[404 Archives]Issue 138: “400,000 depositors shattered the Chinese dream in Henan” – a group protest of a rare scale in China in recent years – China Digital Times

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Today we will focus on the recent mass protests in Zhengzhou, Henan province, which are rare in scale.

1. Henan authorities violently crack down on rights-defending depositors

On Sunday, July 10, the gate of the People’s Bank of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, was crowded with citizens holding slogans and banners to protest their rights. They are depositors from all over the country. During the months-long capital crisis of rural banks in Henan, their deposits were frozen, and some were given red “health codes” by the authorities for recovering their deposits, making them unable to travel. The bank funding crisis has been widely reported on Chinese social media, affecting 400,000 depositors with a total of 40 billion deposits, although this figure has not been confirmed by official or mainstream media.

According to reports, the number of protesters at the scene may be 1,000 or 3,000, and the scale is extremely rare in China, which has been under strict social control in recent years.

An online video shows that after five in the morning, depositors wearing masks and sun hats gathered on the steps of the People’s Bank of China; the banners in their hands read: “Bank of Henan, return our legal deposits! The life of the common people. Deposit!”; “Against the corruption and violence of the Henan government, 400,000 depositors have shattered the Chinese dream in Henan”; “Without deposits, there will be no human rights”; “To oppose the oppression of the Henan government, we want justice and the rule of law”; and, “I Standing in front of you is the greatest insult in my life… Please forgive me for embarrassing my motherland.” Some slogans are written in English. Many waved five-star red flags or wore masks with the national flag. Others posted a portrait of Mao Zedong on the two pillars at the entrance of the bank.
In the online video, we can hear the protesters shouting:

Pay back, pay back, pay back, pay back!

Bank of Henan! Pay me back! Bank of Henan! Pay me back!

Media from all walks of life, grandparents from the Central Committee, take a look. This is the Henan government. They used public power and used violent institutions; those police officers surrounded us depositors who were legitimate rights defenders and legal depositors. They also have black-clothed dogs and white-clothed dogs—these people are the auxiliary police, the underworld they raise!

Look at these people, is this still China? Is this still China? Save these people, save these depositors! There are also these command agencies, where they discuss how to deal with these depositors, they are utterly conscientious, these people!

About7 amOut of date, the protesters shouted in unison, “Li Keqiang! Check Henan!”

Soon, on the side of the bank, several lines of men in white stood in front of uniformed police officers, arm in arm and silent.stopCitizens who want to pass.CCP officials and numerous men in black T-shirts standOpposite the protesters, holding megaphones trying to negotiate with the people. The crowd became more and more excited.

11:16, a large number of “people in white” and “people in black” ran towards the protesters. Activists shouted “Underworld!” and threw out water bottles and other items.Some people are surrounded by several peoplepunch and kick,ordrag downstairs. The authorities repeatedly shouted to the public on the radio: “Your actions have been suspected of breaking the law, and you are limited to leave within ten minutes.” The scene was screaming and crying.

The protesters – including several injured – were quickly forced onto the bus. It can be seen from the video posted on the Internet that there are several police officers on each vehicle.

“We have a depositor in the car, and they beat him to death. They won’t give him any medical attention!”

“My eyes were beaten like this by the underworld in Henan. Then there were police officers on the periphery, and I was dragged by the police onto this bus. It hurts a little, and it hurts a little inside my eyeballs.”

“Headache! The head was stepped on, and it was stepped on hard!”

“We are asking to go to the hospital right now, but they just ignore us and the car keeps going forward.”

Protesters were then sent to different locations and forced to sign pledges not to gather again, according to the Associated Press.There is an online video showing that in the afternoon of the same dayA sprinkler arrivesThe empty people’s bank gate clears the scene.

At the same time, a large number of rights protection videos and pictures have been deleted on Weibo, video accounts, Moments and other platforms, and the media has also silenced the incident, and no rights protection related reports can be seen on the wall. At present, Weibo has posted “#Thousands of depositors in front of the People’s Bank of Henan were beaten”, “#People’s Bank of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province beaten people”, “#Thousands of depositors in front of the People’s Bank of Henan were beaten by men in white”, “# Henan Zhengzhou People’s Bank”, “#Zhengzhou710 Incident” and other topics were blocked to artificially reduce the popularity of the incident.

