Petitioners appeal to leaders for assistance

Two-thirds of the letters received by the State Bureau of Letters and Calls are addressed to the national leaders, especially President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, 12 national legislators and political advisers were told when they visited the organization on Tuesday.

The bureau is responsible for receiving petitioners and handling written and online petition letters. Staff members open an average of 2,000 letters every day.

National People's Congress deputy Abudula Abbas, a professor of life sciences at Xinjiang University, said thousands of people were standing in line at the bureau's reception center in Beijing as they waited to present their appeals for help.