From The London Times
Greed and property boom were downfall of murdered Chinese official
Jane Macartney in Xiashuixi
Where orchards of apples and peaches once grew, orange concrete apartment blocks now stand. Where the villagers of Xiashuixi once tended corn and vegetables is an eight-storey tower built by the Communist Party official who converted this farmland into a modern town.
It is a transformation that is taking place not only in this remote corner of northwestern China but also across the land as the Government wrenches its people from poverty into citizens of one of the world’s most important economies. The price can be high: farmers become landless while the officials grow rich. Some pay with their lives.
Li Shiming, a party official, was so hated that more than 20,000 people in the district signed a petition begging for leniency for his killer, Zhang Xuping, 19.
Economic reform and profitable coalmines fuelled a construction boom for Xiashuixi, which is on the outskirts of a city. The land was a lure for local officials eager to cash in on their influence.
Mr Li barely stood out among the millions of petty party officials doing the same nationwide. He hired thugs to carry out his orders while he amassed power and wealth.
Li Haiqing sobs uncontrollably every time he hears the name of his childhood friend — not from sorrow at his death but from despair at the way Mr Li destroyed his life.
He looks ten years older than his age of 42. He can no longer talk and can barely walk. His wife is his voice. His offence, she said, was to refuse to work for Mr Li as one of his thugs.
She said: “Li Shiming said that if he beat someone to death and was sentenced to be executed he could use his influence to make sure he would be all right. My husband refused. And this is what happened to him.”
Li Haiqing has been arrested six times by the police and beaten. Whatever business he tried to start his former friend would find a pretext to close him down.
Since Mr Li’s murder in September 2008 no one has tried to harm Li Haiqing. His wife said: “We feel safe now. There’s no one to bully us. This fate should have come to him much earlier. Everyone is delighted.”
If anyone understands the power that Mr Li could wield it is Zhang Weixing. He was once the village chief of Xiashuixi and farmed vines and orchards. He could earn 20,000 yuan (£1,900) a year — a small fortune even ten years ago.
One morning in 2001 he found that his trees had been uprooted. Mr Zhang, 58, said: “I didn’t receive a penny, not one penny. Li Shiming took the land and sold it to developers. I accosted him in one of his car parks and he began to beat me. Then he set his thugs on me. They beat me with spades and kicked me to the ground.”
Mr Zhang pointed at rows of new flats. “These are all illegal,” he said. “Everything is built on land stolen from the farmers.”
After Mr Li was killed the Government sent teams to investigate. Mr Zhang said: “That’s how we know that they discovered that Li Shiming had illegally taken 400mu [27 hectares] of farmers’ land. Then they went away because more senior officials were involved. He gave properties to the police, the procuratorate, the courts, the Government, the banks. He made sure he had good relations with everyone with power.”
Mr Li’s feud with the family of his killer, Zhang Xuping, began when he took their land a decade ago. After locking up Zhang’s mother, Wang Hou’e, he used his connections to have Zhang expelled from school. He was 13. A farmer offered Zhang 1,000 yuan to kill Mr Li and when he saw him drive to a school without his bodyguards, the teenager stabbed him.
The villagers of Xiashuixi celebrated when they heard that he was dead. One said: “We set off fireworks.”
Zhang and the farmer, Zhang Huping, were given death sentences but his mother began to gather signatures. In six months she had gathered 20,699. She said: “People felt that he was so young and deserved leniency for killing such an evil man.”
Greed and property boom were downfall of murdered Chinese official
Jane Macartney in Xiashuixi
Where orchards of apples and peaches once grew, orange concrete apartment blocks now stand. Where the villagers of Xiashuixi once tended corn and vegetables is an eight-storey tower built by the Communist Party official who converted this farmland into a modern town.
It is a transformation that is taking place not only in this remote corner of northwestern China but also across the land as the Government wrenches its people from poverty into citizens of one of the world’s most important economies. The price can be high: farmers become landless while the officials grow rich. Some pay with their lives.
Li Shiming, a party official, was so hated that more than 20,000 people in the district signed a petition begging for leniency for his killer, Zhang Xuping, 19.
Economic reform and profitable coalmines fuelled a construction boom for Xiashuixi, which is on the outskirts of a city. The land was a lure for local officials eager to cash in on their influence.
Mr Li barely stood out among the millions of petty party officials doing the same nationwide. He hired thugs to carry out his orders while he amassed power and wealth.
Li Haiqing sobs uncontrollably every time he hears the name of his childhood friend — not from sorrow at his death but from despair at the way Mr Li destroyed his life.
He looks ten years older than his age of 42. He can no longer talk and can barely walk. His wife is his voice. His offence, she said, was to refuse to work for Mr Li as one of his thugs.
She said: “Li Shiming said that if he beat someone to death and was sentenced to be executed he could use his influence to make sure he would be all right. My husband refused. And this is what happened to him.”
Li Haiqing has been arrested six times by the police and beaten. Whatever business he tried to start his former friend would find a pretext to close him down.
Since Mr Li’s murder in September 2008 no one has tried to harm Li Haiqing. His wife said: “We feel safe now. There’s no one to bully us. This fate should have come to him much earlier. Everyone is delighted.”
If anyone understands the power that Mr Li could wield it is Zhang Weixing. He was once the village chief of Xiashuixi and farmed vines and orchards. He could earn 20,000 yuan (£1,900) a year — a small fortune even ten years ago.
One morning in 2001 he found that his trees had been uprooted. Mr Zhang, 58, said: “I didn’t receive a penny, not one penny. Li Shiming took the land and sold it to developers. I accosted him in one of his car parks and he began to beat me. Then he set his thugs on me. They beat me with spades and kicked me to the ground.”
Mr Zhang pointed at rows of new flats. “These are all illegal,” he said. “Everything is built on land stolen from the farmers.”
After Mr Li was killed the Government sent teams to investigate. Mr Zhang said: “That’s how we know that they discovered that Li Shiming had illegally taken 400mu [27 hectares] of farmers’ land. Then they went away because more senior officials were involved. He gave properties to the police, the procuratorate, the courts, the Government, the banks. He made sure he had good relations with everyone with power.”
Mr Li’s feud with the family of his killer, Zhang Xuping, began when he took their land a decade ago. After locking up Zhang’s mother, Wang Hou’e, he used his connections to have Zhang expelled from school. He was 13. A farmer offered Zhang 1,000 yuan to kill Mr Li and when he saw him drive to a school without his bodyguards, the teenager stabbed him.
The villagers of Xiashuixi celebrated when they heard that he was dead. One said: “We set off fireworks.”
Zhang and the farmer, Zhang Huping, were given death sentences but his mother began to gather signatures. In six months she had gathered 20,699. She said: “People felt that he was so young and deserved leniency for killing such an evil man.”
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