[Onthebarricades] CHINA: Protest at Tiananmen Square, unrest in Weng'an, Guangdong, and southwest

[Andy]

Protests and social unrest in China:

*  In Beijing, residents evicted to make way for Olympic venues have rallied 
in protest, four days before the Olympics.  Officials deny reports of 
clashes.

*  In Xinjiang, separatist attackers targeted paramilitary police, killing 
16.

*  In Guiyan village, Weng'an county, Guizhou province, up to 10,000 people 
protested over allegations of a cover-up in an alleged child murder case. 
Dubbed "the largest unrest since Tiananmen 1989", the unrest saw attacks on 
police stations and vehicles, with dozens of police cars destroyed.  100 
police were reported as injured and hundreds of protesters were later 
rounded up.  The police chief was fired.  Social grievances were cited in 
the media as the main cause of the unrest.

*  In Shangnan village, Guangdong province, locals tried to seize a body of 
a man they believe was killed by police, clashed with guards and trashed 
police cars.

*  In Yuhuan county, Zhejiang province, in the east, migrant workers were 
involved in three days of protests and clashes and targeted police stations 
after a migrant died during an identity check.

*  In Menglian county, Yunnan province, in the southwest, three protesting 
rubber workers were killed by police.  Hundreds of migrant workers protested 
after a worker was injured.

*  In Fugu county, Shaanxi province, locals fought police over a suspicious 
death.

*  In earthquake-torn Chengdu, survivors confronted police over their theft 
of tents.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24130554-12335,00.html

Protest near Tiananmen Square
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>From correspondents in Beijing | August 05, 2008
A PROTEST by disgruntled Beijing residents broke out today close to 
Tiananmen Square, city officials said, just four days before the Chinese 
capital hosts the Olympics.
The group were protesting the meagre compensation they were given after 
being forcibly removed from their homes in the Qianmen district of Beijing, 
an official at the area's relocation office said.
The official, who did not want to be named, said: "There was some disruption 
and the street was blocked for some time."
A Xinhua news agency report said police broke up the protest after the group 
voiced "dissatisfaction with government compensation for demolition of their 
houses" to a group of foreign media organisations.
The report said police rushed to the site to maintain order as the group, 
made up of three to five households, had caused a traffic jam towards the 
south end of Tiananmen Square.
Security officials later issued a statement denying that police had clashed 
with the demonstrators, Xinhua reported.
"Police officers didn't clash or scuffle with the protesters, nor did they 
interfere with journalists' news-gathering activities, or detain any 
protesters today," security officials said, according to the agency.
Tiananmen is one of the most sensitive sites for China's authorities, as it 
was the scene of weeks of pro-democracy protests in 1989, which ended in a 
bloody crackdown leaving hundreds, possibly thousands, dead across Beijing.
Many Beijing residents have been forced to move out of their homes in recent 
years, as the booming city clears many traditional residential areas such as 
Qianmen to make way for modern buildings.
The move has led to complaints from many long-time residents that 
compensation offered for the prime sites was inadequate.
Authorities have stepped up security measures near the square in the run-up 
to the Olympic Games, which begin on Friday.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/04/world/main4318385.shtml

Beijingers Protest Olympic Evictions
About 20 Demonstrate Near Tiananmen Square, Houses Demolished To Beautify 
City
BEIJING, Aug. 4, 2008

A couple react after their house was demolished, in Beijing, in this Dec. 
21, 2007 file photo. Some urban residents said they were evicted to make way 
for new Olympic development without being paid enough compensation to buy 
new homes. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

(CBS/AP) About 20 people angry about being evicted from their homes in 
central Beijing demonstrated Monday not far from Tiananmen Square, saying 
the Olympics should not curb their legal rights.

Uniformed police quickly surrounded the residential street where the group 
was shouting about being kicked out of their homes and not getting proper 
compensation. The protesters had been evicted as early as 2003.

"We don't oppose the Olympics. But it's wrong for them to demolish our 
house. It's wrong," said protester Liu Fumei, who scuffled with women in 
civilian clothes who were trying to force her from the area.

The police officers did not interfere, but women who said they were members 
of a neighborhood committee pushed and led the protesters away from the 
area. Neighborhood committees are not officially part of the government but 
work closely with police and other departments.

CBS News reporter Celia Hatton says an estimated 1.5 million people have 
seen their homes simply disappear in Beijing, as authorities rush to 
spit-shine the image of the capital city.

