Related report: China to de-link number of petitioners from officials’ evaluation


"Xinfang" or the system of petitioning to superior authorities seeking social justice or as a means of highlighting grievances by the public, is increasingly being considered a source of discontent.

These days, with calls for political and economic reform in almost every sphere of Chinese society, reform of the petitioning system has also been sought.

It was recently reported that the central government will no longer rank different places based on the number of petitions handled by local authorities.

Earlier that was not the case. A new regulation for the petition system was issued in 2005 when it was specified that local petition offices had to be responsible in dealing with petitioners at their level so that the central authorities are spared the burden of a large number of complaints that remain unattended, locally.

With that regulation making it clear that promotions of local officials would depend on the number of petitions they handled and their overall political performances, officials tried to stop petitioners from going to Beijing.

The public's evaluation of the government is subjective. People see the government's performance in the light of their own experiences, be it through a failed petition or poor responses to their concerns. Based on such experiences, people tend to make a call of judgment and mistrust for the government is generated.

Take the case of Tang Hui. Since 2006, this mother of a young girl from Hunan Province had petitioned local authorities several times seeking harsher punishment for the local officials who had kidnapped and raped her daughter.

But local authorities hijacked the process of justice-seeking by spending resources and public finances to block her petition from reaching the central government.

Both sides suffered from the 2005 regulation and when Tang's detention by the local police finally resulted in a public outcry, local authorities had already lost their credibility.

Not ranking different places according to the number of petitions will ease the pressure that officials face while handling them. They can shift their focus from "numbers" and "political performance" to actually solving people's real problems. This is a step forward to facing up to public discontent with the petition system.

The reform of institutions, including the petitioning system, needs to be a determined one through legal means.

It is the law that has to undertake the role of governing people in China's transitional society. And only the rule of law will make people believe completely in the system rather than through cumbersome petition routes.