A meeting with premier puts village woman in awkward situation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 15, 2004

A meeting with premier puts village woman in awkward situation

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Premier Wen Jiabao in Chongqing

As China's most unlikely heroine, Xiong Deming has finally decided to leave her hometown and look for a job in the city to avoid the fame that has been dogging her since she complained to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in last October.

"I have no professional training and I don't know what kind of work I can do in the city," said Xiong. "If I had other choices, I would rather stay in my village and feed pigs."

The 42-year-old ordinary woman from a remote village of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality never expected to be in such an awkward situation after complaining about a local construction company defaulting on payment of her husband's 2,240 yuan (270 US dollars) wages.

She relayed her tale of woe to Premier Wen Jiabao in October 2003 when Wen made a surprise inspection of Xiong's Longquan Village of Yunyang County, Chongqing.

After talking with the premier, Xiong got her husband's wages within six hours. More importantly, Xiong's complaint to the premier became the fuse to a nationwide campaign to retrieve defaulted payments for migrant workers and she became a heroine to millions of migrant rural laborers in China.

"Since then, my life has become such a fuss," Xiong complained.

What troubles Xiong is not only the mania of the media, but also visits of migrant rural laborers seeking help from her around the country.

Just a few days ago, Xiong received 12 migrant workers from other regions. After hearing their complaints, she had to borrow food and quilts to arrange for board and lodging for the uninvited visitors.

So far Xiong has received 600 to 700 such migrant workers coming from around the country to ask for her help to retrieve their defaulted wages and more have written to her expressing the same demands.

"They thought I must have the ability to retrieve their defaulted payments. But I am just an ordinary country woman, what can I do for them?" Xiong said.

The pressure for money is the first burdensome as even the 700 yuan (84 US dollars) Xiong's husband mailed home every month cannot meet the costs of housing the visitors.

"But they all have the same experience as my husband and come from afar with such big hopes, how can I turn my back on them?" Xiong said.

Many times, Xiong shed tears over the bitter experience of fellow migrant workers.

Xiong received a letter from a migrant worker named Song Xiaolin who is working in Shandong Province and hadn't been home to northeastern Heilongjiang Province for six years because of defaults of his wages, along with 94 other workers. In the letter, he said if Xiong could help him to retrieve his payment he would pay her back by working for her for three years.

"I have been tortured by such stories, but it's really beyond my power," Xiong said.

Xiong's wish is to cultivate her land well and raise more pigs. But just this simple wish has been disturbed by media interview, social activities and visiting migrant workers.

Another problem troubling Xiong is the estrangement and isolation from her neighboring villagers.

After Xiong becoming famous overnight, there was a rumor in the village that Xiong received a large reward.

"My villagers think I should take out the money to help them. But since I haven't got any reward at all, what can I pay them?" said Xiong. "Now I feel isolated in my village and I am not happy at all."

Xiong planned to raise more pigs this year but she had to give up as she failed to get a loan. Disappointedly, she decided to find a job in the city.

A company in Chongqing had offered job opportunities for Xiong and her husband.

"They will pay me a monthly wage of 1,000 yuan (120 US dollars) and my husband 600 yuan (72 US dollars). But I am wondering what kind of job I can do?" Xiong asked.

"The confusion Xiong has encountered is to be expected," said Yu Ping, director of the sociology research institute of Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences.

According to statistics from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, China has about 94 million migrant rural laborers, whose employers are in arrears up to some 100 billion yuan (12 billion US dollars).

"Xiong does represent that the man in the street can also change the status quo of China's economy, but fundamentally, the protection of migrant workers' interests depends on the laws rather than top leaders' concern," said Prof. Yu.

Although tired of various kind of interviews, Xiong said she had never regretted her honesty in telling the truth to the premier, since her words "have helped so many migrant rural laborers to retrieve their defaulted wages."

For both Xiong and Prof. Yu, the message sent from the ongoing sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) signals more importance will be attached by the Chinese government to the welfare of farmers.

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