China: He saw no conscience, no sympathy.

At the end of the blog entry, the professor and lawyer Xu Zhiyong (许志永) wrote down the line:

突然忍不住失声痛哭。我打个车,回到家,跪倒地上,再次痛哭,我感谢上帝让我来到这世上承受这一切。然后,我平静地起来,写下这个故事,为我们的子孙后代,我要告诉他们什么是苦难。

I broke into tears. I called a taxi, went back home and kneed down on the floor, tears in my eyes again. I thanked God for letting me to come to the world to bear all this. Then I took hold of myself and wrote down the story. I would like my children to know what is tribulation and suffering.

Here is the partial translation of Xu's blog about his experience of helping a petitioner who was beaten up in Beijng.

晚上七点多刚打开手机就接到盛其芳老人的电话:“许教授,一直打不通你的电话,山东临沂被打的那个人八点多就被停药了,没钱治病,在同仁医院。”

I got a call from Sheng at 7 pm. ‘Professor Xu, I have been trying to reach you. They have stopped the treatment for that woman from Lin Yi, Shandong who was roughed up this morning. We have run out of money at Tongren Hospital!’

Xu asked what happened and Sheng

她上访,被临沂驻京办的打成重伤。昏迷,可医院不给治了,怎么办啊。”

‘She came to Beijing to appeal about her grief to the central government, but was beaten up by the officials sent from the town she's from. She fell unconscious but the doctors refused to treat her; how should we do?’

When Xu rushed to the hospital, he found the victim lying on the bed with her sister and mother accompanying. But there was no dropping bottle. Her sister told what had happened:

姐姐说,4月27号她被关押在青年凤凰宾馆,那天下午妹妹也被临沂驻京办从马家楼拉过来,头栽倒在汽车里面地板上。姐姐听说后过去扶起她,问怎么了,她很费力地说被打了,肚子痛,然后就又昏迷了。打了几次120和 110,终于把妹妹送到右安门医院。医生说,没事。求医生给开点止痛药医生也不给开,说回家吧,没事。只好偷偷把妹妹送到同仁医院。拍片子的时候不敢说她是被接访的打的。但是后来向一位医生说了实话,医生就说,没事的,医院没病床了,你们回家吧。幸运地是终于找到了一位有良心的医生,他看了之后很吃惊,着急地说,千万不能让她动,有生命危险,赶紧抬她到床上,不能让她动。后来知道,妹妹被打脾破裂。带的几千块钱很快花完了。今天早上,开了药,但是没钱了,拿不了药,吊针就停了。找马家楼派出所,派出所也只是说在协调,从早上一直到现在都没有用药。

On 27 April, the victim's sister was locked inside the Phoenix hotel. In the afternoon she found the victim was sent back from the Lin Yi Office in Beijing (the local government's liaison in the capital). She told in weak voice that she was hit at stomach and then fell fainted again. her sister first sent her to You Anmen Hospital, but the doctor there said there was nothing wrong with her. No even pain killer could they get and they were just told to go home. She had to send her to Tong Ren Hospital.

At first she dared not say she was beaten because of petitioning. When they told the truth, they were again informed that no room was available. Finally a doctor with sympathy came up. He was so surprised to see the victim, urging them not to move her or there was life risk. Afterward, they knew she had lienic rupture. A few thousands were quickly spent up for the treatment. This morning the prescription was suspended. Since then she got no more care.

As a professor of law, Xu has been helping petitioners and minorities struggling for their rights. Therefore he has maintained contact with various petitioner groups and that's why he was so quickly informed about the situation. Hearing the victim's story, Xu ran downstair to find the doctor.

来到一楼。急诊医生办公室。我问医生,这个病人需要不需要紧急治疗?医生跟我们来到病房,摸了摸病人的腹部。然后问我,“你是他什么人?”
我只是一个普通公民,我说。
“那我不跟你说。”
“那好,你跟她家人说,她需要什么治疗,需要什么条件。”
“按照开的药治疗。”他说。
“但我们没钱拿药啊。”姐姐哀求。
“走,我们下去拿药。”我平静地说,正好,今天我身上带了银行卡。

I came to the ER office, asking whether the patient needed immediate care. The doctor came to her, examining her abdomen. He then asked, ‘ What's your relationship with her?’
‘I am just a common citizen.’ I replied.
‘Then I can't tell you.’
‘Fine, but tell her families what she needs, and at what cost.’
‘Just as the prescription says.’
‘But we got no money!’ The sister bagged.
‘Go, let's get downstairs for the prescription.’ I said calmly. I happened to have my debit card with me.

划价,这个晚上的药费是850元。似乎这个过程很漫长,终于拿到了单据,一直很坚强的姐姐突然跪到了地上,泪流满面。我扶起她,想我应该早一点来,应该早一点。从来没有像此刻觉得这点钱这么有价值。

It was 850 RMB for the night. Paying the money seemed to be a long process. When I finally got the receipt the usually stubborn sister suddenly kneed down with tears on her face. I pulled her up, wishing that I could have come earlier, just a little earlier. I have never felt that the money could be of so important a use.