2. From the thunderstorm incident of Henan village and township banks to “there will be a lot of trees in the distance”

This is not the first time that the capital crisis of Henan Rural Banks has caused a stir in public opinion.

Since April this year, Yuzhou Xinminsheng Rural Bank, Shangcai Huimin Rural Bank, Zhecheng Huanghuai Rural Bank, Kaifeng New Oriental Rural Bank, and two Anhui village banks have closed online withdrawals for system maintenance reasons. channel, causing large-scale complaints and online and offline runs.

Although these small banks are unknown at first glance, because they offer higher interest rates than the big four banks, they have long gone to the country through the Internet platform under the banner of “deposit products”. According to a report released by Junzheng Zhida Company, “The scale of the existing Internet deposits of the four village banks on major Internet platforms is tens of billions of yuan, involving nearly one million customers.” (Note: Junzheng Zhida and the four village and town banks are jointly Controlled by Henan New Fortune Group)

The hard-earned money has disappeared, and many families have been in a desperate situation since then. The author Chen Long wrote in the WeChat public account article “60 days of no money withdrawal: some people are blind, some cry, and some give up their dying mother”:

“Ye Feng, a businessman from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, started his business from scratch. He deposited nearly 40 million yuan in a village bank, but he couldn’t get the money out. This middle-aged man was lying on the ground crying; the 240,000 yuan that single mother Li Ling had worked so hard to save “disappeared”. He gave her 100 yuan for “picking up bottles and paper shells” and asked her to make up for it; another single mother Xu Liping from Suzhou, Anhui, provided her daughter with uremia treatment after she finished college, but couldn’t get the money for her mother’s uremia treatment .”

Since May, many people have gathered at the gate of the Zhengzhou Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau to protest. At that time, the official representative reassured the public: “As long as the money is deposited legally and compliantly, it will be protected by law”, but these guarantees have never been fulfilled. Since then, more and more depositors from different places have tried to go to Henan for local withdrawals and petitions; however, although some people are from low-risk areas, once they enter Henan, the normal health code green code turns into a red code. People who have been given red codes cannot take public transportation or enter any public places.

An anonymous netizen commented on the red code incident of depositors saying:“You owe the bank money, and you are a rascal. The bank owes you money, and you are a red-code rascal.”

In June, the Public Security Bureau of Xuchang City, Henan Province issued a notice saying that since April, the local public security began to investigate Lu Mou, the actual controller of Henan New Wealth Group, who had fled to the United States with money and was “suspected of using village banks to commit a series of serious crimes”.

After the large-scale protests by depositors broke out again on July 10, the Henan police issued a statement again, naming the suspect’s full name Lu Yi, and saying that the public security organs had “captured another batch of criminal suspects, and sealed up, detained, and frozen in accordance with the law. A batch of funds and assets involved in the case. The investigation and handling of the case is progressing in an orderly manner.”

On July 11, the Henan Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau and the Henan Provincial Local Financial Regulatory Bureau issued an announcement stating that they will start to make advance payments to “customers with a combined amount of less than 50,000 yuan per person in a single institution” four days later. Commentators have questioned the vague terminology in the announcement: the government’s definition of the advance payment group is not “depositors”, and the definition of these funds is not “deposit”, but “off-book business customer principal.” Some people also believe that paying some depositors in advance is a means to divide the protesters: “First, at the minimum cost, implement the division and disintegration, and then leave the large customers with an iron fist.”

