Suppression of dissent Chinese style

The black market thugs hired by regime to stop Chinese protesters

As some 10,000 protestors attempt to reach Beijing this week to bring their cases to the attention of the Chinese government, a vast industry has sprung up to try to stop them.

the Telegraph,

4 March, 2012

On a snowy morning in Beijing, over 1,000 plain-clothed thugs, all with similar cropped haircuts and dark windbreakers, are gathered outside one of the city's vast government compounds.

This is the State Petitions Office, the last port of call for China's most desperate or foolhardy protestors. Anyone brave enough to come here, however, has to run the gauntlet of intimidating "black security officers" outside.

As the Daily Telegraph watched, one woman on her way to the office to submit her complaint was bundled screaming, in full sight of the police, into the back of a minivan and driven off. The number plate read: Jiangsu G-2627-A.

Silencing protest is now a huge business in China, and this week is one of the busiest in the calendar. Today (MON), China will open its annual parliamentary meetings, the National People's Congress (NPC)and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Together, the "Two Meetings" as they are colloquially known, will draw 5,000 or so politicians and delegates from every corner of the country to rubber-stamp legislation and network with each other.

However, the event, which resembles a party political convention, is a magnet for protestors, especially this year, which is illuminated by the once-in-a-decade unveiling of a new generation of leaders in the Autumn.

Some of protestors coming the capital believe in the benevolence and wisdom of Beijing's officials. Others want to embarrass their local politicians on their trip to the capital. Almost none of them, according to lawyers, will ever have their cases resolved.

But since 2005, the promotion prospects of local officials have been tied to how many petitioners complain on their watch. So an industry has evolved to try to stop any problems from reaching the ears of Beijing.

Thousands of "black" security guards have arrived in Beijing from the provinces to intercept petitioners outside the capital's hot spots: Tiananmen Square, the United States Embassy, the State Petitions Office and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

They work together with the police, and with officials inside the government, to try to erase any dissent. At the State Petitions Office, it is possible to pay to delete the records of petitions from the computer system, according to several sources.

"Because these records affect a local leader's promotion, there is a chain of interest. It costs 3,000 yuan (£300) to 5,000 yuan to remove each petitioner's complaint," said one investigative Chinese journalist, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The Daily Telegraph secretly recorded three of these plain-clothed security men just a few paces from the door of the UNDP office on Liangmahu South street. All three were heavy-set and had recently arrived from the North East of China to drag back any protestors.

"Petitioning is useless. I have no sympathy for these people. If they do not listen to us, we just beat them," said one man, named Mr Yu.

Another, named Mr Xu, said the police at Maizidian station called him to let him know when they detain protestors from his province. "I pay them 500 yuan or 1000 yuan as a telephone fee," he said. "In Sanlitun district we have to pay 2000 yuan or 3000 yuan to get each petitioner released to us," he added.

One man outside the UN worked for a state-owned chemical company, he said. The bosses at his firm are also judged on whether people complain about their activities. "Our company sent 30 people here," he said. "We have at least three or four people in each hot spot."

Behind the South East corner of Tiananmen Square, petitioners foolish enough to protest in Beijing's most sensitive and heavily policed spot are held in a holding pen at the local police station, just around the corner from Maison Boulud, one of the capital's finest foreign restaurants.

In the evening, a succession of vehicles arrive to drag them back to their own province. Those who are not collected are sent to Jiujingzhuang, a holding warehouse in the south of the city.

From there, local officials can collect the beleaguered petitioners, paying as much as 7,000 yuan to 9,000 yuan per head for the privilege, according to Wang Xuezhen, a 30-year-old activist who went to collect her father-in-law from the pen last year.

"I have been held in Jiujingzhuang four or five times," said Li Huijiang, a 51-year-old petitioner from Henan on his 15th annual trip to Beijing. "Each province has its own room in the warehouse, and they come to collect us from there. The treatment there is good: I was given a steamed bun and some pickles to eat. But then they took me to a â black' hotel, a room in Lizeqiao where I was held for five to six days."

China now spends as much on internal security as it does on the People's Liberation Army, and the costs of maintaining the undercover agents during the NPC are staggering. For each petitioner, three to four people are needed to watch them around the clock, with each requiring, on top of their wages, a budget for food, transport and lodging.

A rough, and conservative calculation, would add up to around 20 million yuan per day.