CHINESE POLICE are investigating media claims that a security firm colluded with government officials to detain protesters in secret prisons, known as "black jails". Police have detained Zhang Jun, chairman of the Anyuanding Security Service Company, and company general manager Zhang Jie, for "illegally detaining people and illegal business operation", according to a report in the Southern Metropolis Dailyat the weekend, which has since been carried in many other publications.
The fact that reports and investigations into the system of “black jails” is being carried in high profile state media is significant, and the fact that the police are investigating is a sign that patience at the upper echelons with the practice could be running thin.
Anyuanding started business in 2004. In 2008 it began to help Beijing liaison offices of local governments to stop their petitioners from petitioning in Beijing. Having petitioners from your locality come to Beijing is a poor reflection on a local official’s reputation and a sign that you are unable to maintain stability in your municipality, and officials often sent hoodlums to the cities to forcibly retrieve the petitioners.
Agents for the company would dress in police-style uniforms and grab and imprison people who travelled to the capital, Beijing, and other cities, to complain about local injustices.
The petitioners would be held in hotels or rented houses, have their identity cards and phones seized and would be physically mistreated too, according to a recent report in the business magazine Caijing, which has a reputation for investigative reporting.
The magazine said the company reportedly earned 21 million yuan (€2.3 million) in revenue in 2008. The company would charge local and provincial governments up to 300 yuan (€33) per person per day for “controlling, forcing and escorting petitioners” to the black jail until they could be escorted back by police from their hometown. The government denies the black jails exist and police often ignore their existence.
Petitioning is an ancient system dating from the imperial age, where Chinese people who felt they were being abused by the system turned to the emperor for help, travelling to Beijing to petition for the assistance of the supreme authority.
The tradition has continued in the communist era, but in the past few years it has become a tricky practice. Any petitioners seen near Tiananmen Square are rounded up and often jailed in black jails. It used to be that petitioners were heard during the National People’s Congress, but fear of social unrest means that no longer happens.
A lawyer for Caijing, Pu Zhiqiang, told the Global Timesthere were dozens of security companies working in the gray area between the public and private sectors in co-operation and with the tacit approval of police where petitioners fear abduction to one of the black jails. A man named Wu told the China Dailyhe was unaware of the report: "I'm in charge of bodyguard recruitment, and we're still doing business. I don't know if our company does any business like the media reported."