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complaining to higher authorities must be reported to the Party Central Committee. Zhang Guiquan and his sons had killed four people and wounded one—hair-raising atrocities. Should such crimes be reported, and if so, then how?
Neither in Guzhen County nor in Bengbu did the leadership want to face the situation squarely. They probably did not lack conscience, but the events were so sudden, so stark, that they were left with no wiggle room. The Ding Zuoming tragedy, which had so shaken the Party Central Committee, was still fresh in people’s minds. The kind of responsibility they bore and the kind of risk they ran in dealing with the current case were clear to all cadres. Obviously, none of them wanted to take responsibility or run any risk. How else can we explain all the strange happenings in the aftermath of the affair, much less explain why the loss of four lives—even those of mere peasants— was dealt with so off-handedly?
Of course the people who absolutely could not accept the situation were the families of the victims. Zhang Liang, Wei Surong, and several other family members of the victims
the village tyrant
plucked up their courage and once again went to the county authorities and had an audience with the county Party head. They dropped to their knees in front of the young Party head, sobbing out their grievances. When they mentioned that their loved ones were tragically killed in the course of checking the village finances, the Party head flew into a temper: “Who said it has anything to do with auditing? The whole county is going through auditing, how come only your people are killed and no one else?”
The family members were stunned, at a loss for words.
By the logic of this Party boss, a young girl who was raped and wanted justice could be told, “The world is full of beauti-ful young women; how come you and only you are raped?” Such “logic” is outrageous.
The arrests of Zhang Guiquan and his sons did in fact facilitate the auditing of the village finances, and many irregularities of the village’s cadres began to surface. Undoubtedly the problems in Zhang Village were not limited to Zhang Guiquan alone: the Party head, the village chief, and the accountant were all implicated. They had feared and opposed the auditing from the beginning. But the general auditing was ordered by the county, and the village auditing group was appointed and approved by the township. Much as they hated and feared the auditing and were on pins and needles all the time, they were not so stupid as to go on a killing spree. Fortunately for these village cadres who were all more or less compromised, they soon sensed that with the passing of time, the county and township leadership themselves had lost interest in the auditing and were trying all they could to gloss over the crimes of the Zhang father and sons. In this kind of atmosphere, the village cadres resumed their defiance as the auditing dragged on.
will the boat sink the water ?
When the auditing group discovered that in 1997 the peasants of Zhang Village had been overtaxed sixty jin of grain per person, which was obviously against Party policy, they put the case before the village Party boss, Zhang Dianfeng. Zhang, not at all disconcerted, took it all in stride. “Yes,” he said, with a grand manner, “it was by my order. I had my reasons for ordering the extra sixty jin per person. You need not concern yourself.” The auditing group also found out that four village cadres had stolen 2,600 yuan from the sale of village land and had divided it among themselves, and that the village Party boss, Zhang Dianfeng, had taken 6,000 yuan from the sale for himself. He blandly explained to the auditing group, “I know about this. This is called ‘compensation for caretaking.’” When asked whether they had a right to take this money, the Party boss said defiantly, “I had an end in view.”
On another occasion, the auditing group asked another village
David Niall Wilson, Bob Eggleton
Lotte Hammer, Søren Hammer