Southern China Shaxi Riots Escalates, Police Crackdown Ordered, 30 Died

Security forces in southern Guangdong province have reportedly been cleared to use deadly force in an escalating riot in Shaxi township.

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily reports that paramilitary forces and police are to stop the riots and demonstrations that began this Monday with guns if necessary.

Migrant workers are clashing with local residents. The riots began after the son of a migrant worker was beaten by security officials after getting into a fight with a local boy. Riots have been escalating as workers from nearby towns converge in Shaxi.

The Darker Hu(e) of China’s investment

The visit by President Hu brings economic prosperity, cultural cooperation, environmental agreements and … suppression

As Danish business interests walked away from last week’s visit by China’s president, Hu Jintao, with lucrative contracts, critics were accusing the government of bending over backwards to ensure that the visit was not disrupted by protestors.

Blue chip Danish companies including Carlsberg, Novozymes and Arla negotiated business deals during the three-day visit to the tune of 18 billion kroner that could help hoist Denmark from a recessive economy, but the cost of those contracts, protestors claim, was their freedom of speech.

Thousands of Taxi drivers protests hit two Chinese cities

SHANGHAI(AFP) — Thousands of taxi drivers in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou went on strike Monday over high petrol prices and traffic congestion, while drivers in Shanghai also protested over benefits.

In Hangzhou, drivers parked their cars at several locations in the city, a major tourist centre, while others simply stayed on the road and refused to take passengers, state media and taxi company officials said.

Some media estimates put the number of strikers as high as 4,000 drivers. Police declined to comment.

Riot in south China after officials beat to death a disabled fruit vendor

(Reuters) – Angry residents in a southern Chinese city went on the rampage after officials apparently beat to death a disabled fruit vendor, a state media said on Wednesday, in the latest incident of social unrest in the world’s second-largest economy.

The China Daily said that thousands of people gathered on the streets of Anshun in Guizhou province on Tuesday afternoon, throwing stones at police and overturning a government vehicle.

The riot was sparked after urban management officers — a quasi-police force that enforces laws against begging and other petty offences — were suspected of beating the vendor to death, the newspaper said.

Inner Mongolia protests prompt crackdown and censorship

(The Guardian)– A communist official tipped as a future leader of China is moving to defuse a wave of protests in Inner Mongolia by choking information, tightening campus controls and promising to reform the mining industry.

A demonstration by ethnic Mongolians on Monday in the regional capital, Hohhot, was the latest test for Hu Chunhua, whose appointment as party chief of the resource-rich region last year was widely seen as a step towards top office in 2020.

Censors have blocked information about the biggest surge of unrest that the northern region has experienced in 20 years, with witnesses and rights groups claiming to have seen rallies in at least six communities over the past week.

Protests erupt after China’s Inner Mongolian herder run over by coal truck as he tries to stop mining convoy driving across prairie land

(The Guardian)– Outside the closed gates of the Xilingol Mongolian high school, Chinese police watch warily as hundreds of students perform calisthenics in a yard from where the previous day they left to march through the streets. A short drive away, another police unit monitors a middle school that has become a source of concern. On the grasslands, patrol cars block access to a troubled community of herders and miners.

Security forces in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, are on high alert after the biggest wave of demonstrations in 20 years, sparked by a killing that symbolises the traumatic transition of Mongolia’s nomadic grasslands into a mining powerhouse.

Amnesty urges China to exercise restraint over Inner Mongolia protests

Chinese authorities must avoid a violent crackdown on demonstrations in the country’s Inner Mongolia region, as martial law was declared in some areas to quell a fifth day of protests, Amnesty international said today.

“The Chinese authorities must respect freedom of expression and assembly for protesters. Given the heavy handed repression of similar protests in other regions, like Xinjiang and Tibet, there are real grounds for concern about the situation in Inner Mongolia,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific deputy director.

In a rare show of defiance, hundreds of ethnic Mongolians from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) marched to a local government building in Shuluun Huh Banner county on Friday, calling on Chinese authorities to respect the rights and traditional way of life of Mongolian herders, including access to grazing land.

Tibetan Students’ Protests Spread to Beijing Over China’s Language Education Policy

Radio Free Asia, Oct 22, 2010 –

Tibetan students protesting against China’s education policies brought their campaign to the nation’s capital, with some 400 of them holding demonstrations at the Beijing National Minorities University.

The protests in Beijing on Oct. 22 came on the heels of demonstrations by thousands of Tibetan high school and college students this week in the remote western province of Qinghai amid fears they will be forced to adopt a Chinese-language-only curriculum.

Tens of Thousands in Standoff with Police in Eastern China Over Land Grabs By Officials

By Rona Rui, Epoch Times Staff, July 19, 2010 –

Yet another large-scale violent clash has broken out between angry villagers and police over land grabs by government officials in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province, this time involving tens of thousands of protesters. Local media made no mention of the incident.

