BEIJING: Penniless from years of struggling against China’s authorities for justice over her son’s murder, 46-year-old Qian Lili is now forced to scour Beijing’s markets for scraps of vegetables to survive.

Qian spent the past year in detention in her native Shandong province in the east of the country for daring to challenge the local government and police for not bringing her son’s killer to justice.

She now sleeps in a tent on the outskirts of Beijing, clinging to hopes in an ancient tradition in China, in which aggrieved people seek redress for local injustices by petitioning authorities in the capital.

“Last week, as I was trying to walk into the Ministry of Public Security, they chased me out, hitting me with their fists,” Qian told AFP, echoing the tale of countless others of China’s so-called “petitioners”.

As they’ve done since imperial times, tens of thousands of petitioners come to Beijing each year, hoping to fight for justice that has been denied them by courts and police in their home provinces.

Virtually all fail in their efforts. The petitioners have become a high-profile symbol of China’s social ills and a nuisance for the nation’s leaders as they try to otherwise convince the public of the importance they have placed in developing a “harmonious society”.

As thousands of legislators gathered in Beijing over the past week for China’s annual parliamentary session, masses of petitioners have been detained while dozens of dissidents and activists have been arrested or put under strict surveillance.

Petitioners said at least 400 had been detained after a police raid late on Tuesday, adding that they expected more arrests in the run-up to the start of the National People’s Congress on Sunday.

In past years, rights groups reported tens of thousands being rounded up ahead of major political gatherings. Many of those detained have reported injuries from beatings.—AFP