Zhang Weimin: A Mild-Mannered Petitioner among“Educated Youth”

• Author: China Law Digest compiled news

On the afternoon of November 1, 2011, the Huangpu District Court in Shanghai sentenced Zhang Weimin to three years and six months’ imprisonment on charges of “assembling crowds to disturb public order.” A reporter depicting the trial later wrote about the moment of sentencing, “All of the educated youths were stunned and Zhang Weimin’s family members were so shocked that they could not even stand up. As for Zhang Weimin herself, she bursted into tears and had to be quickly escorted out of the courtroom by the bailiff.” , “During the recess just prior to sentencing, there was still a consensus among the educated youth and auditing attorneys who were in attendance that Zhang would get no more than probation.”

Sixty-four years old this year, Zhang Weimin is a former “educated youth” returning from Xingjiang to Shanghai. Forty-eight years ago, when she was not yet sixteen, Zhang was among ten thousand such young students who rushed to Xinjiang to labor in the countryside . Later, although many youths in the “sent-down to the countryside” movement eventually to return home to Shanghai, Zhang continued to devote herself to her entire life in Xinjiang until she reached retirement age. Like many former “educated youths”, upon returning to Shanghai Zhang found herself in a vulnerable class of people who, because they lacked competitive skills after their long years in the countryside, were burdened by disability, medical insurance costs, and low income. Eventually, she found that she had no choice but to petition for government assistance. Petitioners from the educated youth have been so numerous that Shanghai authorities have specially arranged to receive their petitions every Wednesday. They constitute “largest class, most chronic, and generationally oldest” class of petitioners in China.

As petitioners go, Zhang Weimin could be considered relatively mild-mannered, in that she abides by the three unofficial “don’ts” of petition; don’t go to Beijing to petition; don’t give interview to the foreign press; and don’t petition at politically sensitive times. During the 2008 Olympics, the Shanghai Expo, the 60th Anniversary of the PRC, and other major international and domestic events, Zhang would proactively retract her petitions to avoid embarrassing the authorities. Zhang Weimin also actively and repeatedly declared that she...