Champion of the downtrodden has no regrets
Li Changping, 39, has become a symbol of social conscience after he wrote a letter to Premier Zhu Rongji two years ago pleading for the country's farmers.
Mr Li, who holds a Master's degree in economics, was a Communist Party secretary of four different townships in Hubei province for 15 years from 1985.
Disturbed by what he read in the official press as cadres tried to score political points by painting a rosy picture, Mr Li decided to tell Beijing leaders the truth.
In his letter, Mr Li revealed the bleak situation in Qipan township. Almost all the young people in the township had left to find work in cities and 65 per cent of the farmland had been left idle. A family of five paid at least 350 yuan (HK$329) a year for each mu (0.07 of a hectare) of farmland they looked after, and 85 per cent of farmers were losing money.
'Farmers are miserable, rural villages are so poor and agriculture is in crisis,' Mr Li wrote in his 4,000-word letter.
Although he was forced to quit as Qipan party secretary after creating too many enemies, Mr Li said he had no regrets. 'I feel so sorry for the farmers. They do not earn much and we ask them to contribute so much money,' he said.
The letter alarmed the leadership, which sent an undercover investigative team to Qipan a month later. Leaders in Beijing then ordered the provincial leaders to carry out drastic reforms in Jianli county, where Qipan is located. As a result, levies and taxes paid by the farmers to local authorities in 2000 dropped from 13.8 million yuan in 1999 to 5.9 million yuan.
