Cabinet solicits opinion on rules to honor martyrs

BEIJING—The State Council, China’s Cabinet, has started to solicit public opinion on a regulation dealing with the standards and measures to honor the country’s martyrs.
The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council published the draft regulation on its website on Wednesday. The draft said that “families of martyrs could get a ‘compliment fund’ worth 15 times the annual wage in the previous year.
The annual wage in 2006 was 21,001 yuan (2,876.8 U.S. dollars),with a daily income of 83.66 yuan, according to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.
The regulation, with seven chapters and 38 stipulations, sets detailed procedures in the assessment and standard of martyrs, special treatment for their families, preservation and management of foreign and domestic memorials and legal responsibilities.
It said that those who died while cracking down on crimes, carrying out national security tasks, handling emergencies, rescuing state, collective or citizens’ property and lives and performing foreign affairs or aid assignments or peacemaking missions, could be entitled to “martyr” status.
People declared “missing” in war or in frontier defense or disaster relief missions could be endorsed as martyrs as well, it said. Martyrs’ families could enjoy special treatment such as preference in military enlistment, civil service and other employment, medical services, school enrolment, housing and pensions, it said.
Memorials must not be used for purposes other than showing reverence for martyrs. Expansion, reconstruction or moving of such facilities were strictly banned, it said.
The regulation also prohibits the burial of others’ bodies.
The public can comment online, by e-mail or by post by March 3.
Three electricity workers in central Hunan Province were posthumously named as martyrs by the provincial government on Jan.28. They died while cleaning the ice from a 50-meter transmission tower that collapsed.
Chinese historians and researchers have identified more than 900 aviation martyrs who died in China during World War II, including 404 American pilots.
“The names of the martyrs were discovered during the information collection process ahead of the establishment of a memorial hall for the deceased aviators,” said Wang Jian, vice president of the Nanjing Aviation Association, which is based in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
“These include 404 Americans and more than 500 Chinese,” Wang said. “Their identities have been verified by Chinese and American experts.”
On Aug. 1, 1941, the American Volunteer Group, which later cameto be known as the Flying Tigers, was formed under the leadership of U.S. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault to help China drive out invading Japanese troops.
In August 1995, to commemorate the heroes, China built the Monument to the Aviator Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Nanjing. The names of more than 3,000 martyrs, including 870 Chinese, 2,186 Americans and 236 soldiers of the former Soviet Union, were inscribed on the monument in Chinese, English and Russian.
Wang said the newly-discovered names were expected to be added to the inscription next year.
According to government plans, construction on the memorial hall will start in Nanjing in April, 2008.—Xinhua