that public demonstrations are still rising substantially.
China's leadership has struggled to get a grip on the problems created where the rural and urban meet -- as this is more often where the issue of land requisition without adequate compensation has taken place. Beijing is presenting a mixed response, from trying local officials involved in abuse of the system to tacitly sanctioning the use of deadly force to stem protests that get out of hand. Guo's release is intended to distinguish between protests that remain largely nonviolent (like Taishi) and those that do not, like Shanwei. |
