Published: April 4, 2013
BEIJING — China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, remains something of a mystery, but he has made one element of his agenda abundantly clear: The government will no longer tolerate the rampant corruption that he says is threatening the Communist Party’s grip on power.
Four activists in central Beijing on Sunday, held a sign that said, “Unless we put an end to corrupt officials, the China Dream will remain a daydream.”
But President Xi’s apparent war on graft has limits, at least judging by the detention on Sunday of four activists after they unfurled banners in central Beijing expressing support for the party’s self-described war on official malfeasance.
“Unless we put an end to corrupt officials, the China Dream will remain a daydream,” said one of the banners, in a pointed reference to Mr. Xi’s pledge to revitalize the nation through more equitable economic growth, a strong military and increased government transparency. Those are main elements of his so-called Chinese dream.
Another banner called for officials to disclose their assets publicly, a proposal that has met resistance from powerful interests within the party. The activists also demanded that officials reveal whether they secretly hold foreign passports, an increasingly common practice that in recent years has helped thousands of corrupt civil servants escape Chinese justice by fleeing abroad with their ill-gotten loot.
The short-lived demonstration at a public plaza not far from China’s leadership compound was promptly, and roughly, broken up by the police as a small crowd listened to a speech by one of the protesters. By Thursday evening, the three men and one woman were still being held on criminal charges of illegal assembly, according to their lawyers, charges that carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.
Ma Gangquan, one of the lawyers, said the activists were dumbfounded by their treatment.
“Our leaders are the ones who came up with the ‘China Dream’ slogan, vowing to rule by law and to fight corruption,” said Mr. Ma, who represents Ma Xinli, 47, an employee in the logistics department of a Beijing bus company. “Their goal was simply to make his cause their own.”
Another lawyer, Ding Xikui, complained that the police bloodied the face of his client, Hou Xin, as they dragged her away.
Although it is unlikely that Mr. Xi and other top leaders were aware of the protest, rights advocates say the detentions, coupled with the recent harassment of other people fighting corruption, are a worrying sign that the leadership is determined to constrain any populist campaigning on an issue central to the president’s agenda.
A petition calling for senior leaders to disclose their wealth publicly has been largely scrubbed from the Internet in China, and a number of citizen activists across the country have been detained in recent weeks for trying to collect signatures or for staging similar demonstrations against graft.
Last month, two activists were held in a secret “black jail” here in Beijing for more than a week, rights advocates say.
Despite Mr. Xi’s vow to take down “tigers and flies” in his crusade against cronyism and self-dealing, Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong, said the recent detentions suggested a lack of resolve among top leaders.
Even if the party is wary of public protests, Mr. Bequelin said, previous leaders had harnessed popular sentiment to promote agendas that faced resistance from powerful interests.
“If society is kept in shackles, there is little chance of overcoming the status quo within the party,” he said, noting how a previous leader, Deng Xiaoping, enlisted public support in the early 1990s to overcome conservative opposition to his economic reforms.
So far, much of Mr. Xi’s campaign against corruption has focused on extravagance and waste among government employees.
The austerity measures he announced late last year, which include a ban on frivolous overseas travel and taxpayer-financed banquets, have chastened the nation’s formerly free-spending bureaucrats.
Ordinary Chinese have been heartened by the results, but many are still awaiting further signs that Mr. Xi is determined to stamp out the culture of kickbacks and bribery that have enriched countless party members.
“When officials see citizens arrested for calling for a law that would require officials to disclose their assets, it doesn’t exactly send the message that the party is serious about fighting corruption,” Mr. Bequelin said.
Patrick Zuo contributed research.