During the five-day standoff between July 14 and July 18, several thousand villagers took over the government building while the government called in riot police. At one point the crowd of angry protesters grew to as many as twenty to thirty thousand.

The incident took place in Gaoxin District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. It began when thousands of local villagers from Tong’an Township of Gaoxin District gathered at the township government building. They came to express their indignation over the local government’s illegal takeover of their farmland. Tens of thousands of mu (1 mu = 0.16 acre) had been illegally expropriated during the past seven years without fair compensation to the villagers.

When the villagers found officials unresponsive, they became angry and took over the government building, breaking some equipment and bringing government business to a halt as officials fled.

On the morning of July 16 the government called in approximately 500 riot police to break up the protest. While most villagers had gone home to rest, riot police started attacking the remaining protesters.

According to local residents, the riot police beat up the several hundred remaining villagers in order to drive them away. Enraged villagers retaliated with bricks and beer bottles. Dozens of villagers were injured and taken to hospital. Several dozen more were arrested. The confrontation lasted about half an hour.

The police violence caused even greater anger among the villagers. After sunrise on July 17, local residents and relatives of those arrested, proceeded to blockade National Highway 312 in Gaoxin district to continue their protest.

Many more local residents rushed to the blocked highway during the day. According to local residents, villagers from surrounding communities also came to support the protest, and at one time there were as many as twenty to thirty thousand.

Witnesses at the scene told The Epoch Times that in 2003 under the guise of constructing new high-tech industrial parks, the local government started to forcefully take away land from farmers. The farmers never received the compensation promised by the government, and the tens of thousands of mu of farmland had lain deserted for the past six plus years. Recently the local government started to auction off the land at prices ten or more times the purchase price. The government’s unjust compensation caused great resentment among local residents.

The incident has alarmed the city government of Suzhou. The communist party secretary of Suzhou rushed to the area on July 18 and held a meeting with local officials to discuss countermeasures. The government also dispatched more police from the surrounding cities of Wuxi and Zhangjiagang. There were several thousand police.

No additional information of further police crackdowns was available at the time of this article submission.

News Censored

During these several days of conflict, no local media reported the incident. Internet blog postings by eyewitnesses were quickly deleted by the regime. Local residents expressed hope that more media would come to the scene to experience the severity of the situation.

Forced land expropriation, forced relocation, government corruption and police brutality are commonplace in China and have become a source of anger and unrest in many areas. The Epoch Times and other media have recently reported on several large-scale protests in different areas of the country.

On July 5, ten thousand villagers in China’s southeastern Jiangxi Province staged a protest against police brutality, relocation and corrupt local officials. The relocation of villagers was ordered by local authorities because villagers had expressed concern over health issues arising from pollution by a local mining company. The enraged citizens, armed with bricks and stones, smashed town hall windows and turned over police cars in response to police beating two women petitioners into a coma.

On June 11, ten thousand citizens had a standoff with police in Maanshan City, Anhui Province over a student being assaulted by a local official. Military police and riot police were dispatched to break through the crowd with batons, shields and tear gas. Many people were injured. Local media did not report on the massive protest.

The use of force and media control are two of the means by which the Chinese communist regime attempts to maintain social stability.

– The Epochtimes

China auto parts plant halts production due to strike from Monday

June 22 (Reuters) – Japan’s Denso Corp (6902.T), a car parts maker affiliated with Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), said on Tuesday its joint venture plant in Guangzhou, China has halted production since Monday morning due to a labour strike.

The plant, Denso (Guangzhou Nansha) Co Ltd, has also halted supply of its fuel injection equipment and other products to Toyota, Honda Motor Co (7267.T) and other carmaker clients since Monday, Denso spokeswoman Yoko Suga said.

The management and workers of the joint venture are currently negotiating on the workers’ demand for higher wages and better benefits, she said. (Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani)

– Reuters

10,000 citizens Clashes With Police in Eastern China

By Rona Rui, Epoch Times Staff, Jun 13, 2010 –

Massive crowd clashes with police near a market in Maanshan City, Anhui Province. (Courtesy Chinese blogger)

The physical assault and injury of a high school student by a local tourism bureau director in eastern China’s Anhui Province turned into a four-hour street protest .

A crowd of about 10,000 citizens gathered to vent their frustration by yelling and throwing rubbish at police and local officials.

The protest lasted until midnight, with people leaving only when riot police threw tear gas canisters into the crowd. Local media did not report on the massive protest.

The incident in Maanshan City began at 6 p.m. on June 11, when Wang Guoqing, the Huashan District tourism bureau director, was speeding at an intersection in the Huashan District and his car hit a high school student who was crossing the street.

Wang got out of his car and first verbally, then physically assaulted the student. The student ended up with an injury to his eye socket, with blood running down his face.

Onlookers demanded that Wang apologize to the student, but Wang refused and attempted to leave the scene.

