From Dr. Yawei Liu‘s email:
As the Chinese media is heaping praises on the people’s congress system and grassroots elections in China during the special March season of “lianghui” , we are presenting a story of Lu Banglie, a peasant from China’s central province of Hubei.
During an interview with reporters, Lu said, “From childhood to adulthood, I was very docile and not interested in politics, democracy, recall or the Organic Law of the Villager Committees at all. I married early and focused more on tilling my land than on the affairs of my village. I was forced into an career of defending the rights of fellow peasants.”
Lu Banglie, at the age of 33, has gone from an ordinary peasant to a hunger striking rights defender, from a simple-minded villager to an elected people’s congress deputy, from an ignorant rural resident to a knowledgeable villager committee chair. His successes reflect the changes that have occurred in the past two decades in China.
However, during the same period of time, Lu was also beaten up, his home vandalized, his wife abandoning him and his elected positions rendered useless. These unfortunate events are strong indicators of the extreme difficulties of China’s transition from an authoritarian government to a government of choice and accountability.
His saga has caught the attention of the reform oriented scholars and his story has become a cautionary tale for those who are too optimistic about the dawning of rural democracy.
For details of Lu’s story, please see “The saga of a rural reformer” at www.chinaelections.org.
