Chinese blogger 'gagged' after attacking government for treatment of poor

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Chinese blogger 'gagged' after attacking government for treatment of poor

One of China's most influential bloggers has been "gagged" by Communist Party officials after publishing a withering critique of his government's treatment of the poor following the death of a Chinese street hawker.

Mr Li used the vendor's death to show how China's poorest citizens were being excluded from the 'Chinese Dream' Photo: AFP

By Tom Phillips, Shanghai
2:12PM BST 19 Jul 2013

Li Chengpeng, an author and social critic with over seven million followers on Sina Weibo, China’s leading micro-blogging site, was among several prominent opinion makers who spoke out this week over the sudden and shocking death of an impoverished 56-year-old watermelon salesman from Hunan province.

Deng Zhengjia died on Wednesday, after allegedly being severely beaten by government law enforcement officials known as “chengguan”.

Officials in Hunan’s Linwu county claimed Mr Deng died “suddenly” and inexplicably after falling to the ground during “quarrels with the chengguan”. But in interviews with Chinese media witnesses described an horrific assault during which one of the officers allegedly slammed a measuring weight into Mr Deng’s skull.

Images of Mr Deng’s wife wailing over his lifeless body were caught on camera, triggering a wave of online revolt, as micro-bloggers, opinion makers and celebrities took to social media to protest.

“Letting a watermelon farmer die a violent death on the street shows a lack of respect to all the normal and sane people of this country,” wrote Yao Bo, a popular newspaper columnist and social commentator with over 900,000 followers on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter.

China’s chengguan were “the servants, slaves and paid-thugs of power,” Mr Yao added.

Yu Jianrong, a scholar from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote: “[China’s] rulers should reflect on the level of public outrage over the watermelon farmer’s death.” However, perhaps the fiercest and most elaborate critique came from Li Chengpeng, a wildly popular blogger and former football commentator.

In a combative online essay that was forwarded more than 135,000 times, Mr Li used the vendor’s death to illustrate how China’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens were being excluded from the so-called “Chinese Dream” that the new president, Xi Jinping, has vowed to build since taking power.

“[Mr Deng] wanted to grow sweet watermelons, have a magnificent harvest, and sell his watermelons quickly, so that he could get home in time for dinner. This was his Chinese dream,” Mr Li wrote.

Then, appearing to directly address China’s top leaders, the author added: “Before we sit down to talk about the Chinese Dream, you should protect a watermelon vendor’s dream.” In another section Mr Li hit out at corruption and urged China’s leaders to “give us fewer ostentatiously inspiring speeches, and more policies that will lead to a better living.” “Stop giving grand talks from your offices,” Mr Li wrote.

“Our Constitution clearly says China 'is a socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.’ The workers lost their jobs. The peasants lost their land. They try to cope by planting watermelons, but they end up losing their lives.”

Mr Li’s essay appears to have gone down badly in government circles. On Friday night, Yu Jianrong, the academic, posted an online message claiming that Mr Li had called him to say he had received a one-month gagging order “for writing the watermelon farmer article.”

Reached on Friday night Mr Li confirmed that he had been banned from using Weibo for one month. “I can’t publish on Weibo or send private messages on Weibo now,” he said.

Mr Li said a contact inside Sina Weibo had informed him that “a quite senior official from the Propaganda Ministry” had come to the group’s HQ “in person” and instructed staff to “shut me up.”

In a recent interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Chinese writer said: “What I most want to ask is why such a large country, of 1.3 billion people, would not allow an opposing voice? We have spent countless [sums of] money to prevent opposing voices. [But] they know they can’t stop it.

No matter how powerful a state apparatus might be, there are always loopholes.” Chinese micro-bloggers were quick to condemn the “gagging order”.

“[Chinese] public intellectuals have no freedom of speech,” wrote one Weibo user, under the alias “Incoming”.

“If Snowden were a resident of our country, he would probably be sent to a concentration camp in North Korea,” wrote another.

 

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Li Chengpeng's essay translated: watermelon vendor died pursuing the Chinese dream

Translation of blogger Li Chengpeng's entire essay that has since seen him "gagged" by Chinese Communist party officials.

Li Chengpeng's essay has seen him 'gagged' by Chinese Communist party officials Photo: AFP

By Li Chengpeng
2:15PM BST 19 Jul 2013

At 3am, a watermelon vendor rolled out of bed to pick watermelons in pitch darkness. At 5am, he loaded the watermelons onto his cart and set off to town with his wife. At 7am, he arrived town and hawked the fruit by the street. At 10am, urban management officers confiscated his scale. Fifty minutes later, the watermelon vendor drew his last breath, his face ashen grey. His watermelons shone under the sun, lustrous and green.

It takes four seasons for a watermelon to ripen and fall off its stem. It takes not even a few seconds to claim someone's life.

When the urban management officers ganged up to attack the watermelon vendor, perhaps it never occurred to them they were dealing with someone's life. In their eyes, human lives are not too different from watermelons.