Wang then called the police. A few dozen policemen arrived and tried to escort Wang away in a police car. However, the crowd swarmed around the police car in what turned into a two-hour standoff with the police.

At 10 p.m., officials from the Maanshan Municipal Party Committee came to speak to the crowd. They announced that they would “severely punish” Wang for his actions. However, their words had no effect in calming or dispersing people.

Some bystanders told The Epoch Times that the situation was too chaotic for the statement to be heard, while others said they did not believe that Wang would be punished.

At 11:25 p.m., the local authorities sent firefighters to get Wang away from the scene, but they, too, were blocked by the crowd.

Military police and antiriot police were then dispatched to break through the crowd with batons and shields, and many people were injured. Police began throwing tear gas canisters, which finally forced people to disperse at around 11:50 p.m.

A witness told The Epoch Times, “They even sent the firefighting troops. If one didn’t know what was going on, one would have thought there was a fire. Then the riot brigade came, and the [police] car [with Wang in it] took off in less than two minutes.”

Another witness told The Epoch Times, “Many people were here to protect the rights of that boy, and all the crowd could do was just swarm around the police car. When they managed to leave by force, all we could do was pick up the pieces of rubbish, and throw it at them to vent our anger. What else can we do?”

Some people said they saw the police confiscating a reporter’s camera.

Still another person said, “The kid was assaulted at 6 p.m., and we were still yelling when the protest was at its climax at 11 p.m. But in the end, we had to back off quickly, not because we lack perseverance, but because of the tear gas. You can look at my swollen eyes.”

One person posted a message on the Internet: “I charged on when the crowd backed off. My tears flowed down immediately and I smelled a foul and rotting odor. The smoke felt like darkness and helplessness that lingers and won’t fade away.”

Local media only reported that a local district-level cadre had an argument and physically assaulted a passerby, but did not mention that it turned into a mass protest involving 10,000 people.

– The Epochtimes

China’s strategy of forced crackdown continues today, says former top Chinese Communist official in Beijing

Radio Free Asia, 2010-06-07 –

HONG KONG— While the official history of the deadly crackdown on student-led demonstrations in Beijing 21 years ago remains unwritten, smaller crackdowns on smaller protests are increasing, according to a former top Communist Party aide who was jailed in 1989.

“The central government’s strategy that it employed on June 4, 1989 continues today, and that is to use the army, to use armed force, to suppress different voices,” Bao Tong, former aide to ousted late premier Zhao Ziyang, said in an interview to mark the anniversary of the crackdown.

“What is being suppressed is a force which is in favor of democracy and against corruption. What is being protected is a growing chasm between rich and poor,” said Bao, who has remained under house arrest at his Beijing home since his release from a seven-year jail term after Zhao’s fall.

Bao said that the large-scale military force in which the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drove thousands of protesters from the heart of Beijing with tanks and machine guns, killing an unknown number, opened the door to the use of force to quash smaller protests across the country.

“Social conflicts are becoming more and more acute, deeper, and more widespread,” said Bao, who has argued for democratic reforms ever since his release from jail in essays published overseas but unseen by most Chinese.

“The sensitivity of the students [in 1989] to these issues wasn’t resolved as part of normal life, but through oppression through military force, which wiped out their voices,” Bao said.

‘Shocking and appalling’

“That was a rare event in the history of mankind, the suppression by a government of the wishes of the people in order to preserve its corrupt rule,” he said.

“This was carried out by a Marxist proletariat, by a party that represents the workers. I think that it was a shocking and appalling event—a tragedy.”

“Some people say that this tragedy is already in the past now. But the truth has yet to be published,” he said.

“Even if we never get another ‘big Tiananmen,’ we are seeing an innumerable procession of ‘small Tiananmens.’ By ‘small Tiananmens,’ I mean mass incidents that involve anti-corruption demands from the people, or demands for democracy. These aren’t just taking place in the capital, but continually at the provincial, county, township, and village levels.”

Bao cited official government statistics with the number of 87,000 mass incidents in 2004, but he went on to cite an academic speaking at a U.S. seminar as saying that the number had risen to 227,000 in 2008.

“You get corrupt officials not just in central government but in provincial, county, town, and village governments,” he said.

“And when they become corrupt, they refuse to allow ordinary people to express an opinion. This is a shocking and appalling thing. This is definitely not a measure aimed at preserving social stability.”

“I believe that it is a regression in the development of human feeling. It takes an inhuman view of problems, and it truly constitutes a naked challenge to civilized values,” Bao added.

Unforgotten

Bao said the 21st anniversary of the crackdown was “the same as any other day” because the memories have remained with him during his years under house arrest.

He said the events of 1989 in Beijing are unlikely to be forgotten by Chinese.

“The voices that opposed corruption have disappeared, and the voices that called out for democracy have faded away,” Bao said.

“This disappearance can only be for a limited time, can only be temporary.”

