In preparation for the Olympic Games last year, an order went out from Beijing to local governments to stop petitioners from coming to the capital, in order to “create a healthy social environment for the successful hosting of the Beijing Olympics”. Although the order from the Ministry of Public Security did say the system should be more responsive to people's needs and officials must act in a “civilised” way, the emphasis was on stopping petitioners from ruining the show. This put pressure on local officials to step up their interception efforts. According to human rights groups, repression and illegal detentions increased during the Olympic period.

Over months of interviews, the Financial Times heard numerous accounts and witnessed several examples of officials from the Offices of Letters and Calls or Beijing police working in collusion with interceptors to help detain and abduct petitioners. When interceptors identify people from their region outside the petition office, they approach them and try to get them to return home quietly, ostensibly so their grievances can be “resolved” locally.

Some petitioners are promised quick fixes to their problems; others go willingly in the hope of a free trip home or a place to stay while in Beijing. Those who refuse to accompany these men are usually taken by force. Often they are taken to detention centres operating like private prisons and known as “black jails”. Mr Xu says: “Black jails are places used by provincial governments to illegally imprison petitioners; we call them black jails because, first, they are just like prisons – established by the government to restrict people's freedom – and, second, they are ‘black' because they have no basis in any laws or regulations and are totally illegal.”