Pick one from the vine, and one can walk away with it. It was no wonder that they said things such as "We might as well beat him to death."

In my dear motherland, every brand-new street has seen the brutality of urban management officers. How dare you say you have lived in cities, if you had not witnessed such incidents? Over time, we have become desensitised. But if you insist on looking for an ironic twist, look no further than the dead body of the watermelon vendor. Above it, a sign reads "A Model Street for Urban Management." It is a model to show to all of you.

Yes, of course the urban management officers did not beat the watermelon vendor. He just fell onto the ground himself and died. It was just like the "temporary rape", the "adjusted price hike", the "polite bribe", the "protective eviction", the "inflationary tightening" and "taking turns having sex". Yes, the officers did not kill the vendor. The watermelons did.

Our Constitution clearly says China "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants". The workers lost their jobs. The peasants lost their land. They try to cope by planting watermelons, but they end up losing their lives.

When I say such things, some will probably accuse me of being unpatriotic.

But a friend reminded me of a scene in the movie Little Soldier Zhang Ga: Zhang Ga was selling watermelons, when a chubby Japanese translator wandered by. Zhang Ga did not run away, nor did the translator shoo him away.

Nor did he demand fees, or beat Zhang Ga to death and try to seize the corpse. He only ate Zhang Ga's watermelon by the street. As I look back now, Little Soldier Zhang Ga definitely seems a counterrevolutionary movie aiming to glorify our enemies.

Each time when I criticise urban management officers, some people will counter me by asking "Did the vendor not err by illegally occupying public space? Did the officers not get beaten as well?" That is our problem. Since we face such a lawless and ineffectual urban management system, shouldn't we pursue something more civilised?

The authorities dispatched hundreds of police, trying to seize the corpse of the vendor. This is in fact a metaphor for today's China, where the state is seizing property everywhere through a variety of means: businessmen are losing their enterprises and thrown into prison; an anonymous vendor is losing his watermelons. Sometimes it's the urban management officers that seize the property. Sometimes it's the court, or the bank, or the unpredictable policies.

To those business tycoons who have remained silent, please say something.

In this country, nobody is secure. If you choose to stay quiet today, they will be seizing your business empires tomorrow like they seized the watermelons.

To the government officials - give us fewer ostentatiously inspiring speeches, and more policies that will lead to a better living. Remind entrepreneurs of the boundary between normal business and theft; let employees know the standards of promotion, instead of the credit card number for bribery; show students the door to the recruiting office, not the bed of their bosses; give farmers the direction to their way home, not the passage to the underworld. Stop giving grand talks from your offices. If civilisation has only one sign in this world, it should be inside a fruit market.

A watermelon vendor named Deng Zhengjia "unexpectedly fell to the ground, and died". There are too many in this country who have "unexpectedly fallen to the ground and died". It could be a watermelon vendor. Could it be a country?

The watermelon vendor, Deng Zhengjia, lived in a mountain near Linwu County. He wanted to grow sweet watermelons, have a magnificent harvest, and sell his watermelons quickly, so that he could get home in time for dinner. This was his Chinese dream. He took great care of his watermelons.

Why didn't you take care of him? Before we sit down to talk about the Chinese dream, you should protect a watermelon vendor's dream.

Be nice to your people, and to your watermelons. Plant melons, you get melons. Sow beans, and you get beans.

Don't you understand? Running a country, after all, is not so different from planting melons.

Translation by Helen Gao

 

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Six detained over Chinese vendor's death

Xinhua | 2013-7-20 13:27:47
By Agencies

Six urban management officers who were involved in a violent clash with a watermelon vendor that led to his death were detained on Saturday in central China's Hunan Province, local authorities said.

The six were suspected of intentional injury and were taken into custody in the detention house in Chenzhou City, sources with the Linwu County government said.

Deng Zhengjia, a 56-year-old farmer from the village of Liantang in Nanqiang Township of Linwu, died following a physical conflict with urban management officers on Wednesday morning, Deng's niece said.

The fight occurred after Deng and his wife tried to sell watermelons at a riverside scenic spot where urban management officers had banned such activity, according to his niece.

She cited a witness as saying that Deng was struck by weights from a set of scales, adding that his wife was also injured and is being treated at a local hospital.

But the Linwu County government said at a Thursday news briefing that a preliminary probe showed that none of the officers had struck Deng with the metal weight.

Deng's body was buried on Thursday evening in accordance with local customs following an autopsy on Thursday afternoon in the presence of his family, witnesses and local procuratorate officials, according to authorities in Chenzhou.

Police in the city have sent body samples to an institution in south China's Guangdong Province for further examination to determine the cause of death. Local authorities will announce the result once the examination is finished.

China's urban management officers, a para-police force tasked with enforcing municipal bylaws and maintaining urban order, are often criticized for their violent law enforcement methods. Reports of officers beating vendors and smashing their wares often appear in the media.