Petitions in the People's Republic of China
The petition system ( Chinese 信訪 , Pinyin Xìnfǎng , German “letters and visits”) of the People's Republic of China is a worldwide unique system which runs parallel to the actual legal system .
Officially, the citizens of the People's Republic of China are given the opportunity to address problems, complaints, criticism and concerns directly to the state. The petitions can be submitted to the local petition offices , which are processed by the local officials and, if necessary, forwarded to the next higher level. Ultimately, the highest authority is the National Petitions Office in Beijing . This is a department subordinate to the General Office of the State Council, whose power can be compared with that of a ministry .
China's courts are usually not independent, but are subject to policymakers. Law and order are therefore hardly enforceable, especially for the farmers . Thus, most of them only have the petition system in addition to the legal process to demand their justice . This results in a large number of petitioners. The average annual rate of registered petitions in 2002 was 11.5 million. In 2004 over 10 million petitions were recorded. In 2011, more than 6.5 million new civil lawsuits were filed.
development
China's petition system originally comes from the Chinese Empire . Even in early Confucian works (around 500 BC) complaints that Chinese citizens submit to the emperor in the form of writings are reported. In the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties , every citizen had the right to report misconduct, ill-treatment or injustice to local officials and to refer judicial or administrative misconduct to higher authorities.
The People's Republic of China adopted this form of the right to petition in its 1949 constitution . In 1951, by order of the board of directors, petition offices were set up at all levels of local and central administration.
In the constitution of 1954 the petition system was formulated in detail for the first time:
"Art. 97: The citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right to bring a written or oral complaint before any state body at any level against any government official for breach of law or neglect of his duties. People who have suffered losses as a result of government officials compromising their rights as citizens are entitled to compensation. "
In 1982 the petition system was gradually expanded to include specific prosecutors , people 's congresses and specific complaints offices within the government. In addition, the right to petition in the 1982 constitution was changed to include some restrictions and extensions:
"Art. 41: The citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right to express criticism and suggestions to any state organ or state official; They have the right to appeal to, charge or report to the relevant state body for violation of the law or neglect of duty by state organs or state officials; however, false accusations and defamation through invention or distortion of facts may not be made. The relevant state organs must responsibly deal with appeals, charges or complaints made by citizens on the basis of factual investigation. No one may suppress or retaliate against such invocation, indictment or complaint. Persons who suffer losses as a result of the violation of their civil rights by state organs or state officials have the right to compensation in accordance with the statutory provisions. "
In May 2005 a new ordinance came into force that provided for an expansion of the petition system. The responsibilities of the local petition offices should be tightened in order to be able to process submissions more effectively and to better distribute the burden of the many petitioners among the local offices. In addition, due to the large number of petitioners that especially accumulated in the National Petitions Office, it was decreed that no more than five representatives are allowed for each personal complaint. For the same reason, since May 1, 2014, petitioners have been banned from bypassing the local offices and submitting petitions directly to the National Petitions Office. To enable local governments to better resolve petitioners' complaints, Beijing once discriminated against local authorities based on the number of petitioners from their jurisdictions filing complaints in the capital.
Use
For the government
The Chinese government uses the petitions on the one hand to get a better view of the situation in the villages and cities, on the other hand, the government is aware of grievances in the provinces and the misconduct of local officials and can take action. The petitions are also often used for various statistics .
For the petitioners
For many Chinese, petitioning is the only way to defend themselves against local officials and perhaps still get their rights. This particularly affects victims of arbitrariness in the judiciary who seek help as a result of corruption or ill-treatment by local officials.
This is a disadvantage for local officials. For this reason, they are reportedly trying to prevent petitioners from submitting petitions to higher-ranking institutions. There are known cases in which petitioners are captured, abused, taken to forced labor camps , secret prisons or blackmailed by the local authorities , so that they usually submit to local officials under great pressure. National Petitions Bureau employees are also accused of accepting bribes from local administrations to have complaints rejected or deleted. Investigations by the Chinese Supreme Court showed that only 2 percent of the cases, the petitioners are right, while about 80 percent of the petitions are legitimate. According to research by the Academy of Social Sciences in China in 2004, 94.6 percent of the newly arrived petitioners at the Beijing National Petitions Office were convinced that their cases were being handled appropriately by the relevant authorities. After a week, that number dropped to 39.3 percent.
Opinions
Officials describe the different weighting of complaints on different topics in recent years. In the 1970s, most of the complaints were related to the Cultural Revolution at the time , in the 1980s, most were related to the economy, and in recent years there have been increasing complaints about the environment, corporate reform and land expropriation. Chinese scholars find in the general strong increase in petitioners an increasing mistrust and dissatisfaction of the Chinese people towards the communist regime . On the other hand, the increase in complaints is interpreted as an increased legal awareness of the citizens.
According to many concerned, the decisions on the petitions are subject to the arbitrariness and whim of the officials, instead of the laws and rights. Many petitions were rejected on the grounds that they would disrupt the stability of the country. Civil rights activist Xu Zhiyong said that even if petitions were accepted, those affected would only receive reduced compensation.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Yu Hua: Is China a Rule of Law? - The petition system, stability and justice . In: one hundred and fourteen , 2012, accessed November 30, 2016.
- ↑ a b c The petition system in the People's Republic of China . Bundestag, January 17, 2013, accessed November 30, 2016.
- ^ The Petitioning System . hrw, accessed November 30, 2016.
- ↑ Constitutions of the People's Republic of China: September 20, 1954 . Retrieved November 30, 2016.
- ↑ Constitutions of the People's Republic of China: December 4, 1982 . Retrieved November 30, 2016.
- ↑ The petitioning system in China ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 30, 2016.
- ↑ China abolishes petition system . In: japantimes, accessed November 30, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d Silke Ballweg: Hope dies last . Deutschlandfunk, March 5, 2012, accessed on December 1, 2016.
- ↑ James Reynolds: Petitions in China . BBC, April 9, 2009, accessed December 1, 2016.
- ↑ Complaint bureau busiest office in Beijing . In: China Daily , September 2, 2007, accessed December 29, 2016.
- ↑ Astrid Lipinsky: The Chinese Women's Association: A communist mass organization under market conditions . LIT Verlag, November 2006, ISBN 978-3825899943 , p. 179.
