When the bodies decay and maggots set in, the maggots are used to feed chickens. The remainder of the body is used for fertilizer. Old graves are also dug up and the bones used for fertilizer. In Hong Kong, the people do not eat chickens imported from the mainland because of the food fed to the chickens. To dig up graves is to sever family ties completely.
Chinese people revere their ancestors.
Digging up the grave is the Communist method of severing all connections with tradition and the past. Most Favored Nation During the 1992 presidential campaign, candidate Clinton criticized President Bush for ignoring China's human rights abuses. In February 1993, China claimed that it had released a number of dissidents and that all students imprisoned following the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations had been released. Human rights groups claimed, however, that hundreds of additional dissidents remained behind bars throughout China, and noted that those actually released represented at best a token gesture, since most were already near the end of their prison terms. It was enough, however, to give President Clinton an excuse to sign an executive order on May 28th extending China's MFN status for another year.