Due to a flurry of factory bankruptcies across the nation, the number of migrant workers going to Beijing to appeal is increasing markedly. Beijing requires all local governments in the political-legal committee to emphatically work on preventing and controlling “petition riots.” An article from the website of the People’s Daily on December 23, 2008, recommends that the whole country follow the regulation issued by (the government of) Sanxi Province to give harsh punishments to petitioners. The article reveals that the office of the Taiyuan Municipal Party Committee and the Political-Legal Committee issued a notice to punish those who go to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, Zhongnanhai, foreign embassies in China, central government leaders’ places, and provincial and municipal Party and government offices to appeal, as well as those who organize and instigate group appeals.
Source: Boxun, December 23, 2008
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2008/12/200812231119.shtml