BEIJING: 'Protest' is not a good word in China's lexicon and the abuse that ordinary petitioners suffer at the hands of police and hired goons is regular 'blood sport'.
China, obsessed with 'harmony and stability' loves to tell the world how happy its citizens are; how they glory in their 'Chinese-ness. But the cold hard facts are that ordinary citizens are a terrified lot and anyone who dares to challenge authority takes their life into their own hands.
Throwing old women to the ground; beating them about the head; smashing their faces to a pulp and confining them in 're-education' gulags is all done in the name of keeping society stable. For too long citizens have appealed to the world for their lives but some super powers prefer to focus on 'trade' while deliberately turning a blind eye to human-rights violations
Well, what goes round comes around. Now, in a case of mistaken identity plainclothes police have severely beaten the wife of a provincial official, assuming she was simply an 'ordinary person' - one of many Chinese who petition government offices in the hope of redressing wrongs. Six 'security thugs' rained blows on her for 16 minutes, beating her within an inch of her life, leaving her with a concussion and damaged brain and nerve tissues.
This case has become a hot topic among Chinese Internet users - that is, until the government blocks access. It has highlighted the abuse that thousands of petitioners routinely suffer at the hands of China's police - the very people who should be protecting them and the numerous officially approved hired thugs who routinely silence them, often with death.
Shame-faced top officials apologized profusely to this special victim and her husband over the 'unfortunate incident'.
However street vendor Wai Yu La Fing and hundreds of poor rural migrants said: "Very happy official wife getting beaten on head. Now she know what China really like. Why ok to beat ordinary citizen and jail for years. Why say sorry to official wife for mistake? China police making thousands of 'mistake' every day - never say sorry to innocent people. Now world can see horrible life of ordinary people in China. All lies 'people happy' - only China Pahty happy."