他们一家来北京上访,因为2006年妹妹和母亲被人欺负,打伤很重,但对方被判缓刑。妹妹不服一直上访。2007年被临沂驻京办的打成了脑外伤,也曾经被送过精神病院

The girl's name is Yao Jing. Their family came to Beijing for petitioning because in 2006 her sister and mother was bullied and wounded but the culprit was simply on reprieve. They felt it was unfair. In 2007 she had been beaten up and got brain trauma, and had been sent to insane asylum.

Xu described the Phoenix Hotel the victim's sister was locked in:

那是一个很黑很黑的黑监狱,我听到的同样的故事太多太多了,我怎能不去黑监狱呢?

That is a black prison, deep black. I heard so many stories about it. How can I not go to visit the black prison?

在一个特权腐败成为常态的社会里,他们没有任何社会关系,可是他们偏偏认死理,执着上访,他们是这个国家的贱民,他们是我的同胞,我的兄弟姐妹。

In a state where privilege and corruption turned routine, the petitioners had no connections at all but they believe in justice stubbornly. They are the ‘untouchable’ in this country, but they are my countrymen, my brothers and sisters.

走廊里突然传来呼救声,一个妇女被五六个男人拖走了。护士进来说,“待会外面有吵闹不要开门。”也有一个男人挨个进门说:“把门关好。”
我和盛其芳来到走廊里。又有两个妇女一先一后被五六个男人拽着拖向电梯。我问怎么回事,没人说话。那个妇女在电梯关门前喊了一声“中国没有人权!”

Suddenly, a yell for help came from the corridor. A woman was pulled away by 5, 6 men. The nurse told us to ignore the noise.
I came out with Sheng to the hallway and saw another two women being pulled by 5 men to the elevator. I asked what had happened but no one answered. The woman shouted ‘no human right in China’ before the door was closed.

姐姐在一旁说,听说他们是东北的,在天安门服毒自杀被送到这里的。一个接访的恶狠狠地问我干嘛的,我说在这里看病人。“没你的事,一边去。”

The sister said they were from northeast China and sent here because of taking poison in Tiananmen Square for protest. A staff questioned me what I was doing there, I answered I was watching a patient. ‘None of your business, get lost.’ he said.

“绑架!怎么会没我的事?”我说,“应该报警。”
可惜这时我的手机没电了。一个挂着同仁医院胸牌的男人过来说,“我就是同仁医院保卫处的,你少管闲事啊。”
刹那间,我终于爆发了,我听到了一个仿佛穿破时空的惊天动地的怒吼:“丧——尽——天——良——!你们知不知道什么是——丧—尽—天—良!丧—尽—天—良!”

‘It's kidnapping! None of my business? I should call police.’
But my cellphone had no power. A man with a tag indicating him as a security guard in the hospital came by, telling us not to boss around.
At that moment, I finally burst into fury. I heard myself yelling piercingly, ‘You have no conscience! No conscience! No——CONSCIENCE!‘

恍惚中,我穿过人群

I walked through the crowd in a faint.

7 comments

  • Thank Bob for posting this. Yes we need to spread this far and wide to expose the atrocities and wake up more people to the cause for democracy and justice.

  • 说起来容易做起来很难

    No one really cares about stuff like this. For most people, just as long as China opens up their business markets, that’s enough.

    It used to be that things like this didn’t get reported on. But these days, one can find ample and remarkable accounts of atrocities like this. It is one thing for people to be beaten and abused by corrupt local officials. But for medical staff in a famous hospital to willingly turn their backs, not only not intervening but not reporting it? Although I suppose there is really no one to report it to.

    This is the sort of thing people like Jackie Chan mean when they say that Chinese people need to be controlled, and all the middle-class (so they think!) Chinese and swine who support him are willing to overlook this sort of thing as long as they have meat every day.

    There are people among us Chinese who need controlling, but can you guess who they really are? I don’t care if democracy, monarchy, alien invadsions, just give us some damn justice! Are we still no better than dogs after all this time? We can all talk about being civilized and equal to imperialists now, but look at us, we become demons and cowards.

    DEPRAVED~~~~乱

  • Chad

    This is China, and I’m a Chinese, living sadly and cowardly.

  • Xela K.O

    thx Bob, for this sad story…..

  • gao

    apart from whining yourself inside out, do please come up with something that may help with the situation. I don’t have doubt that many of the suffered in this story, or their kins, will do no better had they been in power. behavior norm is not such a thing that changes with a government or social order, when its form breaks during social changes it automatically forms into another shape. Even a thorough re-distribution of social wealth has not changed the stream in the last seventy years, and this is one side of society that you don’t like too much historical inertia. The only good thing I could thought of is a completely open frontier for unburdened enterpreniers to set up a less patronized norm from buttom-up, which may or may not be present in many good ages to come.

  • gao

    and I somehow believe the chinese way is what a mainly closed system eventually evolves into, given enough time; what is the victory of methodology over doctrines.

  • […] Blogeintrag von Xu Zhiyong über die Behandlung von Petenten in Peking (Global Voices). […]

Join the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.