Will the Boat Sink the Water?: The Life of China's Peasants (5 page)

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gave their tacit approval of his activities as he continued to spread the word. But they still couldn’t help wondering about where this could lead, saying, “Look at all the villages around us, look at the neighboring townships. Aren’t the bosses doing the same thing? Heaven is high and the emperor beyond our reach. What can you do about it?”

But Ding was not intimidated. “Might is not always right.”

Ding read to them word for word the latest regulation spelled out by the State Council (the central government): agricultural taxes may not exceed 5 percent of annual per capita income from the previous year.* Ding emphasized the 5 percent limit, saying, “It’s obvious, our village is making us pay more than five times the limit. This most recent National Agricultural Conference requested that leadership at all levels protect the peasants and lighten their burden. Our bosses around here are way out of order. Let’s hear what the township leadership has to say.”

Some of the villagers still had reservations. “Will the township bother to listen to us?”

A newly demobilized army man couldn’t help raising his voice: “‘Officials oppress and the people revolt’—an old saying. Anyway, we are going by the rules in appealing to the leadership. If the township ignores us, we can go higher up, to the county!”

The mood of the gathering warmed up as the discussion continued. One said that the village Party boss, Dong Yingfu, had rented out the granary built with funds raised by the community

*The State Council is the central government of the People’s Republic of China and is the chief civilian administrative body of the PRC. It is chaired by the premier and its approximately fifty members are the heads of each governmental department and agency. The State Council is often called simply the central government, in newspaper reports and also in these pages. Detailed information on the State Council is available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/State_Council_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China.

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and pocketed more than 9,000 yuan through the transaction. Later he got rid of the granary altogether and pocketed 30,000 to 40,000 in cash. What’s worse, another pointed out, was that during the last flood, this same Dong had kept back food and clothing designated for their village, even though Party directives had warned that embezzling flood relief could cost you your head. Moreover, some added, the fines for violations of the one-child policy and other “reserves” extracted from the peasants were either not recorded or the records were intentionally messed up.*

The focus of talk moved one tier up, from the village to the township leaders. One thing led to another, and the villagers’ resentment grew from a simmer to a boil. According to some of those present, Kang Zichang, the head of the township, had a rascal of a son who would run amok in the villages sporting an electric prodder and a pair of handcuffs, extorting money right and left under the pretext of collecting taxes. Even during the flood disaster, when there were express directives against any taxation of the peasants, this puppy of Township Head Kang still committed daylight robbery. With a few members of the militia in tow, he had once descended on the village like the Japanese occupying army of the hateful past. The villagers who shut their doors on Kang’s gang had their doors broken down and even got a bill for the “labor” involved. Their pockets filled to bulging, the thugs swaggered into a restaurant, enjoyed an orgy of feasting and drinking, then charged the bill to an “expense account!” The villagers got worked up as more revelations surfaced. Finally, they turned to Ding Zuoming for a decision as to what action to take.

“To make an accusation you need evidence,” Ding said.

*The government started encouraging the practice of the one-child policy in 1979. It is enforced unevenly, depending on the location (stricter enforcement in urban areas) and the particular ethnic population.

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“Let’s go to the township Party Committee and demand a general audit of the village books.”

And so, Ding Zuoming with seven others went to the township office and told the township Party boss, Li Kunfu, of their concerns and requested an audit of the village books. Li read through the list of “reserves” exacted by the village leaders and said, “Yes indeed, this is excessive. We will look through it and let you know in a day or two.”

Two days passed and nothing happened. Another two days passed, followed by another three. Then, at a meeting called by the township where the various village cadres were present, including those from Luying Village, Ren Kaicai, the township deputy Party boss in charge of policy and legal affairs, called on the Party boss of Luying Village, Dong Yingfu, to clarify the question of excessive taxes. Dong was furious—everybody was doing the same—why single him out? When he learned that the villagers had appealed to the township leadership and had requested an audit, he suspected that people were jealous of his newly built tile-roof house. He spat out a challenge: “Some peo-ple want to audit my records. Some even want to tear down my house! I’d like to meet the son-of-a-bitch who has the gall! Others say that I cannot afford to buy a tractor and build a tile-roof house on my salary alone. Cannot afford to? But I did, and what can you do about it? It is called being smart. Too bad you are miserably poor! Serves you right! Want to pick a fight? I guess you’re tired of living.”

Everyone present was shocked that a mere village cadre could have such an outburst at his township superior, but Ren let it pass. When word trickled down to Luying Village about Dong’s outburst at the meeting, everyone was outraged. “What! Is there no law under the Communist sky?”

*

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Ding Zuoming was not going to let the issue go away. Three days before Spring Festival, he wrote out a complete list of the excessive taxes and “village cash reserves” imposed on the peasants of Luying Village and personally took it a further step up the official ladder—to the Disciplinary Committee of the Lixin County Party Committee.

The officer at the reception desk pointed out that Spring Festival was right around the corner, and that Ding Zuoming would have to wait to present his document.

Spring Festival was very sober at Luying Village; there were barely any sounds of festivities.

The days dragged on and soon it was February 9, the eighteenth day of the first lunar month. Spring Festival had come and gone, and still there was no response from the county’s Party Disciplinary Committee. People went to look up Ding and discovered that he had spent the whole of the Spring Festival hol-iday writing out a second letter of complaint against the leadership at Luying Village, listing in detail the heavy burden of the peasants under the abuses of the village as well as the township bosses, describing in detail how they violated Party policy and fleeced the people.

All were moved by the spirit of Ding Zuoming. Indeed, if nobody dares to stick his neck out, what hope is there for us as a nation? That very same night of February 9, the villagers made a collection, one yuan here, eighty fen there, and under cover of night they sent off eight men, including Ding Zuoming, as their representatives, to head for the county seat of Lixin.

The head of the county’s general office who received the representatives saw the letter and realized that the situation in Luying Village was more serious than they had imagined. He immediately reported to the Lixin County Party secretary, Dai Wenhu. Dai, newly arrived at his post, was quite firm in his

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support. “We will direct the township to set up an auditing group as soon as possible, to go over the financial records of Luying Village. As to the problem of the township leadership, we will look into that, too.”

Ding and his seven companions did not linger in the county seat after presenting the letter; to save expenses, they boarded the bus and headed home. Despite the rough ride in the bus, they couldn’t help savoring Dai’s words of support, not knowing that disaster and death were waiting for them at the other end.

Tragedy in the Township

On February 11, the twentieth day of the lunar New Year, that is, two days after Ding and company’s visit to the county seat, at about half past three in the afternoon, two villagers were soaking in the last of the winter sun playing “six rounds,” a locally invented rustic form of chess. The deputy village chief,* Ding Yanle, happened to pass by. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Ding Zuoming among the group of onlookers. By now Deputy Village Chief Ding Yanle knew that Ding’s letter of complaint had included information on himself and his wife, Sun, accusing them of embezzling money from the “village cash reserve” and the fines paid for violations of the one-child policy. Ding Yanle had been storing up resentment and was spoiling for a fight.

He started with a threat. “Hey, this is gambling, I can have you arrested,” he said to the two players, but he kept his eyes on Ding Zuoming.

Ding Zuoming couldn’t help remarking in surprise, “But this

*The head of the village committee and his deputy are village administra-tors; Party functionaries are not responsible for village administration. They are parallel hierarchies.