The Nanchang Bridge in Jiangxi was the scene of a mass protest against judicial corruption on the evening of Aug. 4.
Several hundred locals, wearing white headbands inscribed with the injustices they endured and threatening to jump off a bridge, were seeking to expose the alleged crimes of an appeals court vice-director, Guo Bing.
The protest did not end profitably or peacefully for the demonstrators, as the local police department sent in a large squad of riot police to break up the protest, resulting in many injuries.
The protesters had three specific grievances: First, they say Guo and others took close to US$93 million in bribes from a private real estate firm; second, there are over 300 local workers who are awaiting five years’ worth of unpaid wages; finally, a reporter who dared to investigate and expose all this was jailed
In 2004, three foremen contacted a construction project and subsequently organized 200 plus migrant workers who worked day and night for two years to finish within the deadline.
However, the Zejiang Dongyang Third Construction Company owed these workers more than a million US dollars in back pay. The workers then initiated legal proceedings, which dragged on fruitlessly for five years. In the end, Guo Bing and the Jiangxi court accepted a bribe and threw out the case.
Another protester at the scene was a former staff reporter at the Jiangxi station of China Property News, Xiong Ximao. He was sent to investigate the court cases related to the Nanchang Xinhong Company and the Nanchang Department Store. The investigation found that these cases contained many incidences of abuse of state-own assets, illegal falsification of debts and allowing creditors to take over privately owned properties.
After exposing the case in an online article, Xiong suffered retaliation from Guo Bing and others and was eventually put in jail for one year and three months on a charge of “attempted extortion.”
Read the original Chinese article.
