According to reports in the Chinese media, Zhou Zhanshan, the director of the State Councils Letters and Complaints Bureau [LCB], recently stated that in the last ten years, from 1993 onwards, the number of complaints to the bureau have been steadily increasing. In the first quarter of 2003, complaints accepted by governments at county levels or above had increased by 6.5 per cent compared with the same time period in 2002. There was also a 9.9 per cent increase in collective complaints and a 5.1 per cent increase in complainants involved. In the third quarter of 2003, the Letters and Visits Bureaus headquarters in Beijing saw an increase of 67.3 per cent and 58.4 per cent in received cases and complainants respectively, compared with the same period in 2002. Zhou also admitted that the number of complainants, the scale of the collective-complaints, and the intensity of complaints had greatly increased in the last few years.
The majority of complaints were: 1) labour disputes and social insurance issues arising during enterprise restructuring; 2) issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers; 3) legal disputes, such as discontent over a courts judgment; 4) urban planning and resettlement (including obviously the forced re-settled and forced destruction of homes by local authorities); 5) discontent and complaints over the behaviour or ill-conduct of officials; 6) issues arising from local departments/bureau or institutional reform; 7) pollution and 8) employment for retired soldiers and related benefits and financial welfare.
Resettlement issues increasing rapidly
On the issue of resettlement and demolition an issue affecting many workers in urban China who live in private accommodation and outside the factory gates, the number of complaints has been steadily increasing as the number of developments increase. Land in the cities and increasingly in rural areas and in small townships is being sold off to developers who often act illegally to gain access to the land. According to a Xinhua report quoted in the peoples Daily, complaints on resettlement have been increasing since 2000. The number of visits concerning relocation in 2002 reportedly soared 65 per cent over the figures for 2001, and jumped 47 per cent by August 2002 over the same period last year.
Many people are being forced out of their homes to make way for demolition to clear an area for rebuilding is a major source of complaints. In many instances householders are reluctant to leave their homes and are offered cursory compensation. If they have not left, they can be violently ejected and their belongings thrown onto the streets. When this happens, most developers have not asked for approval for the evictions from the local authorities although in some cases the actions take place with the connivance of local officials.
The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Land Resources and Housing Management launched a campaign in late September 2003 to investigate and regulate the operation of the roughly 300 companies in the city licensed to do demolition work, after they had received increasing complaints and international criticism from human rights groups.
Lack of grassroots solutions to complaints and local harassment
According to the officials from the Bureau, over 80 per cent of the complaints are related to reforms and 80 per cent do make sense or [the complainants] have real difficulties for us to solve. According to the official report, party committees at different levels and governments at different levels are able to solve 80 percent or more of the complaints.
These figures appear impressive [and remarkably uniform], however CLB has monitored many instances where complaints to the Letters and Complaints Bureau are ineffective and worker complaints rejected. In cases where the Bureau supports the workers complaints, it is hard pressed to enforce a solution or obtain practical enforcement of its findings. In addition, Zhou Zhanshun also stated that over 80 percent of complaints could have been solved at the grassroots level and there was no real need for the complainants to write to Beijing. This suggests that many complaints arose after local officials failed to solve concerns or failed to give timely answers to problems.
Letters and Visits Bureaus were established by Hu Yaobang, General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee who set up complaints offices at different levels of government after the Cultural Revolution. The State Councils Ordinance on Letters and Complaints states that Chinese individuals, legal entity and organizations could make reports, comments, suggestions and requests to all levels of government and administrative institutes by writing letters, calling and visiting. However, in many cases, complainants are not welcomed by the local officials. Out of fear of losing their jobs or risking their reputation, local officials often ignore the complaints and sometimes even try to halt the complaint and harass the complainants. China Labour Bulletin has monitored several cases where the local government has even tried to forcibly remove complaints from Beijing and send them back to their home towns in police vehicles.
See our recent reports:
Anshan iron workers protests for just two examples of local governments detaining and harassing workers for exercising their right to complain after government inaction.
Sources : Peoples Daily 27 November 2003; Mingpao Daily, 21 November 2003; Peoples Daily 22 November 2003