City’s residents persist year after year in petitioning authorities for justice and compensation
Ng Tze-wei 06 March 2010
As legislators from across the country began their annual meeting in Beijing yesterday to discuss matters of national consequence, a dozen Hong Kong residents have already been petitioning in the capital for four days, convinced that only through their own efforts could their grievances be addressed.
“It’s a lot of hard work and frustration, but this is the only way to get any results,” Hong Kong businessman Sze Yuk-chun said.
Sze was accused by the Shenzhen police of smuggling 13 years ago. A CPPCC member for Shanwei city in Guangdong province from 1989 to 1999, he failed to get help from the Shanwei authorities as they did not have much say, he said.
In days of yore, aggrieved parties would stop the sedan chair of the emperor; their present-day counterparts try to shout slogans and wave banners at Tiananmen Square, the central government headquarters Zhongnanhai and even Premier Wen Jiabao’s residence in Dongjiaomin Alley.
Each time, Sze and his fellow Hong Kong petitioners ended up being questioned in a police station.
“We have tried everything else. And if we don’t take up petitioning, we’ll lose everything,” he said.
Sze is a member of the Concern Group on Investment Rights of Hong Kong Businessmen, set up in May 2007. The group has attracted several hundred distressed Hongkongers who told of similar stories: fraudulent business deals, unlawful land grabs, con jobs masked as government- ordered company restructuring. Among them were a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference for Hebei province and the granddaughter of wuxia novel writer Huanzhulouzhu.
Many of them obtained court and arbitration rulings in their favour, but local protectionism or loopholes in the government system ensured the results were never enforced.
Sze used to be the chairman of a Hong Kong food trading company worth millions of dollars. In 1998, the Shenzhen police confiscated one of his shipments of cooking oil as “smuggled goods” and auctioned it for 10 million yuan (HK$9.4 million). He protested against the decision but to no avail; he lodged a lawsuit but withdrew it in 2002 after the Shenzhen police “sought a meeting” with him in Hong Kong and threatened that “he would face the hostility of the whole Shenzhen police force” if he did not follow orders.
He has sold his factory in Guangdong and his office and flat in Hong Kong, embarking on the uphill journey of petitioning. His family of six moved into a public flat in Lam Tin and his four children relied on public funds to go to school. Meanwhile, he shuttled among the courts, public security bureaus and governments at all levels to put forth his case, but was “tossed back and forth like a ball”.
Sze, who has since 2006 petitioned at least six times in Beijing and about 80 times in Guangdong, has seen it all.
The moment the group arrived at Beijing airport’s immigration hall on Tuesday afternoon, dozens of familiar faces were waiting. Sze recognised them as national security officers who had been assigned to follow the Hong Kong petitioners since 2008.
“We already know each other very well,” he said. “I even received a call from one of them several days ago, wishing me a belated happy Lunar New Year and asking whether I was planning to visit Beijing.”
From the word go, the group were placed under 24-hour close surveillance and could not go anywhere on their own. Customs officials at the airport searched their luggage bags three times. Dozens of photos were taken, and several vests the group had prepared with the words “Hong Kong businessmen” and their contact details printed on the front and back were confiscated.
They were taken everywhere in a police van and had no control over where to eat and sleep - although the officers paid for all such expenses.
“It’s better to petition during sensitive times. The officers are more courteous,” Sze said. He has received his fair share of verbal threats and forced removals from protest venues. During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he came under “house arrest” in a hotel in a rural part of the capital and was later repatriated.
There is also always the risk of losing his home-return permit, which happened to Luk Wai-ping, spokeswoman for the concern group.
“We are already very lucky, as Hong Kong residents,” Sze said. “[The national security officers] shake our hands when they greet us at the train stations and airport. They even told us at the letters and complaints office, ‘You’ll be queuing out here if not because of us’.”
Indeed, mainlanders who are found petitioning in the capital are often manhandled and detained in what are known as “black jails”.