– Radio Free Asia

9-day strike at all 4 Honda China factories– Labor Unrest May Signal New Phase in China Economy

By KEITH BRADSHER, The New York Times, May 29, 2010 –

FOSHAN, China — Add another entry to the list of worries for the global economy and financial markets: labor unrest in China.

Rapidly rising industrial wages are beginning to allow China’s workers to share in their country’s rising prosperity. The question is whether these gains can be maintained and even increased without disrupting supply lines to companies around the world, and without discouraging much future investment by Chinese and global companies alike.

The biggest eye-opener for multinationals in China recently has been a nine-day-old strike at a sprawling Honda transmission factory here in Foshan, about 100 miles northwest of Hong Kong.

The strike, which has forced Honda to suspend production at all four of its joint venture assembly plants in China, has shown that Chinese authorities are willing to tolerate work stoppages at least temporarily, even at high-tech operations on which many other factories depend.

Chinese policy makers are trying to let wages rise to create the foundations of an economy driven by domestic demand, without derailing the export machine that has produced the world’s strongest economic growth over the last three decades.

Even before the strike, manufacturers and buyers of low-cost products were already actively seeking alternatives to China, like Vietnam and Cambodia, said Richard Vuylsteke, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

“They’re looking very seriously, and we’re seeing that in apparel and footwear,” he said. “A lot of our members are seeing appreciating wages.”

Honda has been making increasingly generous offers — or perhaps desperate offers — to settle the strike. The company has already offered increases in total compensation of close to 50 percent, according to crumpled-up copies of the offer provided by striking workers.

Roughly half of the 1,900 workers are recent hires from high schools and vocational schools who are paid training rates of just 900 renminbi, or $132, a month, pay slips showed. More experienced workers at the three-year-old factory earn up to 1,500 renminbi, or $220, a month.

Honda’s offer would raise total compensation for trainees to $202 a month, including benefits like a new food allowance; older workers would get slightly smaller raises. The strikers rejected the offer because nearly half of the raises consisted of increases in benefits that might be revoked later. The strikers are demanding an extra 800 renminbi a month, or $117, all in cash.

Takayuki Fujii, a Beijing-based spokesman for Honda, said Saturday evening that negotiations were continuing, but he declined to provide details……. (more detals from The New York Times)

20 China artists protest in Beijing Tiananmen over demolition: report

AFP, Feb. 22, 2010-

BEIJING — About 20 Chinese artists including outspoken activist Ai Weiwei protested in central Beijing over the demolition of an art zone in the east of the capital, state media and a rights group said Tuesday.

The protest on Monday came amid simmering anger in China over land seizures, which have often involved corrupt officials keen to secure real estate profits as the country’s property market booms.

The artists marched on Chang’An Avenue, one of Beijing’s main thoroughfares that passes by Tiananmen Square, scene of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations that ended in a bloody crackdown, media reports and rights activists said.

They carried posters reading “Civil Rights!” and “Capital Beijing, brutal demolition!”, which were confiscated by police, the state Global Times newspaper reported.

The protesters attempted to reach Tiananmen Square, the heart of political power in China, but were stopped by police about two kilometres (one mile) away, it said.

The artists decried what they called “assaults by thugs hired by local authorities” to force them out of the complex, and said their land contracts were still valid.

The government and land developers have said the artists need to move out to make way for redevelopment of the area.

An investigation has been launched into nine assaults allegedly carried out early Monday when the artists tried to prevent dozens of masked men from destroying their studios, the report said.

One Japanese national, identified as Satoshi Iwama, needed five stitches for a head wound, according to the Global Times and the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), an activist network.

Local officials denied any involvement in the purported beatings……. (more details from AFP)

(photos) Land Dispute- Village sealed off, news blackout after violent clashes between residents and police in southwestern China

Radio Free Asia, jan 26, 2010-

Protesting villagers are dispersed by police in Pingle county, Guangzhou, Jan. 19, 2010. (RFA)

HONG KONG— Authorities in the southwestern Chinese region of Guizhou have sealed off a village and ordered a news blackout following violent clashes between local residents and police in a land dispute.

“The villagers put up some reports about what happened on the Internet, but they were taken down by the authorities very quickly,” said a resident of Tongle township near the scenic tourist city of Guilin.

“Right now the authorities have totally sealed off the area. The villagers are using text messaging to exchange news,” said Zhang, adding that he had been warned by other villagers that the police were still detaining people.

Police move to confront villagers protesting a land grab in Guizhou, Jan. 19, 2010. Credit: Tongle villager Zhang (RFA)

Zhang said riot police fired tear gas and used electric shock batons on elderly protesters trying to prevent the takeover of their farmland for development.

“Things got very serious at the scene,” he said. “The people trying to protect the land were all elderly, women, and children. How could they resist?”

“They were attacked by the riot police first, and a lot of those injured were then taken away by police.”

