Just months prior to the 19th Party Congress, Xinhua reported that the State Office of Letters and Calls, the highest office for dealing with petitions, had announced that Petitions lodged against the government had dropped across China by a quarter last year compared with 2013. It said this followed a drive to encourage citizens to settle disputes through the courts and a crackdown targeting rights lawyers. It did not, however, release the actual number of petition cases, which is still considered a sensitive topic in China. The report said the number was brought down in several ways. For example, Shanghai, Shandong, and Guangdong did so by diverting petitions relating to court cases back to the judicial system. Jilin, Yunnan and Shaanxi brought down the number by sending out inspection teams to the grass roots, so disputes could be solved before petitions are sent to higher offices. The Chinese authorities have been trying to reduce the number of petitioners travelling to Beijing and other main cities by making online petitioning more convenient. State media reported last year that online petitions made up 40 per cent of the number filed. Online petitions were also the single most common way of appealing to the authorities.

(Comment: Petitions are considered a great threat to social stability by the Chinese authorities. The CDIC said it had received 1.9 million petitions and complaints in 2013.)