Washington
June 4, 2014
At the strong urge of many Chinese citizens and human rights activists, Citizen Power for China (a.k.a Initiatives for China) today officially launched an initiative, “Operation Vulture Hunt” [射鹏行动] to vigorously and fully investigate many alleged corruption cases against China’s former premier Li Peng and his family through online crowd sourcing.
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| Investigation website is now online at www.shepeng.org |
Li Peng, who held tremendous power during his many decades in China’s officialdom, ended up the second-most powerful man in China before he retired. During his years as a top official, many spent in China’s national electricity industry, he placed his children, relatives and many cronies in key positions in this highly monopolized sector. The Li Peng network still controls these positions in government agencies and state-owned enterprises, forming a giant, intertwined network of special interest groups that trade power for money. As a result, the electricity industry is now one of the most corrupt sectors. The Chinese people have even developed a nick-name for these officials: “E-tigers.” Almost every Chinese citizen is the direct victim of their corruption because of the ubiquitousness nature of their reach. These E-tigers must be hunted to assuage the people’s anger and they must be caught to protect people’ livelihood.
Dr. Yang Jianli, founder of CPFC and a former political prisoner of conscience, stated that “as the recent anti-corruption campaign continues, a few E-tiger cubs were caught and fell into disgrace, but I think if the big E-tigers and the king E-tiger are not touched, corruption in the power sector will continue and the people will continue to suffer. This is why we launched this citizen action to mobilize people from all walks of life to report clues and evidence about corruption among E-tigers. With this information we will then retain domestic and international professionals to investigate and analyze the facts on each case of corruption, and rigorously and thoroughly expose each and every instance committed by the Li Peng clan.”
In order for the public to follow the progress of the investigation, CPFC and human rights defenders inside and outside of China have worked to set up “Operation Vulture Hunt” websites, under which the relevant information is collected and classified for public consumption. Chinese citizens can use the website to report the Li Peng family’s corruption, or help identify its interest network, either anonymously or with their real names. The address for “Operation Vulture Hunt” website is as follows: http://shepeng.org/
The project will set up a citizen moot court, and initiate trials based on the findings of these investigations, so that citizens can get to the bottom of these alleged acts of corruption.
The project will also forward the investigation findings, rulings of the trials, and related evidence to the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Chinese judicial authorities, and to urge China’s current judicial authorities to bring the Li family to trial through due process. If the Chinese judicial authorities do not act or are ineffective, we will organize a team of citizen lawyers to initiate class actions in the Chinese and international courts in accordance with the “United Nations Convention against Corruption ” and other relevant domestic and international laws, to seek remedies and get justice for the victims.
The evidence and information collected under the project will also be archived for the future democratic judicial system in China and to serve as evidence for the purpose of transitional justice.
CPFC urges Chinese citizens and friends from all sectors to actively participate in “Operation Vulture Hunt”, and CPFC hopes that, through this action, citizens will be empowered, their awareness of their own rights will be raised, and their self-governance and self-organizing ability will be improved. Eventually, we can open a path to democratic constitutional oversight of and participation in their government, and achieve the goal of democracy, freedom, human rights, rule of law, and justice.