Photos posted online of the clashes showed crowds of people, many of them elderly, some of whom had sustained injuries to their arms and legs. Some showed people bandaged, and still bleeding from head injuries.

‘Handled according to law’

A villager nurses his wounds after police clashed with protesters in Guanzhou, Jan. 19, 2010. Credit: Tongle villager Zhang

An employee who answered the phone at the Pingle county government, which oversees Tongle village, said the authorities had already issued the legally required amount of compensation to the villagers.

“Our leaders here have already dealt with this situation,” the employee said. “Everything we did went through the municipal level authorities for approval, and the entire affair was handled according to law.”

An official who answered the phone at the Guilin municipal politics and law committee confirmed the clashes had taken place as part of a land dispute.

“There was a land dispute there. But I haven’t got time to explain the details to you.”

An official who answered the phone at the Guilin municipal public security department declined to comment on the incident.

However, an officer at the Tongle village police station said: “We are currently dealing with this issue. If you want to know more, you’ll have to go to the [county level] public security department.”

Cut off

Local residents said around 700 riot police were dispatched to the village, and that the community was still cut off from the outside world.

An engineer surnamed Li at the Tongle Village Transformer Station said police had sealed off several entrances to the village, and blocked roads in the area.

“Right now, vehicles from outside can’t get into Tongle village. The roads have all been sealed off by the authorities,” Li said.

“They have blocked the exit for the village on the Chajiang Bridge highway.”

The dispute flared after villagers saw officials begin to move in to begin work last Tuesday on a plot of around 1,000 mu (67 hectares) of land in the village, which was requisitioned more than two years ago by the Pingle county government for redevelopment.

Local residents were angry because the authorities had sold the land for 10 times the amount of the compensation doled out to villagers, and because they have been promised 20,000-30,000 yuan (U.S. $4,394) per mu but have yet to receive it.

An open letter posted online by villagers cited guidelines issued by the central government, which “states clearly that it is not permitted to take possession of the land before the compensation has been paid.”…… (more details from Radio Free asia)

10 Forbidden Stories of 2009 in China (4)

Epoch Times Staff, updated: Jan 7, 2010 – (cont’d)

<< previous

Shishou City on June 20. (bbs.163.com)

Mysterious death sparks 70,000 to protest in Hubei Province

Amongst the rising public protests and outcry in China, the Shishou riot was one of the largest “mass incidents” in 2009. The riot (in June) was sparked by the death of a young cook named Tu Yuangao in Hunan Province’s Shishou City with a small population of only 100,000.

However, suspecting the cause of Tu’s death was not suicide as authorities claimed, 70,000 Shishou citizens took to the streets and protested against the local authorities when police tried to seize Tu’s corpse and have it cremated. An estimated 8,000 trained riot police were dispatched to the scene to subdue the protests.

Reference:
Mysterious Death Sparks 70,000 to Protest in China’s Hubei Province
Battling Over a Corpse in China’s Hubei Province

First day of 2010: Thousands march in Hong Kong for democracy and jailed China writer

By Polly Hui (AFP), Jan. 1, 2009-

HONG KONG — Thousands of Hong Kong democracy campaigners took to the streets on the first day of the new year Friday to call for universal suffrage and the release of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Chanting slogans and holding placards, protesters marched through the city centre to the Central Government Liaison Office — responsible for ties with Beijing — watched over by hundreds of police officers and attracting the attention of big crowds of bystanders.

Organisers said there were as many as 30,000 protesters, although the police gave an estimate of only 4,600 people.

More than 100 activists scuffled with the officers outside the Liaison Office around 1100 GMT, or four hours after the march started, as the rest of the procession dispersed peacefully.

“I don’t want fake democracy. I want genuine universal suffrage,” Lee Cheuk-yan, lawmaker and general secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions, chanted through a loudspeaker.

The Hong Kong government last month unveiled a proposal to increase the sizes of both the legislature and the committee responsible for electing the city’s chief executive.

But the plan fell short of the expectations of pro-democracy politicians, who have urged the government to introduce universal suffrage in 2012.

Beijing has indicated that the vote “may be implemented for the Chief Executive in 2017 and the Legislative Council in 2020”.

“The large turnout today has sent the strongest signal to Beijing that we need a clear road map for universal suffrage,” Wong Yuk-man, another lawmaker and a leader of the League of Social Democrats, told AFP.

Protesters also urged Chinese authorities to release Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced by a Beijing court a week ago to 11 years in prison for subversion, prompting strong condemnation from the international community, including the United States, the European Union and Canada.

The 54-year-old writer, previously jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen protests, was detained a year ago after co-authoring Charter 08, a bold manifesto calling for reform of China’s one-party communist system and protection of human rights.

Olivia Hu, a mainland student studying journalism in Hong Kong, said she felt it was her duty to join the march after learning about the ordeal of Liu from Hong Kong media.