A woman named Yu Ping, who's family lived in their Beijing house for 60 
years, running a small store in front, was evicted recently. Hatton reports 
the police insisted on tearing it down, arguing it blemished the Olympic 
torch route.

Yu says she and her 13 relatives who lived in the home will now have nowhere 
to go.

China is sensitive to any public criticism of the Beijing Olympics, which 
begin Friday, and has stationed security agents throughout the city to watch 
for signs of unrest. Demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square are rare 
and generally stopped quickly by police.

It was not clear where the protesters were taken, and whether they were 
detained. A duty officer in the Beijing police news office said he did not 
know what happened to them.

A large crowd of onlookers gathered to watch the protest in the historic 
Qianmen district just south of Tiananmen Square, one of Beijing's most 
famous landmarks where large pro-democracy protests were held in 1989. 
Authorities cracked down hard on those protesters.

Monday's demonstrators were unhappy about being evicted from their former 
homes in the area to make way for redevelopment. The area is being rebuilt 
into a commercial strip with businesses such as Nike, Starbucks and Rolex, 
and it is scheduled to open on Thursday.

"Developers shouldn't use the Olympics to take our homes. And we cannot stop 
protecting our rights because of the Olympics," protester Ma Xiulan said.

Beijing carried out a $40 billion makeover in preparation for the Olympics, 
and many older homes were razed as part of the modernization campaign.

The protesters' complaints are not unique. Residents who are displaced to 
make way for new development without being paid enough compensation to buy 
new homes have protested in cities throughout the country.

Meanwhile, two men rammed a dump truck into a group of jogging policemen and 
then tossed explosives into their barracks Monday, killing 16 officers in a 
restive Chinese province bordering Central Asia, the state-run Xinhua News 
Agency reported.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-08/05/content_6903095.htm

Reports of clash with housing protesters denied
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-05 00:19
Comments(0) PrintMail
BEIJING - Security authorities in Beijing on Monday issued a statement 
denying that police clashed with protesters who met with foreign media 
earlier in the day on Qianmen Street (Qianmen Dajie) in the city center, 
voicing dissatisfaction with government compensation for demolition of their 
houses.
"Police officers didn't clash or scuffle with the protesters, nor did they 
interfere with journalists' news gathering activities, or detain any 
protesters on Monday," said the statement.
The Chongwen District Government confirmed that some 15 protesters from the 
Qianmen area of Chongwen District met two Associated Press correspondents in 
front of a roast duck shop near Qianmen around 10:30 am on Monday, while 
Japanese TV staff were filming in front of the shop.
This caused a traffic jam as other people joined to watch the scene.
Being informed of the traffic jam, the police rushed to the scene and dealt 
with the congestion, leaving soon after the traffic jam was cleared. The 
Japanese TV crew's work was not interrupted, the statement said.
The incident was the subject of at least two AP reports. An initial report 
said that Olympics protesters clashed with police in Beijing; a later one 
noted that women claiming to be members of a neighborhood committee were 
involved in the incident.
The later story, filed at about 3:13 pm Beijing time, discussed the 
demonstration and said: "The police officers did not interfere, but women 
who said they were members of a neighborhood committee pushed and led the 
protesters away from the area."
In an interview with AP correspondents at 12:30 pm, Zhong Yongming, deputy 
chief of the Chongwen District Government, said that 96 percent of the 
residents who used to live in the old Qianmen area, featuring poor public 
works, serious safety problems and dilapidated housing, were pleased with 
the upgrading project in the area and the solutions offered to rehouse them.

http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-08/05/content_8956275.htm

Beijing officials deny report of clash with housing protestors

    BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Security authorities in Beijing on Monday 
issued a statement denying that police clashed with protesters who met with 
foreign media earlier in the day on Qianmen Street (Qianmen Dajie) in the 
city center, voicing dissatisfaction with government compensation for 
demolition of their houses.
    "Police officers didn't clash or scuffle with the protesters, nor did 
they interfere with journalists' news gathering activities, or detain any 
protesters on Monday," said the statement.
    The Chongwen District Government confirmed that some 15 protestors from 
the Qianmen area of Chongwen District met two Associated Press (AP) 
correspondents in front of a roast duck shop near Qianmen around 10:30 a.m 
on Monday, while Japanese TV staff were filming in front of the shop.
    This caused a traffic jam as other people joined to watch the scene.
    Being informed of the traffic jam, the police rushed to the scene and 
dealt with the congestion, leaving soon after the traffic jam was cleared. 
The Japanese TV crew's work was not interrupted, the statement said.
    The incident was the subject of at least two AP reports. An initial 
report said that Olympics protestors clashed with police in Beijing; a later 
one noted that women claiming to be members of a neighborhood committee were 
involved in the incident.
    The later story, filed at about 3:13 p.m. Beijing time, discussed the 
demonstration and said: "The police officers did not interfere, but women 
who said they were members of a neighborhood committee pushed and led the 
protesters away from the area."
    In an interview with AP correspondents at 12:30 p.m., Zhong Yongming, 
deputy chief of the Chongwen District Government, said that 96 percent of 
the residents who used to live in the old Qianmen area, featuring poor 
public works, serious safety problems and dilapidated housing, were pleased 
with the upgrading project in the area and the solutions offered to rehouse 
them.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4460397.ece

