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Esperanza_Hidalgo

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China teen seen as hero for killing local official


By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer Gillian Wong, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jan 21, 10:07 am ET

BEIJING – When Li Shiming was stabbed through the heart by a hired assassin, few of his fellow villagers mourned the local Communist Party official many say made their lives hell by seizing land, extorting money and bullying people for years.

Instead, villagers in the northern town of Xiashuixi have made Li's teenage killer something of a local hero. More than 20,000 people from the coal-mining area petitioned a court for a lenient sentence.

"I didn't feel surprised at all when I heard Li Shiming was killed, because people wanted to kill him a long time ago," said villager Xin Xiaomei, who says her husband was harassed for years by Li after the two men had a personal dispute. "I wanted to kill Li myself, but I was too weak."

The murder trial has again cast a harsh light on abuses of power by communist cadres and the frustration many ordinary Chinese feel with a one-party system that sometimes allows officials to run their districts like personal fiefdoms.

China's leaders have identified corruption as a threat to the country's progress, but an opaque political system dominated by the ruling Communist Party — which brooks no dissent — and the lack of an independent judiciary contribute to the problem.

In the case of party secretary Li, the young man who confessed to the stabbing — 19-year-old Zhang Xuping — has been sentenced to death for the September 2008 killing, his mother and lawyer said Wednesday. The sentence was quietly handed down last week and an appeal was filed this week, they said.

Zhang Xuping was paid 1,000 yuan ($146) by another villager, 35-year-old farmer Zhang Huping, to commit the murder after Li allegedly harassed the farmer for years, local newspaper reports said. The elder Zhang was reportedly routinely detained on trumped up charges ever since he led a group of farmers to seek the help of provincial authorities after Li razed 28 acres of trees belonging to them without permission or compensation in 2003.

The teenager entered a school where Li was attending a meeting, found the official alone and stabbed him through the heart. Li staggered out of the building and into his luxury sports utility vehicle but died before he could make it to a hospital, reports said.

The case quickly turned into an outpouring of sympathy for the young killer — and expressions of hatred for Li.

Zhang's trial, which was originally scheduled for August, had to be postponed to late November because thousands of people showed up outside the courthouse wanting to watch the proceedings, news reports said.

Nearly 21,000 people from the area around Xiashuixi petitioned the court for leniency for Zhang — to no avail.

In Xiashuixi, villagers contacted by the AP said that for years they had lived in fear of Li, who they say extorted money and used his influence to have those who resisted him detained or jailed.

Zhang Weixing, 58, said Li illegally seized his land of 3.3 acres and built houses on it three years ago, and he hired thugs to beat him, his wife and children when they tried to stop him.

"When we heard Li Shiming was dead, we felt happy because he did so many evil things and really made us villagers suffer," said Zhang Weixing, who is unrelated to the family of the accused, by phone. "We all hated him."

During his trial, the defendant apologized to Li's family, the state-owned Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said. But Li's eldest son rejected the apology in court and said he hoped judges would sentence his father's killer to "death by firing squad."

Li's death has dealt an immeasurable blow to the family, the son said, adding that his younger brother and sister were unable to focus on their studies and may stop going to school for the time being. Attempts to reach the Li family by phone were unsuccessful, and family members have not publicly addressed the allegations that he was corrupt.

Zhang's case echoes two other instances of ordinary Chinese who became anti-heroes after killing people in positions of power.

In June, a Chinese woman who fatally stabbed a party official to fend off his demands for sex was freed by a court in a decision that was likely made to avoid a storm of criticism.

But in 2008, Yang Jia, a man who confessed to killing six Shanghai police officers in revenge for allegedly being tortured while interrogated about a possibly stolen bicycle was executed despite an outpouring of sympathy.

Unlike those cases, China's state media after initially following Zhang's case did not report his conviction nor his death sentence — a likely indication the government ordered a media blackout.

A Beijing-based lawyer and legal blogger, Liu Xiaoyuan, said the court should have taken public opinion into account given the large number of people who had spoken out in Zhang's defense.

"If the village secretary had acted illegally and aroused the anger of the mass of villagers, then lenient punishment should have been considered by the court," Liu said. "It has become the will of people. The death sentence is too heavy."

The case reflects the desperation that China's rural poor are driven to when bullied by their leaders, wrote Chinese social commentator Yan Changhai on his blog.

"Zhang Xuping is guilty. His biggest crime is that he dared to resist a bandit-like official, and refused to be obedient and to be a slave," Yan wrote.

Yan blamed the murder on collusion between officials and local police and courts.

"If the authorities did not indulge Li Shiming's evil deeds, if even one of his evil deeds was punished by law, he would have avoided death under Zhang Xuping's knife," he wrote.
 
What a terrible situation. I don't wish anyone dead, but it seems at times that people forget that nothing is without cost. It's not free to brutalize and subjugate helpless people. Nothing breeds murder like desperation.
 
Less than a hundred and fifty bucks to be a Hero of the People?
 
The really sad part is the state will promptly put another corrupt official in the deceased's position.
 
But China is a great place to do business!

The wages are low and there won't be any demands for higher pay. At least not for long. There are poor safety and pollution standards. There are no unions and any one that tries to form one will quickly be 'dissuaded'.

Furthermore, baksheesh is always cheaper than taxes.

I say again, China is a great place to do business.
 
Now you know why I don't shop there and boycott Mainland Chinese goods wherever possible. It often isn't possible . . .