“People on the mainland do not know what is happening. Had they gained access to the information we have in Hong Kong, I believe they would have felt the same as we do here,” she said.

Political commentator Ivan Choi noted that the finishing point of the march was different from previous major democracy protests, which usually ended at the Hong Kong government headquarters.

“The change indicates a shift of target from the local government to the Chinese government. This will heighten tension between the campaigners and Beijing,” Choi told broadcaster ATV.

Hong Kong, with a population of seven million, was returned to Chinese rule in 1997, and has a separate constitution guaranteeing freedoms not available to Chinese on the mainland, including the freedom to protest.

– AFP

China: Laid-off Teachers, Workers Protest

Radio Free Asia, 2009-11-10 –

HONG KONG— More than 100 laid-off elementary school teachers in central China petitioned the local government Tuesday over retirement pensions, members of the group said.

The teachers, who work for the education system in Dawu county of central China’s Hubei province, said they were angered over back premiums they would have to pay to be eligible to receive their pensions.

One protesting teacher surnamed Liu said the group had gathered in front of the county government’s Letter and Visit Office early Tuesday morning.

“Around 100 teachers have come, and we are petitioning over retirement pensions,” Liu said.

“The government asked us to pay 20,000 yuan (U.S. $2,928), but we’ve never had so much money in our whole life. How can we afford that?” he asked.

The teachers said that before they were laid off, their salaries were very low……. (more details)

Machine workers protest

In a separate development on Monday, around 100 laid-off workers in China’s southwestern Sichuan province also petitioned the local government over retirement pension, leading to a scuffle with police.

The workers, from the Changjiang No. 2 Hydraulic Machinery Factory in Luzhou city, had been laid off in 1990s, but had been informed that their benefits would end after the factory was recently sold to a real estate developer.

A protester who asked to remain anonymous said the workers had been forced to petition the government for assistance at the Luzhou city hall.

“Workers are now extremely anxious because the new owner will no longer take care of us. This is why we have to petition the government to pay attention to our benefits,” the worker said.

But rather than hear the concerns of the protesting workers, the Luzhou city government dispatched about 100 police officers to confront the workers, leading to a scuffle between the two groups.

The anonymous worker said the confrontation between elderly workers and young policemen left several protesters injured.

“Our workers are all in their 70s or 80s, but the police are all in their 20s and 30s, so you can imagine what happened when the two groups began to push and pull at each other,” the worker said.

“Three old workers were injured and sent to the hospital in ambulances. According to other protesters, the three remained in hospital at least through Monday night.”

Attempts to contact local officials by telephone went unanswered……. (more details from Radio Free Asia)

Over 2,000 Protest Pollution and Arrests in Southeast China Village

By Gu Qing’er, Epoch Times Staff,  Oct 24, 2009-

An ongoing struggle between residents and a local ceramic factory over pollution has erupted in protesting, arrests, and riot police presence. When a dozen resident activists of Paibian Village, Jiedong County, Guangdong Province were arrested the morning of Oct. 22, thousands went to the local regime officials, demanding their release.

An Epoch Times reporter interviewed villagers at the scene. According to a villager surnamed Lu, there were no legal procedures, and no one knew where the arrested villagers were taken. He said there were more than 2,000 people who joined the protest.

Another protester, surnamed Chen, said that his friend’s husband was not only arrested, but his cash and cell phone were confiscated.

“What kind of policemen were they! They did not show any ID, but just broke down the door and dashed into the house. I saw policemen taking one woman away in her underwear,” Chen said.

“It’s quite chaotic, and riot police are here,” he said. “The head official is not coming out to talk to us.”

Victims of Factory Pollution

Villagers complain that the exhaust from a ceramic factory has been jeopardizing the quality of life and health of local residents.

“The exhaust smells like disinfectants. It’s horrible and makes me dizzy,” Chen said. “My neighbor’s bamboo shoots stopped growing, and the school children have to cover their mouths and noses.”

The ceramic factory in question is located less than 170 feet from a residential area and an elementary school with 900 students. Students are reported to have symptoms of coughing, sore throats, dizziness, and chest pain.

There is no tap water in the village and residents drink from wells they have dug. The factory also releases waste water into the ground, polluting local sources of water. Residents have complained about loud noises from the factory as well.

Even neighboring villages are affected—residents complain that wind-born pollutants have caused a large number of crops to wither.
Taking the Issue into their Own Hands

Villagers at first approached the Bureau of Environmental Protection with their complaints, and were told the factory was being monitored and was unlicensed due to its failure to meet environmental standards. Local government officials took no action to assist the residents, and neither did the factory respond to complaints.

Two months ago, residents of the affected villages determined they would initiate action on their own. Thousands cooperated to set up roadblocks which stopped the factory from transporting materials. They also demanded that the ceramic factory move out of their area.

A fight broke out between residents and the factory owners the evening of Aug. 9. A resident told The Epoch Times that the factory owner threatened to run down residents with trucks. He also threatened to blow up an oil tank in the factory that would cause the whole village to burn.

