Chinese tourist mistaken as petitioner "beaten unconscious"

A young Chinese tourist travelling on his own in Beijing was forced back to his hometown and beaten unconscious after being mistaken for a petitioner who had come to the capital to air a grievance, local media reported on Friday.

Millions of petitioners visit government offices across China every year to demand redress and are often treated by officials as an embarrassing nuisance, even a threat to control, despite rules that say they should be given a hearing.

People with complaints are often pounced on by police sent up from the provinces and held in a government-run centre to be forced home, or detained in illicit "black jails", to stop unwanted light being shed on local problems in Beijing.

The Beijing News, in a story widely picked up by Chinese websites, including that of the official Xinhua news agency, said that Zhao Zhiwen checked into a Beijing hotel and ended up sharing a room with three other people, who were petitioners.

The next day, all four were dragged out of the hotel by unidentified men and taken back to their home province of Henan in central China, the report said. Zhao was later found unconscious in a street in Luoyang city, having been beaten up.

"Perhaps the wrong person was caught," the newspaper quoted Luoyang police as saying.

The story spread quickly across China's popular Twitter-like service, Sina Weibo, with users expressing shock and anger at the violence meted out to Zhao.

"Those damn Henan official are the worst!" wrote "starting 123".

Premier Wen Jiabao met petitioners in Beijing in January, in a rare public show of worry about unhappiness with the government.

Wen's meeting amounted to a blunt acknowledgement that China's feverish economic growth had also brought discontent, especially over land confiscations, harsh work conditions and corrupt bureaucrats.