Real concern for petitioners

THE SEVEN PETITIONERS WHO DRANK PESTICIDE in front of a newspaper compound in Beijing two weeks ago to bring attention on their grievances have been detained, which shows the difficulty of cracking the hard nut of shangfang, or visiting a higher level or even the central government to try and get one's grievances addressed.

In another recent case, a woman in her late 70s was detained for eight days for disrupting public order at the office of a local public security department in Central China's Henan province. The woman was reported to have shouted at the top of her lungs: "I want to see director of the bureau."

The seven who tried to attract the media's attention at the risk of their lives were reportedly complaining that they were not being paid enough compensation for their houses, which were being demolished. They said that local public security department placed them under house arrest and forced them to sign an agreement not to lodge petitions to the higher-level government.