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RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHGZ #0689/01 3550321
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 210321Z DEC 09
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1189
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE 0387
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0953
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 0313
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0312
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 0322
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0382
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 0286
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0360
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC 0356
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0042
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0008

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 000689 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM and DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON SOCI PHUM CH
SUBJECT: Shenzhen Tightens Limits on Petitioner Activity 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000689  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
This report is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, 
Procuratorate (prosecutor's office), Public Security Bureau and 
Judicial Bureau in November jointly issued a "Notice on Dealing with 
Abnormal Petition Behaviors in Accordance with the Law" and defined 
14 behaviors as "abnormal petition behaviors."  Seven of the 14 
limitations (listed in final para) are new additions to preexisting 
national-level restrictions.  The new policy says that repeat 
offenders may be punishable by the extrajudicial reeducation through 
labor (laojiao) system.  The document has sparked wide controversy, 
causing some on the Internet to question whether Shenzhen 
authorities have overstepped their limits while official contacts 
say the new restrictions, along with better public service at the 
local level, will promote social harmony.  Post's initial analysis 
follows in para 2. End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Comment: Shenzhen's expanded list of prohibited petitioner 
activities might be the stick to a new carrot; the city claims that 
a newly inaugurated petition hall will serve as a one-stop-shop for 
petitioners.  The Shenzhen Government likely hopes to avoid the 
embarrassment of petitioners pleading their case in the provincial 
capital Guangzhou or Beijing by providing better services in 
Shenzhen.  To the extent that local remedies still leave petitioners 
dissatisfied, though, it is unlikely that either the new petition 
center or the new restrictions will stem the flow of petitioners 
seeking assistance from higher-level authorities elsewhere.  Post 
will monitor whether the new rules are honored, ignored or enforced, 
reporting accordingly.  Having the rules on the books makes 
enforcement easier later on, should that be necessary.  It's unclear 
whether this is strictly a local initiative or part of a centrally 
driven trial balloon. End comment. 
 
From Six to Fourteen 
-------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) The Regulations on Petitions at the national level forbid six 
petitioner behaviors, but the Shenzhen Notice released in early 
November has expanded the forbidden behaviors to 14.  (Note: The 
Shenzhen list actually only adds seven new restrictions; one of the 
original six has been split in two.  See paragraph eight for a 
complete list.  End note.)  The Shenzhen Notice says that repeat 
offenders will be punishable by reeducation through labor, an 
extralegal system of imprisonment and work that skirts the 
conventional legal system. 
 
Dear Petitioner, Please Consider a Staycation 
---------------- ---------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Hong Kong-based newspaper Ming Pao reported early December 
that Shenzhen Party Secretary Liu Yupu visited Shenzhen's Yantian 
District Petition Hall and ordered that a glass wall separating 
petitioners from petition office staff be dismantled.  Liu 
reportedly encouraged petition office staff to enhance their sense 
of service and devote themselves to resolving petitioners' 
difficulties.  The newspaper commented that Liu's visit and 
statements were meant to mitigate negative public opinion following 
publication of the new regulations. 
 
¶5. (U) Similarly, the Shenzhen Government inaugurated the city's new 
Petition Hall November 19.  In all, 16 government agencies, 
including the Land Resources and Housing Bureau, Population and 
Family Planning Office, Communications Bureau, Education Bureau and 
the Public Security Bureau, will have their representatives 
stationed at the hall to deal with petitioners.  Staff of the 
Supervision Bureau and Judicial Bureau will also be present in the 
hall to supervise the petition process, according to official media 
reports.  In the past, said a spokesman with the Shenzhen municipal 
government, petitioners had to visit various government departments 
to make petitions, but the new petition hall will provide "one stop" 
service to petitioners.  The spokesman also said that each petition 
case would receive prompt processing and that petitioners would 
receive official replies to their queries. 
 
Netizens Speak Out 
------------------ 
 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000689  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶6. (U) Online discussion of Shenzhen's new petition guidelines 
largely has had a negative tone.  Netizens have noted that the new 
guidelines set increased restrictions on common citizens but do not 
define acceptable behavior by government entities.  Numerous 
netizens rhetorically asked what petitioners should do when their 
petitions fall on deaf ears, and one writer suggested that the 
regulations were "aimed at blocking the last remaining channel 
through which justice might be sought."  Several writers implied 
that Shenzhen officials had overstepped their authority by issuing 
restrictions more stringent than national-level law. 
 
The Party Line: This is better.  Trust us. 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (SBU) According to Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences' 
Scientific Research Department Director Liang Jun, the new 
regulations reflect the Chinese Government's desire to resolve 
petition cases locally.  Jun said that Chinese tend to believe that 
it will be easier to coax the government into settling a dispute if 
the case is made to look serious enough.  Therefore, said Jun, many 
petitioners decide to travel to the capital city of their province 
or to Beijing to get attention from higher-level governments.  Jun 
characterized this custom as "chaos" and said that the preference 
was to resolve disputes locally whenever possible. 
 
Prohibited Petitioner Behavior 
------------------------------ 
 
¶8. (U) Of the 14 "abnormal petition behaviors," the first seven are 
Regulations on Petitions at the national level and the final seven 
constitute Shenzhen's new restrictions: 
 
-- Gathering or occupying petition offices; leaving aged people, 
sick people, handicapped people, infants or other disabled people at 
petition offices. 
 
-- Gathering at office buildings of the party committee or at the 
Citizens Center, or the neighboring areas, or exhibition halls 
during major events, to block the entrance and exit of the 
above-mentioned places, and other behaviors disrupting public 
order. 
 
-- Stopping or forcibly entering into vehicles with the goal of 
obstructing or blocking traffic. 
 
-- Carrying guns, gun powder, explosives or inflammable or 
radioactive items during petitions. 
 
-- Insulting or attacking civil servants or threatening killings, 
kidnappings, arson, etc. 
 
-- Instigating or organizing mass petitions or enticing others to 
join mass petitions by offering money. 
 
-- Performing any other behaviors that disrupt public order or 
jeopardize public or national security. 
 
Shenzhen's additions follow: 
 
-- Petitioning at politically-sensitive venues such as Zhongnanhai, 
Tiananmen, Xinhuamen, embassies and consulates, or other venues not 
approved by the Regulations on Petitions. 
 
-- Shouting slogans, holding up banners or wearing "petition 
clothes;" distributing petition letters to pedestrians. 
 
-- Obstructing or disturbing normal production or the operation of 
enterprises or schools using petitioning as an excuse. 
 
-- Attempting self-injury, suicide, floor-jumping, or threatening to 
spread infectious diseases such as AIDS; placing dead bodies or 
funerary caskets in public places so as to arouse public panic. 
 
-- Preventing civil servants from performing their duties; breaking 
through police cordons. 
 
-- Fabricating or distorting facts in order to defame other people. 
 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000689  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
-- Intentionally vandalizing public property while petitioning. 
 
GOLDBECK