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Focus on China

China’s leaders meet with ‘rule of law’ on agenda

– Follow the rules –

China’s former premier, Wen Jiabao, once said: “The gate to Zhongnanhai is open to the people”. But Xu is among the millions of “petitioners” who have found the doors of power closed firmly in their faces.

Every year they present their complaints to the Bureau for Letters and Calls, a government agency with offices across the country, under a system established during imperial times.

Her eldest son, Zhang Pengfei, was 15 in 2007 when he was killed in a confrontation with schoolmates after a classroom argument.

The boys were convicted of “injury resulting in death” and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, but Xu says they should have been charged with intentional homicide and ordered to pay her compensation. Years trying to change the decision have proved fruitless.

“If Xi wants to rule the country according to the law, why can’t the government resolve a small and simple case like mine?” she told AFP in a windowless concrete room she shares with her five-year-old second son on Beijing’s outskirts.

“I was hopeful when Xi became president, optimistic that the government would finally start following the rules. But for me, it’s become worse.”

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