Chinese lawmaker demands equal death compensation for urban, rural residents
12/3/2006 11:20
The lives of China's urban residents are worth much more than those of
rural residents, but the inequality is expected to be rectified this year as the
Supreme People's Court has promised to revise relevant law
interpretations.
"I have received a reply from the Supreme People's Court
which said the issue might be resolved this year," said Zhang Li, a deputy to
the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.
For two consecutive
years, Zhang has submitted the same motion to the NPC on abolishing
discriminatory compensation standards for the deaths of urban or rural
residents. It seems his insistence has paid off.
Zhang cited a traffic
accident taking place on Dec. 15, 2005, in Southwest China's Chongqing
Municipality. He Yuan, a 14-year- old girl, and two friends went to school on a
tricycle. A truck hit the tricycle and killed them all.
The parents of He
Yuan were angered to learn that they could only get some 50,000 yuan (US$6,250)
of compensation while the families of the other two girls received more than
200, 000 yuan respectively.
Such a court ruling was based on the
interpretations of personal injury cases issued by the Supreme People's Court on
Dec. 4, 2003. The interpretations stipulate that death compensation should be 20
times the average annual disposable income of urban residents of the previous
year or 20 times the average annual per capita net income of rural residents in
that area.
Official statistics show that in 2005 the per capita disposable
income of China's urban residents was 10,493 yuan and rural per capita net
income was 3,255 yuan.
"The interpretations go against the principle
enshrined in the Constitution that all citizens are equal before the law," said
Zhang.
"The difference in compensation denotes discrimination against rural
people," he said. "Such interpretations must be amended."
Zhang submitted a
motion to the NPC annual session on revising the interpretations last year, and
was replied that "the issue is under deliberation." He rewrote his motion and
submitted it again to the NPC session this year.
Zhang has won the support of
some other NPC deputies and members of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political
advisory body. They also called on judicial departments to ponder the issue and
remove the wide gap of compensation standards in personal injury cases.
"The
issue is expected to be addressed this year," Zhang quoted a recent reply from
the Supreme People's Court as saying.
Xinhua News
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