The officers said they would arrange meetings with the relevant departments and courts - a tired promise the Hongkongers had heard many times over. The real purpose was to prevent them from petitioning openly, Sze said.
On Wednesday morning, they refused to alight from the van at the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, where they were to meet officials they had met before but who had failed to help. After much argument, they were taken to meet an official from the letters and complaints office of the Supreme People’s Court.
Sze’s case has nothing to do with the court system. The next day, he finally met an official relevant to his case - the head of the letters and complaints office at the Guangdong public security bureau, who promised his grievance would be righted within a year.
But he remains doubtful. “Since I started petitioning, officials from the Ministry of Public Security and the State Bureau for Letters and Calls [both at the central government level] have promised me that the matter would be resolved,” Sze said. “Yes, the Shenzhen police finally dropped the smuggling charge against me in December 2008, but I still have not received any of my monies, not to mention compensation.
“I trust no officials now. They never keep their word. I’ll only leave Beijing this time if I can appeal directly to Premier Wen,” he vowed.
Yesterday the group were finally allowed to choose their own hotel. By evening they were still unable to book rooms. Two hotels they went to initially said there were rooms, but later claimed no rooms were available.
They were nonetheless encouraged by the story of Hong Kong petitioner Wang Wen-chin. Wang, 65, received 3 million yuan in June after 10 years of petitioning - following his conversation with the deputy Shanxi governor, which was arranged after Wang and his wife wrapped themselves in Hong Kong flags and broke through security at a Beijing trade conference. Wang had lost his profitable copper mine in the province through privatisation restructuring in 1999, and the returned sum was only a third of what he owned.
“He won the money through his perseverance,” Sze said. “We can only rely on ourselves. The Hong Kong government helped nothing.”
Hong Kong legislator and CPPCC member Chan Kam-lam said he had been urging the central government for four years to set up units to oversee legal limbos involving the city’s businessmen. “I’m going to make the same suggestion this year. I understand more cases have been resolved, but we need a long-term mechanism to resolve such problems.”
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Hong Kong businessmen take grievances to Beijing
City’s residents persist year after year in petitioning authorities for justice and compensation
Ng Tze-wei
06 March 2010
As legislators from across the country began their annual meeting in Beijing yesterday to discuss matters of national consequence, a dozen Hong Kong residents have already been petitioning in the capital for four days, convinced that only through their own efforts could their grievances be addressed.
“It’s a lot of hard work and frustration, but this is the only way to get any results,” Hong Kong businessman Sze Yuk-chun said.
Sze was accused by the Shenzhen police of smuggling 13 years ago. A CPPCC member for Shanwei city in Guangdong province from 1989 to 1999, he failed to get help from the Shanwei authorities as they did not have much say, he said.
In days of yore, aggrieved parties would stop the sedan chair of the emperor; their present-day counterparts try to shout slogans and wave banners at Tiananmen Square, the central government headquarters Zhongnanhai and even Premier Wen Jiabao’s residence in Dongjiaomin Alley.
Each time, Sze and his fellow Hong Kong petitioners ended up being questioned in a police station.
“We have tried everything else. And if we don’t take up petitioning, we’ll lose everything,” he said.
Sze is a member of the Concern Group on Investment Rights of Hong Kong Businessmen, set up in May 2007. The group has attracted several hundred distressed Hongkongers who told of similar stories: fraudulent business deals, unlawful land grabs, con jobs masked as government- ordered company restructuring. Among them were a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference for Hebei province and the granddaughter of wuxia novel writer Huanzhulouzhu.
Many of them obtained court and arbitration rulings in their favour, but local protectionism or loopholes in the government system ensured the results were never enforced.
Sze used to be the chairman of a Hong Kong food trading company worth millions of dollars. In 1998, the Shenzhen police confiscated one of his shipments of cooking oil as “smuggled goods” and auctioned it for 10 million yuan (HK$9.4 million). He protested against the decision but to no avail; he lodged a lawsuit but withdrew it in 2002 after the Shenzhen police “sought a meeting” with him in Hong Kong and threatened that “he would face the hostility of the whole Shenzhen police force” if he did not follow orders.
