CHINA: Armed police and plain-clothes security officers arrested hundreds of petitioners in central Beijing yesterday to stop them from trying to air their grievances at China's annual parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC).
More than 400 petitioners from around the country had been picked up in midnight raids on hostels and guesthouses in the city, Amnesty International said in a statement.
Authorities have also been keeping tabs on prominent activists. In the run-up to the congress, which opened its current session on Sunday, police detained and questioned civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng and eight democracy campaigners who have been involved in hunger strikes, including well-known Aids activist Hu Jia.
Petitioning to the congress is a tradition in China established by Mao Zedong. In the weeks leading up to the huge gathering in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing bears witness to disgruntled activists from all over the country.
However, last year the government revised China's rules on petitioning, saying local authorities had to deal with the issue before taking it to the national stage. Designated hotels near the train stations stopped hosting petitioners.
Critics of the clampdown say the new rules are a way of making sure rising social unrest in China over the widening gap between the urban rich and the rural poor does not spread to Beijing.
The petitioners come with leaflets and lists of signatures, often seeking out their local representatives as they are easier to track down at the congress than in their home provinces. Petitioning parliament has long been one of the few avenues Chinese people have of airing their complaints in a national context.
They take their petitions to offices of the state council; their complaints comprise everything from petty land disputes and unpaid pensions to broader complaints about local corruption and badly run coalmines.
In the days before the congress, people were dragged away by police from protest hotspot Tiananmen Square, while others were picked up after they cleared a cordon to try and press their leaflets on one of the delegates.
It is not clear what happens to those who are picked up. In some cases they are brought to train and bus stations and sent home; on others, the petitioners are held until local officials come to pick them up.
The central theme of the NPC has been improving the lot of farmers and rural residents. On Sunday premier Wen Jiabao told parliament the government would raise spending in the countryside and improve the welfare of farmers.