On 4/20 I saw news of a prisoner dying unnaturally in custody. The official initially classified it as a normal death, but after the family fought for nine years, a so-called warden who abused the deceased was punished and the death reclassified as abnormal. Recently, a case where a homeroom teacher who attempted to rape a female student was also initially only detained for 10 days and downgraded to logistics duties; the reason for such punishment is that the police in this capitalistic-oligarch state act as order-maintainers and as vested interests, and they completely ignore how sexually assaulting women is extremely reactionary and causes enormous harm to victims. After the case was exposed, under pressure from the people, local police hurriedly made it a criminal detention and removal from post, and still the charge was forced sexual harassment; they couldn’t convict for more than a few years, and then let him out, but the harm left to the female victim is irreparable.
Thus, in this capitalist-paternal state, so-called laws are completely manipulated by the authorities. If it weren’t for the people’s struggles, wrongful convictions and injustices would only increase, and the perpetrators would become more brazen. Even if a deputy to the National People’s Congress makes a hundred proposals, it wouldn’t compare to a single people’s struggle; parliamentary politics is merely a trick to deceive the people. Only through struggle can the people’s rights be won.
In the news I read on 4/29, one case is a reactionary crime in Yunnan where a young scoundrel killed and raped a female classmate. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and it’s expected he’ll be out in a few years. They claim death penalty isn’t applicable to anyone under 18, but the girl who was killed by this scoundrel will never have a chance again. The verdict seems to rely entirely on the mouth of the Chinese-ruled court, offering whatever explanations they choose.
5/6 A few days ago I read news about a river turning red that was exposed; at that time the local government said they deployed 17 sewage suction trucks to transport the sewage to a wastewater treatment plant. They were misguided by their own thoughts about efficiency and didn’t expect that today there would be follow-up news: a blogger who came to take samples by the river was found by local township government staff late at night that day, and directly visited the blogger’s hotel — which happened to be in the neighboring county. The blogger left after taking samples around 11 a.m.; by less than 2 p.m. someone who called themselves a village official contacted them, first stating the blogger’s full name, then discussing compensation, and then even directly visiting. After the blogger reported to the police, the local police station said whether it violated the law “needs to consult the publicity department,” implying that if it didn’t blow up, it wasn’t illegal; if it drew public attention, they’d just handle it as temporary workers.
I also saw news about someone who attempted a cliff swing but the rope wasn’t secured and fell to their death from a height.
Today, I saw a major accident in Liuyang where a fireworks factory exploded, killing 26 people. In the comments, someone sharp and direct asked why workers were still on duty during Labor Day. Actually, many people already have the answer in their hearts.
A couple of days ago, I also saw news about a single mother who was falsely charged with organizing crime, detained for 821 days, acquitted, and awarded state compensation, only to have the same police stop the state compensation 13 days later on charges of loan fraud. It wasn’t until Elephant News published a report on this case on March 28 that the local government began to “investigate and verify” again the next day. This year on May 2, the procedure for state compensation was restarted. It shows that without the pressure of public opinion, the China-Revival (Zhongxiu) government would not give victims compensation at all. This also reveals that Zhongxiu is extremely weak and extremely afraid of the people. Zhongxiu is both a true tiger and a paper tiger; only by uniting with the people’s struggle is it possible to reclaim the rights that Zhongxiu’s tyranny has violently deprived. Appeasing the reactionaries of Zhongxiu in hopes of obtaining legitimate rights is completely an impractical delusion.