How about next to impossible? Those folks make damn near everything! They're negotiating with Government Motors to establish car dealerships over here. They'll be the new Hyundai's and Kia's. :eek:
 
Amazing how an article exemplifying life under a Marxist society, the corruption of the Commissars, can be turned into an anti free market rant.

You folks will stoop to anything for your ideology and mantra, comparable in all ways to the Inquisition, the imposition of 'justice' by the Church or the State, both of which deny individual rights, liberties and freedom.

You should feel ashamed.

Amicus
 
Free Market never existed, maybe in the Old West for a couple decades you could trade and barter under market forces. Though, one of those market forces was Jesse James and all those sexy bandits who robbed the fuck out of people and small businesses, which in turn influenced prices.

American business succeeded in China because of its brutal political climate. I think bringing up this guy's murder and also the business practices of China are warranted in the same discussion. Who really knows what this guy was murdered for? It's a fact that China's policymakers have gotten rid of those politicians who didn't favor a factory or ten factories in a certain part of their province. I think it's fairly rare that the people just assassinate some CP they don't like. Usually when a Chinese politician is going against the CP view he's representing his constituents' view of things and he gets removed, not the other way around. But then some dicklick will say, 'Who cares? They're peasants, they don't know what's best for them.'
 
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In rural China that's nearly five month's pay for a full-time agricultural worker.

Og

Does that mean we could 'cleanse' China for $150,000,000, if we just bought a million assassins to 'remove' the Commies?

Such a deal!
 
You certainly have a right to post as you feel . . . but, our country does feed this type of activity with millions of dollars per year. We benefit from a Marxist society that we loathe, yet are too greedy to forgo trade. Putting all morale arguments aside in the obvious wickedness of a totalitarian regime, is it not our greed that makes China a superpower? Goodness, a toothbrush might cost ten cents more.

May your day and life be peaceful,

Esperanza
 
You certainly have a right to post as you feel . . . but, our country does feed this type of activity with millions of dollars per year. We benefit from a Marxist society that we loathe, yet are too greedy to forgo trade. Putting all morale arguments aside in the obvious wickedness of a totalitarian regime, is it not our greed that makes China a superpower? Goodness, a toothbrush might cost ten cents more.

May your day and life be peaceful,


Esperanza

~~~

This argument arises periodically as the Liberal Arts Colleges graduate a new crop of those who are taught to adore Marxism as the Holy Grail of human equality without want.

Capitalism, the Free Market, is a political system only by derivation, in that, 'free trade' requires an honest exchange between seller and buyer. It thus requires codified rules of behavior supported by a legal system. A free market does not impose a moral or ethical system of government but it does require one to sustain and grow.

Times have changed and it is not the 'banana Republics' that benefit from free trade and enjoy modern conveniences such as roads, hospitals and schools; it has moved to the Chinese and other Asians, who have watched the impetus of the free market enable others to compete in modern society.

'Nation Building' cannot proceed by imposition of political will nor military force, civilizations can only flourish when free trade begins to create a middle class and widens the human individual freedoms necessary to live up to the standards set in the market place. I.e. value received for value given.

Not that you understood a word of that; but some may.

Amicus
 
~~~

This argument arises periodically as the Liberal Arts Colleges graduate a new crop of those who are taught to adore Marxism as the Holy Grail of human equality without want.

Capitalism, the Free Market, is a political system only by derivation, in that, 'free trade' requires an honest exchange between seller and buyer. It thus requires codified rules of behavior supported by a legal system. A free market does not impose a moral or ethical system of government but it does require one to sustain and grow.

Times have changed and it is not the 'banana Republics' that benefit from free trade and enjoy modern conveniences such as roads, hospitals and schools; it has moved to the Chinese and other Asians, who have watched the impetus of the free market enable others to compete in modern society.

'Nation Building' cannot proceed by imposition of political will nor military force, civilizations can only flourish when free trade begins to create a middle class and widens the human individual freedoms necessary to live up to the standards set in the market place. I.e. value received for value given.

Not that you understood a word of that; but some may.

Amicus

Please forgive Amicus, I obviously didn't explain my point very well in my youthful liberal arts ignorance. I be just a kid, dont no no better bout spressin my 'pinions. I loathe communism and marxism. Point takin, and a little girl learns.
 
Please forgive Amicus, I obviously didn't explain my point very well in my youthful liberal arts ignorance. I be just a kid, dont no no better bout spressin my 'pinions. I loathe communism and marxism. Point takin, and a little girl learns.

Amicus still thinks that the universities all live in the late 60's. Lotta things change in 40 years, Ami.
 
Periodically there's a kerfuffle here in the US about children working in factories in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc. making $200.00 B-Ball shoes, toys, 3 piece suits and such. Given the living standards in those places, those kids were farmed out almost as soon as they could walk...it's a matter of survival. Without those jobs they would be selling themselves to make money...boys and girls.

We abolished child labor here many, many years ago and we're Capitalistic Free-Marketers. Those other countries are either Communist, Socialist, Dictatorships or something in between.

Wal-Mart Uber Alles. ;)
 
Amicus still thinks that the universities all live in the late 60's. Lotta things change in 40 years, Ami.[/QUOTE]

~~~

Had you followed and watched the links I provided a year or so ago concerning a ten part series on the Documentary Channel, "Indoctrinate U." You would know that I am speaking of the current climate in academia.

Amicus
 
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