This is a grim, ugly article about poor Chinese people whose lives have been ruined, often by local cadre officials, and their attempts to petition the CCP for justice.

She lives with her 26-year-old son, Liu Suan, in a dark and foetid underground tunnel.

Petitioners living in an underground tunnel in Beijing
The tunnel where Chi Yumei lives is home to other petitioners too

She sold her house to come to Beijing to seek justice for her son, who was brain-damaged in an accident and was not given any compensation.

Now time is running out. He needs an operation, but Chi Yumei is penniless.

“I can’t talk about it because it makes me cry,” she sobbed.

“My son is too young. I tried to find a government department to solve the problem. But none of them will help. If someone really wanted to help, my son could have his operation.”

By day, they trudge from one government office to another. At each, they join the line of the dissatisfied and dispossessed, filing their complaints into a black hole of bureaucracy.

This type of story belies the great China success story and reveals the dark underbelly of The New China. It’s something they’d rather we not know about. But it’s an escalating problem — as the article says, the petition system is now under incredible strain — and it underscores just how dire life can be when there is no rule of law.

Go read it, but prepare to be upset.