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Suit over smog may help clear up citizen rights
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A resident of Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, recently made headlines by taking the local environmental watchdog to court.
While the past few years have witnessed an increase in the number of cases that pit citizens against government agencies, it’s the first time a citizen has sued environmental authorities for not doing enough to tackle the smog.
The activist, named Li Guixin, filed a lawsuit with a district People’s Court in Shijiazhuang on February 20.
He also demanded 10,000 yuan (US$1,666) in compensation, but added that this was intended to “galvanize the local environmental bureau to fulfill its mission of cleaning up the polluted air according to law.”
This is cause for celebration. Finally there is a citizen representative who acted out of a civic sense of shared environmental responsibility on behalf of the wider public, who are often wary of any onerous remedy that curtails their “rights,” such as the right to drive cars.
But if common sense is any guide, we shouldn’t be too sanguine about the prospect of this milestone lawsuit, because even if it is accepted and dealt with, the case will predictably drag on, and the final ruling may take months to materialize, at which point the smog would have worsened to an extent defying easy solutions.
Rude awakening
Any sensible person can see that Li’s move is essentially a symbolic act. As Xinhua noted, the suit is a kind of “awakening” of civil rights as well as a “rude awakening” to lackadaisical law enforcement, prodding them to take forceful measures to ensure the air is breathable.
Confronted with the same health risks, we hope the best for Li’s legal campaign, but hope should be pinned equally on the easy availability of means for citizens to air their grievances.
Unfortunately, the channels through which popular woes can be openly publicized are sometimes very limited, if not blocked altogether. When “orderly” means are exhausted, people habitually turn to the dramatic, messy and risky option of petitioning.
The plight of petitioners in China is not news. We have frequently heard about cases in which disgruntled groups, frustrated in their dealings with local governments, hop on a train bound for Beijing, hoping that the supposedly enlightened big shots in Beijing will address their plight. The journey is often fraught with tensions.
Fearful that petitioners will make local bosses look bad in the eyes of their superiors, governments often send in “stability-keeping” squads to intercept these troublemakers, and in some egregious cases of illegal incarceration, have even confined them to re-education camps or mental hospitals.
‘Catch me if you can’
This type of “catch me if you can” saga is unfolding on a daily basis.
The reason many petitioners get around local authority and take their cases directly to Beijing is that they tend to have more trust in disinterested Beijing officials to handle their cases fairly, whereas at home they are likely to be ignored, snubbed and mistreated.
Nevertheless, too much petitioning traffic in the Chinese capital is compelling the national government to discourage this practice.
Recently, the General Office of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council, China’s cabinet, jointly issued a set of directives regarding the handling of petitioners.
One directive stipulating that the two agencies will no longer take petitions that skip proper procedures — meaning traveling directly to Beijing to seek redress— stirred a controversy.
Some observers argue that Beijing’s refusal to take petitions will leave petitioners at the mercy of venal cadres back home, paving the way for more corruption and injustice. After all, a few petitioners’ grievances would never have been redressed if they did not attract the attention of people at the very top. That’s exactly why this kind of petitioning odyssey is popular.
The directives have a new focus on strict separation of lawsuit from petition. Petitions that touch on legal issues are to be settled in court, not primarily through petitioning offices.
In general, this is a laudable development that strengthens the rule of law, as petitioning is supposed to be a last resort when one has no legal recourse.
Besides, the new arrangement will greatly ease the burden on those in charge of registering petitioners’ complaints. The message seems to be: Let the law run its course and everything will be fine.
That sounds good, but in practice the directive has several caveats.
If the local judiciary is in cahoots with the very people that crush and oppress petitioners, what’s the point of asking for its help?
Indeed, many turned to petitioning out of desperation, after they tried and failed to get justice from the court.
The new rules on petitioning prioritize improvements in people’s well-being to help prevent and ease social unrest.
In this way, it is hoped, there will be less need for petitioning.
Despite their well-meaning nature, the rules leave a question unanswered: How do they plan to address the root cause of the huge petitioning traffic to Beijing. Why would it be necessary to trek thousands of miles to Beijing if problems could be solved locally?
At the end of the day, the most effective way to stem the flow of petitioners flocking to Beijing would be to order local bosses to treat them better, and sternly punish transgressions like locking up petitioners and slighting them with endless subterfuges.
If Li’s pro bono lawsuit can drive official initiatives to tackle pollution, it will send positive signals to the public, especially to potential petitioners who are fed up with being stonewalled by environmental watchdogs.
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