Dear XX,
How do you do? I am writing to provide you with some information about the Dazhou Taxi-owners's complaint-action (which covers the planning of our strategy in Sichuan, our meeting with the State Council's Letter & Complaints Office in Beijing and the subsequent detentions in Chengdu).
On 16 December 2003, we learnt that the Dazhou Municipal Government was about to publish its taxi-reform policy and practice in the newspaper [despite having promised further negotiations before moving ahead] and we decided to take the train to Beijing that night. However as we could not get any train tickets to Beijing and we saw two plainclothes police getting aboard train No. 10, i.e. the train to Beijing, we decided to go to Chongqing instead - the opposite direction to Beijing. Thirty of us arrived in Chongqing at dawn on 17 December and settled in a small state-owned hostel near the train station to plan our petition. Finally we decided to elect five representatives to go to Beijing to complain and I was one of those five representatives.
We took the express train No. 10 from Chongqing [at night on the 17] never expecting that the police would get onto the train to check tickets at Da County Station. They discovered us when the train was approaching Wanyuan Station and we were told to get off the train immediately. They then took us to Dazhou Municipal Public Security Bureau [PSB] for investigation until 9pm on 18 December.
One thing that puzzled us was that they knew about our hostel in Chongqing and had removed two complainants from there during the night of 17 December. They were also sent to the Dazhou Municipal Public Security Bureau for investigation. The detentions of these complainants outraged the Dazhou taxi-owners and starting from 17 December they all took flights, trains and vehicles from Neijiang, Dazhou and Chongqing to reach Beijing, in order to make their story heard by the central Letters and Complaints Office.
A group of three taxi-owners first arrived in Beijing on 17 December 2003 and with the documents they would use for the petition, they visited the officials of State Council¡¦s Letters and Complaints Office in Room 113, the reception room. The taxi-owners said the officials were very unfriendly, always cut in when they tried to explain and sounded impatient.
The second group of complainants received the same treatment on 22 December. The Complaints Office staff told them, "Take it to Ministry of Transportation & Communications [MTC]" and therefore they went to MTC. After hearing the taxi-owners's complaints, officials at the MTC invited officials in Dazhou to come to the discussion. The Dazhou officials kept using jargon such as "reforms" and "judicial system" to cover their heavy-handed policy and provided no solution to the problems taxi-owners faced. The conversation proved to be a waste of time. MTC staff then told the complainants, "we can only help negotiations inside the industry, so the Complaints Office is the only one able to handle administrative intervention. We have arranged a negotiation with the relevant office in your home town and you should leave now. You know with such a huge number of complainants coming here, you have violated the Letters and Complaints Ordinance. [NOTE 1] We want you to leave Beijing immediately." At the same time, the taxi-owners in Beijing received the news that the Dazhou government had already moved forward in their original schedule [in selling their Taxi-Operation-Certificates in an auction].
On 30 December, some 150 taxi-owners returned to the Complaints Office in Beijing. They staged a sit-in and a hunger strike in the office's courtyard and asked for a definite reply instead of being sent around the offices. It was -5 degrees C that evening and they stayed outdoors, shaking and wailing. At around 9 pm, a policeman came to ask them to stay in the free aid-station that night. A member of staff from the Complaints Office promised them that they would send representatives to talk over the issue the next day. When they were about to arrive at the aid-station, one female taxi-owner from Neijiang, Ms Zhong fainted and she had to be taken to the medical room in the aid-station. The aid-station staff told them that everyone should pay five Yuan each for a night's accommodation and feeling cheated, they carried Ms Zhong out and walked back to the State Council. It was only when a policeman came out again and promised them free accommodation that they decided to stay one night in the aid-station. [NOTE 2]
The next morning [31 December], they skipped the free breakfast provided in the aid-station and rushed into the Complaints Office. Yet, it was the same old ritual in the reception room, without any concrete help being offered. The complainants realized that the Letters and Complaints Office did not actually intend on helping them and began a hunger strike. [Ed: Its is not clear if this is a second hunger strike or if new people joined the hunger strike started on the previous day]
That evening, they refused the police¡¦s offer of free accommodation in the aid-station and sat outside the aid-station, on the freezing streets of Beijing. At 1am [1 January 2004], old, weak and sick complainants moved into the Complaint Office's lobby while two male taxi-owners insisted on staying outdoors. Unable to persuade them otherwise, some 10 taxi-owners took off their coats to cover them.
The next morning, taxi-owners managed to pull the two taxi-owners outside into the lobby - they were already unconscious and besides covering them with coats, people started massaging their bodies [to keep them warm]. Some female complainants could not help crying and cursing and the complainants shouted slogans. Complainants from other places [in Beijing to forward their own separate petitions] came over to see what was going on. At the same time, an old official came out and ordered them to shut up, saying "shout if you like, nobody will care about you". At noon, leaders from the Complaints Office and the MTC finally organized a formal meeting with the taxi-owners and issued them an introduction letter allowing the complainant-representatives to visit the Sichuan Provincial Government in Chengdu. The Beijing PSB ordered the complainants to leave Beijing immediately. They left the Complaints Office in the afternoon of 1 January and sent a representative [Xiong Zhangqi who was later believed to be detained at the Dazhou Detention Centre up until at least the date of the letter] to fly to Chengdu the next morning, where he could meet other representatives from Dazhou and talk with the provincial government. However in the night of 3 January, they received a SMS mobile phone text message which said that our representative had been detained by Dazhou PSB and Chengdu PSB acting together. In short, he was detained for unknown reasons.
At the same time, in the morning of 4 January, representatives from Dazhou, with high expectations, went to visit the provincial government, but the government only told them "simply go back and sue the person who sold you your taxi", this deeply hurt the representatives's feelings.
Since 31 December 2003 [up until 4 January at least], taxi-owners have been staying in small hostels near the MTC in the eastern part of Beijing. They planned to go to the State's Head Complaints Office tomorrow [5 January 2004]. However, they don't know if they can manage to leave the hostels, because Dazhou PSB has sent some tens of police to Beijing [to take them away from the capital].
Sincerely Yours,
Dazhou Taxi-owner-complainants [NOTE 3]
NOTES:
Note 1: Here the MTC staff are referring to Chapter 2, Article 12, which states that "not more than five representatives are allowed to visit the authority for a mass-organized complaint". References: http://www.hefei.gov.cn/mailbox/gjxftl.htm
Note 2: non-local complainants can receive free accommodation in the hostel run by the Letters and Complaints Bureau if they are issued with a recommendation letter stating their case is being looked the by the Bureau
Note 3: The title, paragraphs, punctuations, signature and signature date are edited by the editor and the content is based on a taped conversation with Dazhou representatives who wanted to give their story. CLB since learned that in the afternoon of 6 January 2004, nearly 100 taxi-owners were taken back to Dazhou by PSB officers. For details, please see: Desperate fears over loss of livelihood spurs more protests by taxi-drivers in Dazhou, Sichuan Province: Update on detentions