Foreign petitioner highlights a system bent to power
- Source: Global Times
- [22:58 December 22 2009]
- Comments
Illustration: Liu Rui
By Xiao Kailin
Julie Harms, an young American woman, did not expect her love for Liu Shiliang, a young man from Anhui Province, would lead to her spending five months waiting outside Beijing government offices and petitioning officials.
Liu was arrested in June for trespassing, on reportedly dubious legal grounds tied to a village struggle, and since then Harms, his fiancée, has been petitioning for his release.
After going through the petitioning process, Harms discovered the differences and gaps between the cultures and legal systems in China and the US. As a foreign petitioner, Harms, 31 and a Harvard graduate, stood out among the crowd of petitioning Chinese.
She has been called a foreign Qiu Ju, after the heroine of the 1992 film The Story of Qiu Ju, directed by the famous filmmaker Zhang Yimou. The film tells how Qiu, a rural woman from northwest China, seeks justice for her husband by petitioning again and again. In the film, Qiu's confused but stubborn eyes are very impressive. Qiu's line "I just ask for an explanation" quickly became a popular catchphrase.
Harms insists that her fiancé is innocent. Over the last five months, she started petitioning in China in her own way and experienced every part of the system, including going to Beijing, queuing, appealing and waiting.
After carefully studying Chinese law, Harms concluded, "In China, the law depends on people and relations." Therefore, she considered petitioning US President Barack Obama during his visit to China.