August 4, 2008
Chinese separatists blamed for police grenade massacre
(Jack Hill/The Times)
The scene of an attack on Chinese policemen in Kashgar in Xinxiang province

Richard Lloyd Parry in Kashgar
The two men who killed 16 policemen in the Kashgar massacre were today 
identified as members of an ethic group engaged in a shadowy insurgency in 
China’s north-western Xinjiang region.
The attackers, aged 28 and 33, were overcome and arrested at the scene and 
have been confirmed as Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim Turkic people, who 
make up the majority of Xinjiang’s 20 million population.
Although the official media did not spell it out there appears to be little 
doubt that they were members of the insurgency seeking to break Xinjiang 
away from China and establish an independent Islamic state of “East 
Turkistan”.
The separatist link emerged as the crude audacity of the attack became 
clear.

Repeated warnings from the Chinese authorities of a serious terrorist threat 
from the Uighurs were dismissed as cries of wolf to justify a security 
crackdown during the Olympics

Rather than an assault on a police station, as had been initially reported, 
the men in fact targeted 70 policemen from the paramilitary border patrol 
service as they were jogging along one of the main streets of Kashgar.
At about 8am, a lorry drove straight into the group, scattering the unarmed 
patrolmen before crashing into a power cable mast. The attackers jumped out 
and threw a pair of homemade bombs into the group before attacking the 
survivors with knives.
Fourteen of the police were killed at the scene, according to the state news 
agency Xinhua, and two others died on the way to hospital. A further 16 were 
injured.
Although the two killers were taken away alive, it was essentially a suicide 
attack – they gave no sign of having a getaway plan and there is no doubt 
that, after a swift trial, they will be executed.
In their language, religion, culture and origins, the Uighurs are quite 
distinct from the Han Chinese who dominate China’s business and politics. 
Separatist organisations have operated since the early 1990s, when 
increasing numbers of Han immigrants were encouraged to move to Xinjiang 
from China, creating tension with the Uighurs.
The last unambiguous attacks by Uighur separatists were in 1997 and 1998 
when they carried out a series of attacks on buses, police stations, 
military installations, prisons and political leaders – although no attack 
killed more than a handful of people. After the terrorist attacks of 11 
September 2001, the United States supported Beijing in having one of the 
groups identified by the Chinese government, the East Turkistan Islamic 
Movement, listed as a terror organization by the United Nations.
China says that in this year alone it has arrested 82 people for terrorist 
activity, including plots to kidnap Olympic athletes and an attempt to set 
off a bomb on a domestic flight. Last month, after people were killed by 
series of explosions on buses in southern China, a video claiming 
responsibility was posted on the Internet by a group identifying itself as 
the Turkistan Islamic Party. But foreign analysts have expressed doubts as 
to whether these were serious terrorist threats, or were exaggerated by the 
Chinese authorities to justify the intense security measures imposed on the 
country during the Olympics.
Either way the latest attack represents a drastic and unambiguous escalation 
of a formerly murky conflict and a blow to the safe image of China after a 
year which has already seen violent protests in Tibet in March and the 
devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province in May.

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-7-5/72988.html

300 Protesters Arrested After Riot
One of the Worst Demonstrations since Tiananmen Massacre in 1989
By Li Xin, Lee Wen, and Xion Bin
New Tang Dynasty TVJul 05, 2008

Dozens of police vehicles were rolled over and set on fire by protesters. 
(The Epoch Times)

