WORLD NEWS: "Beijing Seeks to Put an End to Petitioning: China's Proposed Rules, Changing Traditional System of Addressing Individuals' Grievances, Draws Criticism," by Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal< 22-23 August 2009.

The whole petitioning thing is so imperial: asking the great emperor for a favor in your special case.

So China, as the 60th anniversary looms, fears an onslaught of these petitions, as if to the emperor on his umpty-squat anniversary. So new regs move to snuff out the ancient tradition. And I do mean ancient.

The commies kept the system as a safety valve in a country with a weak judicial system.

The problem? Local governments are quite corrupt in China, so people feel they have nowhere else to turn than to the national bureaus.

So the new system says local officials must have an open office day once a week and that country-level ones must do it every month. The central state will continue to monitor from above to root out abuses by locals.

Hmmm. No wonder people want to petition the emperor.

The new rule set seems no better than the old. The legal system is still lacking, and now the upward appeal is banned. Hard to see how that makes the system less brittle.