China: Mass show of sympathy over Hubei man beaten to death

Thousands of ordinary Chinese citizens have gathered outside government offices in the central city of Tianmen, Hubei province, in a popular wave of anger and sympathy following the beating to death of a man last week by law enforcement officials.

Wei Wenhua, the manager of a water resources construction company connected to the municipal government water resources department, and a member of the ruling Communist Party, was beaten to death by a dozen urban management officials, or chengguan, on Jan. 7.

The officials were angry because he filmed them, using his mobile phone camera, clashing with local residents opposed to waste-dumping on a site near their homes.

Wei’s death has prompted a mass outpouring of grief and anger in the city, with thousands gathering outside government offices Wednesday, and filing past a shrine to pay their respects Thursday.

“Shrines have set up spontaneously by ordinary people,” a Tianmen taxi driver told RFA’s Mandarin service. [湖北天门城管打死人引发群体性事件仍在持续]

“One of them is outside the water resources department of the municipal government. People are placing wreaths there. Their respects are being received by a few of Wei’s former colleagues.”

“There are people from all walks of life, high status and low, from Tianmen city. The taxi drivers clubbed together and bought six wreaths with our own money. There is a spontaneous stream of visitors to the shrine,” said the taxi driver, who is in the middle of a dispute with the government over the levying of fees and charges on his trade.

Wei’s death has also sparked massive media interest, both mainstream and among bloggers and commenters on forums. Many comments are extremely angry.

Free News writes, in summary:

 天门市水利局一名张姓负责人说，当地成千上万的群众已聚集到市政府和主要街道声援魏文华家属，要求政府伸张正义。行凶的城管队员是正规城管人员，但却做出了违法违规的乱执法行为，该负责人表示，“我们感到很愤慨。”

A spokesperson for the water resources department of the Tianmen municipal government said thousands of people had turned out, both in front of the government buildings and in the surrounding streets, to show solidarity with Wei’s family, and to call for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

He said the chengguan who killed Wei were genuine chengguan, but they had commited an illegal and immoral act. “We are very resentful,” he told the media.

TangCao writes, on the 1510 BBS, in a post entitled “How dare the chengguan beat someone to death?”

湖北省天门市水利建筑工程公司总经理魏文华被天门市城管执法人员围攻，当场被暴打致死，看到这样的新闻，作为中国人，心里非常难过。

I was very sad to read the news of the beating to death…in Tianmen city.

据介绍，死者是一位“因为乐于助人连续数年都被单位评为学雷锋标兵”，在“天门市水利系统内”“连续数年都被评为水利系统的“十大标兵”和天门市的优秀党员。”的“好人”，但就是这样的一个好人，仅仅因为遇到城管打人拍照作证，就被城管们给活活打死了。

According to my understanding…the man was a model worker in the water resources department of the municipal government, and an exemplary member of the Communist Party. So how could such a good man end up beaten to death by chengguan because he was filming them beating someone else?

城管到底是什么人？为什么他们敢做出这样毫无人性的事情？

What sort of people are these chengguan? How come they dare to carry out such an inhuman deed?

更 离谱的还在后头，当死者家属希望引起有关部门的重视，在市委大院设灵堂，在市委副书记正要对家属进行安抚之前，“七八十名便衣男子从魏家手中抢走魏文华的 尸体，并将他在地上拖行十余米远。”这是什么人呢！还算是人吗？连死者为大的祖训都不知道？对死亡这样的大事都没有一点敬畏之心？

It gets worse. When the man’s family were trying to persuade the city authorities to take notice of the case, and to allow them to set up a shrine for condolences inside the municipal Party secretariat, and around the time that the deputy Party secretary was offering his condolences, about 10 plainclothes police were engaged in snatching Wei’s corpse, dragging it along the floor for about 10 meters! What sort of people are these? They are surely not human at all, if they don’t understand the rules of respect for the dead. Do they have no respect at all for a momentous event like death?

 城管为什么敢把人打死

Image: via Shanghaiist. Slogan reads: “In an emergency, seek out the chengguan.”