The largest unrest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre has been quashed 
in southwest China's Weng'an County in Guizhou province. Currently a large 
number of paramilitary and riot police are stationed in the county. TV 
stations and radio have been urging people to turn themselves in to police.
The unrest started on June 28 in reaction to the authorities' cover up of 
the alleged rape-murder of a 17-year-old local female student.
On June 30, a Chinese reporter, Zhou Shuguang, arrived at the river bank in 
Weng'an County where the victim, Li Shufen's, body was found. Zhou told The 
Epoch Times, he saw many armed forces vehicles driving into the city. Locals 
warned Zhou it was dangerous to stay. Zhou took the advice and left.
Zhou said, "Armed police are stationed on every corner with rifles and riot 
shields. The locals said that after the body was examined, it was found that 
all the victim's organs, including the uterus, had been removed."
Local resident Mr. Lee revealed to NTDTV, "There are 7,000 to 8,000 troops 
stationed in town. Soldiers are everywhere. They are broadcasting all day to 
urge people to turn themselves in."
Another local resident, Mr. Lai, said that there have been many other 
similar cases and several girls have been missing or found dead in the past. 
The police have also ignored those cases. This time, the victim came from a 
poor family, "People raised around 40,000 yuan (approximately US$ 5836) for 
the family to appeal to higher authorities. However, the local officials 
burned the money and did not allow them to leave. That's why people were mad 
and furious and a mass protest was triggered."
According to the Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy, a watchdog 
organization based in Hong Kong, over 300 students and residents had been 
arrested by June 30. This recent protest in Weng'an is believed to be one of 
the worst demonstrations in China since the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/beijing/archive/2008/07/02/can-the-propaganda-machine-filter-the-steam.aspx

Posted Wednesday, July 02, 2008 7:01 PM
Guizhou Riots: How much steam can the machine filter?
Jonathan Ansfield
     Say somewhere in China, during the Olympics, mobs of citizens go 
spastic over some case of official malfeasance, or mishandled public 
concerns thereof. Not some quibble over sovereignty or state security (like 
Tibet or terrorism) which turns public opinion against "anti-China" forces. 
We’re talking a squarely domestic social crisis. Will word of unrest filter 
out to the wired masses elsewhere around the country? Will Netizens clamor 
in curiosity and anger? Will their attempts to access information and engage 
in debate be stymied?
   Will this make them even angrier? Will they find cracks in the vaunted 
Great Firewall of China? Will senior leaders react fast enough to dispel the 
uproar? Will a lot of observers still be stewing for some time afterward? 
Will the 20,000 to 30,000 foreign journalists in China for the Games be all 
over the story? The answer to all these questions is likely to be yes, if we’re 
to judge by reactions to violent convulsion in Guizhou this past weekend.
   On Sunday night, I stepped into my favorite pub in Beijing to find it 
dead quiet but for Little Wang, the 22-year-old exec barman. Wang’s a 
scrawny migrant from the south who mixes a mean mojito with an unflagging 
social conscience (he appeared on this blog in a previous post), and it does 
not take much to press his buttons. Little Wang was literally stomping mad 
over the mass protest in China’s deep-south a day earlier.
Advertisement

    Wang had first read about the incident in Weng’an county on popular 
Chinese Web forums, particularly Maopu. People were up in arms over the 
death of a 16-year-old girl who drowned in a river a week earlier. Police 
ruled her death a suicide; her family suspected she was raped and murdered. 
Rumors spread that two young men she was with were somehow related to the 
county party secretary and a police station chief, and that the girl’s 
uncle, a local teacher, was beaten to death outside public security 
headquarters where he pressed her case (turned out he was beaten but not 
dead, as later revealed by a Hong Kong TV interview with him from his 
hospital bed).
    On Saturday afternoon, a group of 300 people led by family, friends, and 
classmates descended on the police and government HQs. The crowd eventually 
swelled to as many as 30,000 people. A standoff with riot police spiraled 
out of control. In seven hours of fiery bedlam, people smashed, looted, and 
torched police cars and government offices, injuring more than 100 police. 
(The blog ESWN carries lots of pix)
     Suspicious death cases with police links can easily stir moments of 
national reckoning over class barriers in China today, as they long have 
race relations in the States  - take the case of Sun Zhigang in 2003 or Lu 
Haixiang in 2004. Little Wang was plenty steamed about the rumors of foul 
play in Weng’an. The sentiment was echoed by his understudy Xiao Huang, who 
confessed to being “dizzy” from hearing Little Wang’s rant but added: “I 
myself have never thought anything good of China’s police. They’re all 
corrupt scum of the earth.”
    What really riled Little Wang, though, was his confusion about the case. 
Why were people in Weng'an angry? Were their suspicions true? Why didn’t the 
government address them properly? Efforts to answer his questions only left 
him more frustrated. Wang:

“…All night and morning, I was clicking on posts about it. First it was 
there. Then it was gone. Then it was there again. Then gone. Every few 
minutes it was being deleted, sometimes every few seconds. The site had 
orders to block it. That was obvious. But they couldn’t keep up. Every time 
they did, we Netizens got angrier and angrier.”

