ESWN asked, on the Chinese Content Wikispace, whether the Pengshui officials’ transfer constituted a promotion or a demotion. Here is some background on the Pengshui SMS poem libel case from his blog:
At noon on August 15, 2006, Qin Zhongfei sent out a poem via SMS about corruption and ineptitude in Pengshui county. This poem apparently touched some nerves. According to Observation magainze, the Pengshui party secretary Lan Qinghua has been at his post for six years and county mayor Zhou Wei has been at his post for five years. As such, they were due for transfer/promotion and they didn’t want to hear about any negative news when the higher-ups come around to evaluate their performances in order to determine their next assignments.
According to information, on the morning of September 1, 2006, leaders from the Pengshui public security bureau, procuratorate and court met to discuss the case along with other department not related to political law. The decision was to charge Qin Zhongfei with libel.
Well, I looked at RFA’s Cantonese service homepage, and they’d done a report trying to answer just that question.
So, in the spirit of the Chinese Content Working Party, I thought I’d translate the relevant interviews:
An official who answered the phone at the Pengshui county government offices was unable to confirm that former county Party secretary Lan Qinghua had been posted to deputy director of the Chongqing municipal statistics bureau, but he denied that the move constituted a promotion.
“Promotion? No, no, no,” he told RFA’s Cantonese service. “It’s the same. Even if he was promoted he would still be the county chief. “Yes, that’s right, [Lan Qinghua] has stopped working here. I don’t know much about it. Perhaps you should ask the municipal work organisation department because I don’t know the details. Municipal-level governement would have behind any movement of local leaders, not the county level.”
In mid-January a Chongqing Municipal People’s Congress representative, Sun Jianceng, submitted a question to the 5th plenum of the congress, suggesting that the Pengshui poem incident constitute official abuse of power, and of the justice system, saying that there should be a public enquiry into illegal activities on the part of the officials concerned, and disciplinary action taken.
Sun told RFA: “This incident would not have been concluded so quickly if it weren’t for the various reports in the media and in other places…I believe that they would have been promoted if it hadn’t been for this incident.”
Qin Zhongfei’s lawyer said he couldn’t comment because he was on holiday for lunar new year and didn’t know what was going on.
…Umm. Not quite sure if that answers your question, Roland.
Filed under: China, East Asia, Newsdesk, cantonese, china_civil_rights, china_civilrights, china_media, east_asia, media | Tagged: radio_free_asia
[...] can take Lan to the city, but can you call it a promotion? [blocked] Was this an assignment to a lower rank, a flat transfer or a move up? The Communist [...]