The resident also reported that the owner bragged he had paid a town hall official a million yuan, and “he was not worried about us.”

– The Epochtimes

China Officials ‘Ordered Town Drowned’

Radio free Asia, 2009-09-23 –

HONG KONG— Police are guarding local government offices in China’s southern Guangdong province after dozens of villagers tried to storm the buildings in protest at deliberate flooding of their land in the wake of a major typhoon.

“More than 100 people stormed the government offices three times, but they wouldn’t let them in,” said a resident, surnamed Luo, of Chuanbu township near Guangdong’s Luoding city.

“Right now there are more than 100 police standing guard there.”

Luo said local township officials had refused all along to meet with villagers.

“The villagers are very angry,” he said.

“The township Party secretary has even said that it doesn’t matter if 100 or so villagers die. The most important thing is that not a single official died.”

Order to flood

The township government was ordered by Guangdong provincial authorities to flood the countryside around Chuanbu last week after water levels at the township’s Shandong Dam rose to dangerous levels in the wake of Typhoon Koppu, which left at least three dead.

A teacher surnamed Li at the Chuanbu Middle School said the school buildings were only a few hundred meters (yards) from the dam and described scenes of panic as teachers and students fled upstairs from the rising floodwaters.

“The water came in so quickly. Within two or three minutes the entire school was under water,” Li said.

“There was nowhere to run to. Several thousand teachers and students tried to escape to the upper storeys of the school buildings.”

Calls unanswered

“At the time, all we could think about was how to survive. There was no time to grab any belongings. We were running for our lives,” Li said.

“When the water reached the second floor, we ran up to the third floor. Then the third floor went under, so we ran up to the fourth floor. There are only five storeys in the school. We wondered at the time what would happen if we ran out of storeys,” she added.

An official who was similarly stranded at the Chuanbu township government confirmed that a total of 5,000 students at the middle school were left stranded by rising floodwaters, which also destroyed hundreds of houses.

“No one expected the water to rise so fast,” the official said.

“It was as deep as two meters. They were stranded for a whole day and night.”

“The government building was also surrounded by water. We too were very hungry and thirsty. We only had something to eat after the water retreated,” he said, adding that no casualties were reported from among the students.

The mother of Chuanbu Middle School student Qu Mingjie said her son was on the third floor when the waters started to rise.

“They were told to remain in their classroom by their teacher. The water was two meters high.”

Repeated calls to the Chuanbu police station and the Luoding municipal government went unanswered during office hours Wednesday.

Villagers were unable to confirm any deaths, but rumors were rife that dead bodies were carried to government offices in protest, and that a number of teachers and students from a local kindergarten were missing.

Guangdong-based civil rights activist Tang Jingling said local officials were refusing to give out details of loss of life and property caused by the flooding for fear of being held accountable……. (more from Radio Free Asia)

China: Thousands of steel workers clashed with police, firm boss beaten to death

Tania Branigan in Beijing , The Guardian,  26 July 2009 –

Thousands of angry Chinese steel workers clashed with police and beat to death an executive of the firm trying to take over their company, a Hong Kong-based human rights organisation has said.

Rioters killed Chen Guojun, the general manager of Jianlong Steel Holding Company, after learning that the privatised firm was to buy a majority stake in state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group. The deal now appears to be scrapped.

The violence in Tonghua city, Jilin province, north-eastern China, on Friday is believed to be the country’s biggest civil disturbance since last summer. It comes weeks after inter-ethnic conflict between Han Chinese and the Muslim Uighur minority in China’s north-west region of Xinjiang left 197 people dead and 1,700 injured.

The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said 30,000 people were involved in the latest incident, although some internet postings put the figure at closer to 10,000.

China is the world’s largest consumer and producer of steel, but its industry is regarded as inefficient.

The workers are thought to have been fearful of further large-scale redundancies at a company that reportedly axed many jobs only a few years ago. Reports suggest Tonghua has between 20,000 and 50,000 employees.

Millions of people were laid off by state enterprises in the 1990s and workers often complain that they receive little compensation.

The human rights centre said workers were angry that Chen earned about 3m yuan (£267,000) last year while Tonghua’s retirees were given as little as 200 yuan a month.

They blocked roads and smashed police vehicles, the centre said, adding that 100 people were injured in the violence. Authorities in the area have made no formal comment on events and phone calls to the companies went unanswered.

But the South China Morning Post quoted a police officer from the public security bureau as telling them: “Yes, it did take place … Workers from Tonghua would not allow ambulance and medical practitioners to enter the building to rescue Mr Chen and he died.”

