TYPING the Chinese characters Sun Zhigang into Sina.com.'s search engine reveals more than 300 news items on the computer screen.

　　The death of the 27-year-old migrant worker has been the country's hottest news in the past month, just behind SARS.

　　Many city dwellers, because of Sun's death, have now become closely acquainted for the first time with the existence of detention centres. However, detention centres are quite familiar to migrant workers, who know of them either through personal experience or from terrible stories told by former detainees.

　　Sun was a university graduate from Central China's Hubei Province who had gone to Guangzhou to seek a job, but he was detained a few days later as a suspected illegal migrant worker because he did not have the cards proving his right to live in the city.

　　Regulations issued by the State Council in 1991 stipulated that all migrant workers working in the city must carry their ID card, temporary residence card and working card. The lack of any one of the three meant that the worker might face being cast into a detention centre.

　　Several days after his arrest, Sun was pronounced dead in the detention centre's hospital. Police said he had died of a heart attack but a post-mortem examination revealed he had been beaten to death.

　　His assailants - who were mostly fellow detainees - said they had been forced to attack Sun by attendant at the hospital.

　　"Sun cried for help disturbing clinic attendant Qiao Yanqin who organized eight other detainees to beat Sun in turns," said Zhou Liwei, one of the accused, during a court hearing. "We don't dare to disobey the attendant."

　　So far, more than 23 officials, including senior police in Guangzhou, have been sacked or censured for their ineffective actions which contributed to the death of the young man.

　　The court last Monday convicted the main culprit Qiao Yanqing to death.

　　Unconstitutional regulation

　　Sun was not the first victim to end up being killed in a detention centre but his identity as a university graduate aroused great interest and concern among the educated class who used not to pay much attention to the plight of migrant workers.

　　Most of the debate is concentrated on whether the police had the right to detain him at all. This challenges the legal basis of the regulations permitting the detention and repatriation of migrant workers.

　　"We find that some parts of this government regulation are unconstitutional," said Yu Jiang, a law expert in the Central China University of Science and Technology. Yu has drafted jointly with two other law professors a petition to the National People's Congress, China's Parliament, urging reform of the regulations.

　　"It runs against the article guaranteeing the inviolability of the person."

　　The State Legislation Law passed in 2000 stipulates that any mandatory measure or punishment to strip or restrict personal freedom can only be set by laws. Yet the process giving rights to the police to detain migrant workers is based merely on government regulations, not laws. The legality of the regulations is thus in doubt.

　　As well, China has signed the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which endows legal residents with the right of free movement and the free choice as to where they settle down within a country.

　　"Obviously the regulations are not in accordance with the Convention the country has signed," Yu said.

　　Arising out of the planned economy period in China, the regulations have given the public security department too much administrative power. It is easy for any powers which have no effective restriction to develop into a corrupt system of exploitation and the regulations regarding the detention and repatriation of migrants are a good example.

　　According to the Shenzhen Economic Daily, the fines imposed on detainees and the money charged for releasing them can yield great profits for the authorities. Driven by greed, the original aim of the regulations, which was to help vagrants and beggars, has been twisted and corrupted.

　　It is estimated that less than 15 per cent of those in detention centre are those who genuinely need to be provided with a shelter. Most are mandatorily locked up there.

　　That the authorities would work so actively regardless of all the trouble involved to detain migrant workers, suggests there might be certain economic gain behind it, the Shenzhen Economic Daily commented.

　　Milestone petitions

　　"Sun Zhigang's case is a milestone. It will be a good case for pushing forward reform of the legal system," said Yu Ziqing, a constitution professor from the East China University of Politics and Law.

　　Yu also highlighted the petitions the law professors have put before the National People's Congress.

　　"It marks the first time citizens have used their right to appeal to the parliament to examine questions of constitutionality and would help build the rule of law in China," he said.

　　According to the official Outlook weekly, the petition has attracted the attention of Congress leaders.

　　The outspoken criticism and concern in the media over Sun's death also indicates a greater willingness on the part of Communist Party leaders to allow the media to have a role in examining the plight of migrant workers.

　　"That's a big progress in China," said Yu Ziqing.

　　"If it had happened 10 years ago, the victims may most probably never have got a chance to win their rights. It shows that Chinese people are now much more conscious of their rights."