| |
 |
A legend's struggles
|
Li Jing
YANG JIANCHANG is a legend.
ENTER his name at sohu.com and sina.com, two of the top Chinese websites, and you'll come up with a long list of stories about the man, who is considered by many to be an upright, grassroots crusader for legal rights.
But when I finally met the legend in person in his office at the Luohu District Consumers' Council, I was struck by how normal he seemed.
Yang was talkative and enthusiastic, which surprised me, as I would have expected the many ups and downs of his life to have made him a grim character. Yet there seemed to be no sign of his having endured hardship, aside from some grey hair. The 44-year-old joked that the gray was due to a failed hair-dyeing job. Yet his life has been hard, especially since 1997, when his struggles began in earnest.
The battle begins
Yang Jianchang shot to national fame in August 1997, when more than 300 consumers came to Luohu District Consumers Council (a non-governmental organization to protect consumers' legal rights) to complain that two local stores, the Yuemin Department Store and Taiming International Trade Store Co Ltd, had swindled them with false advertising. Yang reported the incident to government officials as usual, who in turn entrusted the case to the council.
Yang was assigned along with his colleagues to investigate the case. It was during that investigation that the team discovered that Yuemin Department Store and Taiming company regularly cheated customers by means of selling shopping cards and inviting leaseholders and were involved in other illegal acts. Startled, Yang wrote a special report on the case and handed it to the SZ Municipal Government.
"The case is a very big deal, I think," Yang recalled. "Their evil doings have infuriated so many people and even worse, threatened social stability."
On learning of Yang's probe, Taiming Group, the firm behind the two stores in question, responded instantly. The owners, two Hong Kong businessmen-brothers named Peng, brought pressure to bear on Yang via official organizations in an effort to stop his investigation. Meanwhile, they also tried to bribe Yang, offering five million yuan (about US$600,000) on condition he closes the case. Yang, though, turned them down flat.
From then on, Yang began to regularly receive threatening calls. Members of his family had their lives threatened. The Peng brothers set a price of 20million yuan on Yang's head.
"Worried about my safety, my wife and son had tried to persuade me several times to retreat, but I managed to convince them to hang on," Yang smiled. "Once my son failed an exam and blamed me, saying I'd put so much pressure on him that he could not study. I told him what I was doing was absolutely right and I did it in all conscience."
Yang prepared three copies of documents proving Taiming had committed crimes, keeping the copies in different places in case anything happened to him.
"My wife and son would not have dinner until I returned home every day at that time. They even hung an incantation on the door in hopes of protecting my life," Yang recalled. "I'm sorry for bringing about so much pain to my family."
In February 1998, the Peng brothers filed a lawsuit against Yang in the name of the Taiming company, accusing him of harming Taiming's reputation and claiming 17.34 million yuan in compensation, the highest individual claim in the history of New China. Yang was summoned to court eight times, sitting in the defendant's seat. His arguments were met with thunderous applause at the fully occupied court.
In the proceeding two years before the court ruled, Yang didn't give up his investigation, which exposed more of the Taiming group's crimes. The group has illegally registered 28 companies and swindled as much as 2.3 billion yuan. It also earned over two billion yuan through smuggling.
The 10-plus reports on the subject Yang Jianchang submitted to governments at all levels finally aroused the Central Government's attention, including Premier Zhu Rongji. Under Zhu's instruction, the SZ Municipal Public Security Bureau took on the case. Then in 2000, the Shenzhen Municipal Intermediate People's Court ruled that the lawsuit brought against Yang was not untenable and threw the case out.
Sniffing danger in the wind, the Peng brothers slipped out of Shenzhen. In February last year, the Central Government issued a warrant for their arrest and asked for help from INTERPOL, the International Police Organization in nabbing the brothers, who remain at large.
Yang's three-year fight with the Taiming Group ended in victory, but one which, Yang says, came at a high price.
Grassroots voice
Exposure of Yang Jianchang in the mass media during that long battle won him many supporters, especially ordinary people, who rejoiced at finding a person to speak up for their rights.
Zhou Xiaoling is one of them. The 30-something woman works at Yang's office. She said her husband was the defendant in a trumped-up case lodged by his crooked partners.
"They stole our money, but now they put the blame on us simply because they have some behind-the-scenes backers in key departments" She cried. "I don't know what to do. Then I learned of Yang Jianchang from friends, so I turned to him for help."
"There are always good guys in the world, after all," Zhou said.
"Almost every day people like Miss Zhou come to see me here," Yang said with a thick Cantonese accent. "I can hardly cope with so many cases."
Yang described himself as being "born to be a real busybody". His life before 1997 was far from extraordinary. As early as 1984, three years after he came to SZ from Longchuan County, Guangdong Province, he suspected financial problems with the architecture company he was working for. Later on the local revenue bureau, after being notified by him, confirmed that the company has dodged taxes worth a total of 2.6 million yuan. Out of revenge, the company sent thugs to beat up Yang several times. Yang was fired and unemployed for three years. During that period, Yang conducted investigations covering a wide range of sectors of the city and much of his advice was taken by local government organizations. In 1990, Yang Jianchang was rewarded 28,000 yuan, all of which he donated to victims of that year's floods in East China.
"Some joked that I finally found my niche when I was assigned to work with the Luohu District Consumers' Council in 1994 because the job itself needs people of my kind," Yang laughed. "And I agree with them."
Piles of documents and certificates offered by Yang serve as proof. He has handled about 1,830 consumers' complaint cases in his time with the council, involving a total amount of 3.3 billion yuan including the Taiming case. He has written more than 980 reports to help protect legal rights of consumers; and he has been awarded by the State and the local government for his tireless efforts.
In May last year, Yang Jianchang was elected deputy to the third SZ Municipal People's Congress.
Yang said he was much more busy after his election. The 120 telephone lines linking both his office number and home number are always choked with complaint calls from consumers.
"I was elected by people to be their voice. But it doesn't work only with my individual effort, I think." Yang said. "Actually I'm quite tired now."
Yang remarked that laws to regulate the present market economy are still far from perfect, leaving loopholes for businesses with evil intentions. And corruption, he said, is always linked with most big crimes.
"But I believe that it is impossible to get rid of all these evils within a short period. It takes time, and especially the advancement of society. What I can do now is to expose as much wrongdoing as I can so they can be eliminated," he concluded.
|
|
|
|