Local television said on Friday night that the takeover would be scrapped, the newspaper added……. (more detals from The Guardian)

Central China Farmers Protest Land Grabs

Radio Free Asia, 2009-07-22 –

In an undated photo, residents of Nanwan village in southern Guangdong province protest outside a government building against alleged corruption surrounding an eel farm built on their land. (Provided by villagers, published by Radio Free Asia)

HONG KONG— Villagers in one of the poorest regions of China have vowed they will fight a government proposal to use their farmland for a cement factory, as a deadline for agreement set by local officials passed on Wednesday.

Residents of poverty-stricken Gushi county in the central province of Henan said they had been sent a letter only last week by village-level officials proposing the sale of a plot of desperately needed farmland at below-market compensation levels.

Dongba village resident Wang Dengyou said the villagers are dependent on agriculture as a way to eke out a living.

“Our plan was not to sell this land,” said Wang, who received the government letter offering 12,500 yuan (U.S.$1,830) per mu (0.06 hectares). “If we sell it, then we won’t have anything to eat.”

“We decided that it wasn’t enough compensation,” he said. “Even if the price was a bit higher, if we sold it we would still have lost our food supply.”

The government letter also threatened the villagers with land requisition and no compensation at all if they refused the offer, residents said.

Alleged corruption

Villagers accused local officials of skimming off a high percentage of money received from the property developers for the land.

“If you think about it, the county government has received 20,000 yuan per mu, while they are only offering 12,500 yuan per mu to the villagers,” Dongba resident Yang Huaibing said.

“This is being pulled by [officials in] our village.”

Calls to the Dongba village government and nearby Wangpeng village government went unanswered during office hours Tuesday.

According to local media reports, a series of land disputes has followed county Party secretary Guo Yongchang’s 2004 pledge to bring more investment to Henan, which has some of the poorest rural communities in China, as local officials make bids to acquire land in the area.

New developments have included spacious business centers and palatial government office buildings, reports said……. (more details from Radio Free Asia)

Flare-Ups of Ethnic Unrest Shake China’s Self-Image

By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post Foreign Service, Sunday, July 19, 2009 –

YINGDE, China — Six weeks after a violent confrontation between police and villagers in this old tea farming region, Xu Changjian remains in the hospital under 24-hour guard.

After being hit in the head multiple times by police, Xu’s brain is hemorrhaging, leaving him paralyzed on the right side. He can barely sit up. Local government officials say Xu’s injuries and that of other farmers were regrettable but unavoidable. They say that villagers attacked their police station on the afternoon of May 23 and that the police were forced to defend themselves with batons, dogs, pepper spray, smoke bombs and water cannons.

The villagers, most of them Vietnamese Chinese, tell a different story. They say that about 30 elderly women, most in their 50s and 60s, went to the police station that day to stage a peaceful protest. Four farmers’ representatives, who had taken their grievances about land seizures to government officials a few days earlier, had been detained, and villagers in the countryside of the southern province of Guangdong demanded that they be freed. As the hours passed, several thousand supporters and curious passersby joined them. Then, farmers say, hundreds of riot police bused from neighboring towns stormed in without warning and started indiscriminately pummeling people in the crowd.

The violence in Guangdong was echoed in the far western city of Urumqi, when clashes between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese on July 5 killed 192 people and injured about 1,700. Both incidents have shaken China’s view of itself as a country that celebrates diversity and treats its minority populations better than its counterparts in the West do.

The incidents in Guangdong and Urumqi fit a pattern of ethnic unrest that includes the Tibetan uprising in March 2008, followed by bombings at police stations and government offices in the majority Uighur province of Xinjiang that left 16 officers dead shortly before the August Olympics.

Each conflict has had specific causes, including high unemployment, continued allegations of corruption involving public officials and charges of excessive force by police. But for the Chinese government, they add up to a major concern: Friction among the nation’s 56 officially recognized ethnic groups is considered one of the most explosive potential triggers for social instability. Much of the unrest stems from a sense among some minority populations that the justice system in China is stacked against them. In March, hundreds of Tibetans, including monks, clashed with police in the northwestern province of Qinghai. The fight was apparently triggered by the disappearance of a Tibetan independence activist who unfurled a Tibetan flag while in police custody. Some said he committed suicide, but others said he died while trying to escape.

In April, hundreds of members of China’s Hui Muslim minority clashed with police in Luohe in Henan province when they surrounded a government office and blocked three bridges. The protesters were angry about what they viewed as the local authorities’ mishandling of the death of a Hui pedestrian who was hit by a bus driven by a Han man.

“In the United States and other countries, if a few police beat one person, it is big news; but here in China, it is nothing,” said Zhang Shisheng, 52, a grocery store owner whose right shin and calf bones were shattered during the attacks. Metal rods now support his shin, and he will not be able to walk for at least six more months.

“I feel that Chinese cops can kill people like ants with impunity.”

Xiang Wenming, a local party official and head of the Stability Maintenance Office in the area of Yingde where the clash occurred, said that “if some violence happened, that is because some people didn’t listen to the police.”…… (more details from The Washington Post)