Thousands protest at decision to drop alleged police brutality case

● Anger in China over Beijing move ● Officers accused of improper force

Thousands among China’s middle class are signing online petitions to protest the dropping of an alleged police brutality case, representing a rare but concerted display of white-collar outrage with Beijing.

The signatories of at least two online petitions organised through university alumni networks are infuriated by the Beijing prosecutors’ decision last Friday to drop charges against five police over the death of Lei Yang, a 29-yearold graduate of prestigious Renmin University, in police custody in May.

The five police were previously accused by investigators of using improper force and covering up Lei’s death. The response to the authorities’ handling of Lei’s death is the latest manifestation of simmering urban discontent in China, where Communist Party leaders are facing higher expectations – and increasing questions – from the expanding middle class over hot-button issues ranging from environmental pollution to unfairness in the judiciary.

“When something occurs in society that is so dark, so impossible to accept, then it’s like an inner fire in our bones that’s been sparked,” said Yu Li, a signatory who works in the IT sector in Beijing.

The organisers of the petitions said they did not wish to take the protest to the street for fear of swift government retribution. For the same reason, they spoke on condition of anonymity. But the case has threatened to erode the legitimacy of the party among an influential social segment that’s already impatient with years of social woes, including food safety scandals and widespread corruption.

The petitions, which sought a “correction” of the decision to not prosecute the officers, have gathered more than 2,400 signatories of former students of Renmin and some of China’s other top universities. They range from graduates of 1980s chemistry departments to students who received graduate business degrees in the 2000s, as well as prominent academics and the current CEO of a foodstuffs company.

The list has expanded to include alumni of Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Zhejiang University and Fudan University in eastern China. Organisers of the movement said many of the signatories have gathered in more than two dozen Wechat messaging groups, where they were venting and sharing legal analyses, essays and even poetry about Lei’s case.