In China’s “harmonious society” a woman is sent to prison for trying to help petitioners solve a dispute with local authorities. She is thrown in jail despite being appointed as a mediator by a local township Communist Party boss. For experts the case shows how in mainland China uncovering official misconduct by local public authorities is not tolerated.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – In China’s “harmonious society,” it is dangerous to mediate between disgruntled citizens and corrupt public officials in order to solve contentious issues. Liu Guiqin learnt this the hard away. For her troubles she was sent to jail a week ago.

Ms Liu was taken into custody for alleged "illegal possession of state secrets,” but her real crime was being appointed mediator by Zhao Hongfu, a township party secretary, three weeks ago to help petitioners in Yunxi County (Hubei) move forward their case in Beijing after spending so much time, energy and money trying to do it on their won.

When Mr Zhao was promoted to the post of deputy director in charge of the Petition Office in Shiyan City, which took him away from local issues, she was arrested for possession of documents, allegedly containing “state secrets,” petitioners had given her.

Hu Xingdou, a political analyst from the Beijing Institute of Technology, said it was unreasonable to charge civilians for “illegal possession of state secrets” because they were not the source of the leak. “The secret document must have been leaked by officials,” he said. “It's just an excuse for officials to deal with Ms Liu,” he added.

Human rights activist Huang Qi, who is also a friend of Ms Liu, told the South China Morning that her arrest did not surprise him, because the Communist Party will not tolerate anyone acting on behalf of petitioners in ways that might “expose more indecency of corrupt cadres inside the [state] organisation.”

Without an independent judiciary, Beijing is beset by a constant steam of petitioners—from victims of official corruption to anyone who believes justice has not been served in their cases.

Many Chinese believe that the nation's leaders will intervene and right the wrongs, even though statistics show only a small number of petitioners have actually succeeded.

Afraid of losing face, local officials often try to intimidate petitioners to stop them taking the problem to Beijing.

• china
• yunxi
• hebei
• zhao
• hongfu
• liu
• guiqin
• huan
• qi
• corruption
• mediation
• petitioners
• state
• secrets