China's Constitution states that all citizens are equal before the law, but
personal injury compensation standards tell a different story.
National legislator Zhang Peiyang has drawn up a motion detailing the
inequity of current compensation payments especially between rural and urban
residents.
"I've proposed the National People's Congress makes a law on personal injury
compensation," Zhang said yesterday while attending the annual session of the
country's top legislature in Beijing.
"The purpose is to remove the often wide gap of compensation standards for
injuries to people of different households or occupations."
In one case, the family of a farmer, surnamed Li, who was killed in a traffic
accident last year in East China's Anhui Province, was compensated 52,000 yuan
($6,667). The amount was based on a Supreme People's Court (SPC) law
interpretation that death payments be 20 times the average annual per capita net
income of rural residents.
But had Li held an urban resident's permit, his family would have been able
to claim at least three times more.
In a more dramatic case, heated national debate was sparked after the family
of a rural woman killed in a traffic mishap in Chongqing, Southwest China in
2005, was paid less than the families of the two urban residents killed in the
same accident.
"The Constitution states that all citizens are equal before the law, but the
discriminatory compensation standards denote the victims are in fact not equal,"
Zhang said.
In his motion submitted to the top legislature, Zhang asked the National
People's Congress to make a law mandating a unified compensation standard to be
applied to personal injury cases regardless of social factors.
When someone liable is unable to pay compensation the State must close the
gap and pay victims, Zhang said.
Zhou Yuzhong, a lawyer with Junzhijie Law Firm in Guangzhou, said a separate
bill giving equal treatment in personal injury cases could be a long way off.
A more realistic option was for the Supreme People's Court to "revise its
interpretations", Zhou said.
Zhang Li, a national legislator from Chongqing, said the SPC had promised it
would make some changes to its interpretation on the compensation of personal
injury cases sometime this year, in response to an earlier request to bring
payments into line.
Zhang also presented a motion to the top legislature, proposing the State
Compensation Law be amended to better protect the rights of those who die or are
injured while in custody.
There have been occasional reports that some people in detainment had
sustained severe wounds or even died.
"The State Compensation Law should include a clause stating that if a citizen
dies, goes missing or is injured when he or she was taken into official custody
and lost personal freedom, the custodians should assume the responsibility of
proving that they did not cause this," Zhang said.
"If the custodians could not provide evidence or could not be otherwise
exempted from their responsibilities, they must pay compensation."
(China Daily 03/14/2007 page5)