He has sold his factory in Guangdong and his office and flat in Hong Kong, embarking on the uphill journey of petitioning. His family of six moved into a public flat in Lam Tin and his four children relied on public funds to go to school. Meanwhile, he shuttled among the courts, public security bureaus and governments at all levels to put forth his case, but was “tossed back and forth like a ball”.
Sze, who has since 2006 petitioned at least six times in Beijing and about 80 times in Guangdong, has seen it all.
The moment the group arrived at Beijing airport’s immigration hall on Tuesday afternoon, dozens of familiar faces were waiting. Sze recognised them as national security officers who had been assigned to follow the Hong Kong petitioners since 2008.
“We already know each other very well,” he said. “I even received a call from one of them several days ago, wishing me a belated happy Lunar New Year and asking whether I was planning to visit Beijing.”
From the word go, the group were placed under 24-hour close surveillance and could not go anywhere on their own. Customs officials at the airport searched their luggage bags three times. Dozens of photos were taken, and several vests the group had prepared with the words “Hong Kong businessmen” and their contact details printed on the front and back were confiscated.
They were taken everywhere in a police van and had no control over where to eat and sleep - although the officers paid for all such expenses.
“It’s better to petition during sensitive times. The officers are more courteous,” Sze said. He has received his fair share of verbal threats and forced removals from protest venues. During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he came under “house arrest” in a hotel in a rural part of the capital and was later repatriated.
There is also always the risk of losing his home-return permit, which happened to Luk Wai-ping, spokeswoman for the concern group.
“We are already very lucky, as Hong Kong residents,” Sze said. “[The national security officers] shake our hands when they greet us at the train stations and airport. They even told us at the letters and complaints office, ‘You’ll be queuing out here if not because of us’.”
Indeed, mainlanders who are found petitioning in the capital are often manhandled and detained in what are known as “black jails”.
The officers said they would arrange meetings with the relevant departments and courts - a tired promise the Hongkongers had heard many times over. The real purpose was to prevent them from petitioning openly, Sze said.
On Wednesday morning, they refused to alight from the van at the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, where they were to meet officials they had met before but who had failed to help. After much argument, they were taken to meet an official from the letters and complaints office of the Supreme People’s Court.
Sze’s case has nothing to do with the court system. The next day, he finally met an official relevant to his case - the head of the letters and complaints office at the Guangdong public security bureau, who promised his grievance would be righted within a year.
But he remains doubtful. “Since I started petitioning, officials from the Ministry of Public Security and the State Bureau for Letters and Calls [both at the central government level] have promised me that the matter would be resolved,” Sze said. “Yes, the Shenzhen police finally dropped the smuggling charge against me in December 2008, but I still have not received any of my monies, not to mention compensation.
“I trust no officials now. They never keep their word. I’ll only leave Beijing this time if I can appeal directly to Premier Wen,” he vowed.
Yesterday the group were finally allowed to choose their own hotel. By evening they were still unable to book rooms. Two hotels they went to initially said there were rooms, but later claimed no rooms were available.
They were nonetheless encouraged by the story of Hong Kong petitioner Wang Wen-chin. Wang, 65, received 3 million yuan in June after 10 years of petitioning - following his conversation with the deputy Shanxi governor, which was arranged after Wang and his wife wrapped themselves in Hong Kong flags and broke through security at a Beijing trade conference. Wang had lost his profitable copper mine in the province through privatisation restructuring in 1999, and the returned sum was only a third of what he owned.
“He won the money through his perseverance,” Sze said. “We can only rely on ourselves. The Hong Kong government helped nothing.”
Hong Kong legislator and CPPCC member Chan Kam-lam said he had been urging the central government for four years to set up units to oversee legal limbos involving the city’s businessmen. “I’m going to make the same suggestion this year. I understand more cases have been resolved, but we need a long-term mechanism to resolve such problems.”
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