3. From point to point, Henan used administrative power to create a social event

From the inability of individual depositors to withdraw money in April to the confrontation between thousands of depositors and the police in July, the path of rights protection for the depositors of Henan Rural Banks has become more and more difficult, and the situation has intensified. The author “Youma Sports” wrote in his WeChat public account article “Difficulty in Henan: A legal issue of legitimate rights protection has become a social issue”:

A legal issue of legitimate rights protection has become a social issue, fueled by the use of compulsory resources, and the village bank incident finally ushered in an outbreak. The rights protection incident of Henan village banks evolved in the interaction between Henan and depositors. When the rights and interests of ordinary people are damaged and there is no way to appeal, the relevant departments are slow to solve the problem; operations such as “assigning red codes” and grounding isolation complicate the normal rights protection problem, and rough actions make this complicated problem simple. deal with. A legal issue of legitimate rights protection has become a social issue, fueled by the use of compulsory resources, and the village bank incident finally ushered in an outbreak. The rights protection incident of Henan village banks evolved in the interaction between Henan and depositors. When the rights and interests of ordinary people are damaged and there is no way to appeal, the relevant departments are slow to solve the problem; operations such as “assigning red codes” and grounding isolation complicate the normal rights protection problem, and rough actions make this complicated problem simple. deal with.

We need to realize that in such interactions, whether complex or simple, it reflects Henan’s strong position in managing and controlling resources, means and capabilities. This kind of strength fuels people’s anger. We have seen in the relevant conflicts that the demands advocated by depositors are not only about getting back their deposits, but also a broader question about Henan. Individual sporadic rights protection turned into collective complaints, and simple economic demands turned into widespread doubts. Henan used administrative power to create a social incident.

4. Public opinion controversy caused by rights protection depositors seeking help from “foreign forces”

Anger and helplessness brought another ironic phenomenon—many people who had nowhere to turn for help turned to the U.S. embassy and once-besieged foreign journalists they were usually happy to curse at.

After a large number of rights protection videos and pictures were deleted on Chinese domestic social media, many netizens rushed to the official Weibo account of the US Embassy in China to comment, hoping that the US could pay attention to the rights protection incident of Henan Rural Bank depositors and help those who are unable to speak out due to the suppression. people.

Netizen @”quiet operation” said: “Please pay attention to the incident of the beating of the depositors in Henan, I know that you, as Jane Zhong’s renters[界]’Basically, your blog will not be deleted. This is your chance to show your goodwill, and it is also the only chance for the victims to be officially reported. “

Many people also expressed their hope that foreign media would pay attention to Zhengzhou. Netizen “Mi Zr” said:

Are there any good people who publicize Zhengzhou Big Bank in front of foreign media, and they all say that family shame cannot be made public, but those who serve the people are shameless, and the common people cannot survive. Are there any good people who publicize Zhengzhou Big Bank in front of foreign media, and they all say that family shame cannot be made public, but those who serve the people are shameless, and the common people cannot survive. “

But the appeals also immediately drew some sarcasm. Some netizens commented on the protest pictures on the spot: “There are also English banners. At this time, foreign forces are eager to pay attention.” When I heard the news, I did everything possible to speak up for the people, but I was chased away by you, this time I couldn’t get the money from the bank, how dare foreign media reporters come!”

In addition, some people imitated the tone of support for the Hong Kong police on the Internet during the Hong Kong pro-democracy protest movement in 2019 and said sarcastically: “I support the Henan police, you can beat me.” Police enforcement.”

This view based on “ethnic inferiority” that savers are deserving and unsympathetic voices has also been criticized by some.

A commenter pointed out:The political understanding and political stance of the Chinese people are the result of the CCP’s propaganda and manipulation, and the so-called “inferiority” is also the result, not the cause, of totalitarian rule.

Writer Murong Xuecun also tweeted: “There are only a few people who blocked the BBC in the floods in Zhengzhou, and hundreds of thousands of depositors suffered losses in village banks. It is almost impossible for the two to overlap. It can’t be equated.”

In response to this comment, human rights lawyer Teng Biao also added: “Even if the people who blocked the foreign media and the victimized Henan depositors were completely the same, we should support their rights protection and protests. I don’t believe there are foreign media because of them. He was besieged in Henan and deliberately did not report the incident.”

Lu Yuyu, who recorded the protests of civil rights protection incidents, also pointed out that when foreign media left China, of course, they were not driven away by a few Chinese people.

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