News Analysis To deal with complaints and grievances, the communist regime initiated the Letters and Calls Bureau during Mao Zedong’s era in the early 1950s. Offices of letters and visits were established at all levels from local governments to the central government in Beijing. Petitioners have to take their issues to the relevant office. However, this petition system has evolved to become a part of the persecution machinery under the communist autocratic and corrupt bureaucratic system. When the rights and interests of local residents are infringed on, they complain to the lower-level petition office following the regulations, but the issues are often negated there. The same situation happens at the higher level offices. Consequently, petitioners often resort to petitioning to the State Bureau for Letters and Calls in Beijing. Iron fists are what Chinese petitioners ultimately encounter there, especially during “sensitive days,” when high officials meet for the national days or routine …