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Police raid on a couple's home draws debate ( 2003-08-01 07:08) (China Daily)
The legal standing of private homes is hardly newsworthy, but there has been a considerable hoopla following the media's exposure of the notorious August 18 police raid in Northwestern Shaanxi Province on a couple's home, in which they were charged with watching an adult movie. The page-14 article in Wednesday's People's Daily interested me a lot. "Citizens' residences should be inviolable,'' the headline stated in bold characters. It would not have impressed me at all if it not been in the paper that is widely regarded as the political barometer of present-day China. Among five outstanding sentences that carry the article's main ideas, was the statement that "public authorities have no right to pry into citizens' privacy'' as well as the often-heard that private homes are places "wind and rain can break in, but not the king.'' All this seems to be repetition of the obvious. The theoretical roles of citizens and civilian governments are commonplace in western ideologies. Respect for people's residences, be they permanent or temporary, constitutes an essential guarantee for not only their property, but also for their freedom of action. Article 39 of our Constitution expresses a very similar idea. "The residence of a citizen of the People's Republic of China is inviolable. Searching or intrusion into a citizen's residence in violation of law is prohibited,'' it says. The conspicuous People's Daily article, though a belated response to a once-hot public issue, represents a serious answer to the recent loud calls to discipline lawless law enforcement in the aftermath of the Shaanxi police raid. That sensational episode, along with the death of a young fashion designer, allegedly as a result of police brutality, ignited an unprecedented number of references to the country's seldom-quoted Constitution. As if all of a sudden, people woke up to the reality that many law enforcement practices, and in some cases even public practices are in violation of the Constitution. The death of Sun Zhigang, the fashion designer who died from a beating in Guangzhou while waiting to be sent home as an illegal migrant worker, prompted law experts to appeal for investigation of a decree authorizing police to collect and forcefully send home people roaming or begging in cities. The State Council stopped such an attempt by nullifying the decree it had issued two decades ago and issued a more humanitarian relief programme that is already in operation in major cities. The legal professionals' challenge to a government rule and the discussion of citizens' rights and State power, as is evident in the People's Daily article, reflect the budding of a very positive transition in our society -- administrative power is no longer absolute. Shaanxi police authorities released the detained husband, returned his confiscated property and apologized. That apology was unusual because it came from a department with coercive power that hides behind the cover of justice. The unwarranted police raid in Shaanxi, along with the unwarranted force involved in Sun Zhigang's death, have made the public consciousness that those supposed to safeguard justice do not automatically become loyal custodians of justice. The most effective precaution against their abuse of power, is to expose their performance to public scrutiny. The increasingly vocal debate over the legality of public policies, which was a taboo subject in public until very recently, is not only a mark of the new national leadership's tolerance of different opinions. It also has to do with their idea to give the Constitution teeth and introduce democracy in decision-making. Their tacit consent to diversity is generating a constructive dialogue between the government and the public. This is a very good thing that is bound to bring great benefit to the country in the long run.
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