      Little Wang gave up surfing on Tianya, the go-to Web forum in China 
for discussion of social injustices. “Tianya’s too serious!” he scoffed. In 
fact, though the editors were scrubbing out posts about Weng’an, Tianya 
groupies were masking their posts under oblique headers, sometimes very 
oblique headers. Roland Soong, the Hong Kong-based uber-blogger behind ESWN, 
detailed this phenomena (see comment 030), which was later covered in The 
Wall Street Journal. Wrote Soong on Sunday evening:

"For example, the first item says that oveseas media are paying a great of 
attention of the lives of people living in the plateau of the Yunnan-Guizhou 
area.  The second item says that the people of X'an (Guizhou) are lighting 
an extra large sacred flame to celebrate the Beijing Olympics.  The third 
item just says, "Delete this!!  Your mother's c*nt!"  The fourth item says 
that "when the army arrives in southwestern China, I think something big 
will happen!  I believe that our troops have conscience."  The fifth item 
says that the anti-American posts from the anti-American warriors have all 
met death -- the revolution has not yet succeeded and our comrades need to 
keep working.  What was that last one?  The term "American" is being used 
for "Chinese"!"

     I explained Soong’s insights to Little Wang. He said such invention was 
also evident on Maopu, a buzz-driven entertainment site which targets a 
younger audience (the name means “pouncing cat”). He took a seat at my 
laptop and scrolled way down the site in search of links on the Weng’an 
rioting. Nothing. Little Wang sprung to his feet in a fit of accusatory 
stuttering:

    “You see! Gone again!”

     By this time the easiest info to find in Chinese was by far the 
official Xinhua new agency’s initial two-graph report, which came out after 
the news proliferated in the forums and on Chinese news sites outside the 
mainland. Little Wang, for his part, was surprised Xinhua would report the 
incident at all. “You must be kidding? All we can get is Xinhua?” Part of it 
read:

"During the process of reception by the relevant government officials, 
certain people instigated the masses who did not know the truth to attack 
the county public security bureau, county government and county party 
offices.  A small number of criminal elements vandalized the offices and set 
fire to many offices and vehicles."

     ESWN provided a link to the Xinhua piece that appeared on the obscure 
site of a Fujian-based trade weekly sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of 
Agriculture. Click on the link now and the page is blank. But at the time, 
the text was accompanied by an unattributed picture – probably not Xinhua’ - of a throng of thousands gathered outside Weng’an government buildings.
     “Doesn’t look like a ‘small number’ to me,” cracked Wang.
     My shaggy mixologist friend was only further irked by what official 
attempts to paint people protesters as a herd of know-nothings incited by 
misinformation and ‘criminal elements’, even if, by many accounts, this was 
partly the case. “How are they supposed to know any better, when the 
government conceals everything from them?”
     A lot of Chinese Netizens felt that way, and over the next couple days 
they let the government know it. Not that there were tons of open venues for 
dissent. Whereas threads of discussion were cut off too fast to engender 
lasting debate on many Indies forums, those of central media appeared to be 
less carefully vetted in the first two days. Comments there predominately 
cast the protesters as “rights defenders” up against corrupt local cadres 
and police.
     It’s not that surprising, in this day and age, that central government 
media would allow such scrutiny of a small-town mess. This is how the 
Communist Party distances itself from its problems. Still, it’s interesting 
to see how -- as the provincial and central government began to investigate 
the matter and establish their official version of events -- their online 
departments moved into a guiding role. They became mother ships, swallowing 
up a good proportion of the virtual space for critique of the government. 
Soong analyzes this stratagem of co-option in uniquely Chinese political 
terms, both traditional and technocratic. “Hydrological engineering”, he 
dubs it:

"Yes, HYDROLOGICAL ENGINEERING!  Many of the current crop of central 
government leaders are technocrats with engineering background.  As such, 
they must understand that public opinion is water that can carry the ship as 
well as turn it over. [per the dynastic conception of the imperial mandate 
to rule]  The point about hydrological engineering is not to build dams to 
hold the water back because there will be a catastrophic dam break one day 
that might bring down the entire system.  Instead, the point should be about 
controlling and redirecting the awesome power of nature in less harmful ways 
down selected channels."
"In the case of the Weng'an mass incident, the major portals were deleting 
the related posts as quickly as possible.  At Tianya Forum, it was estimated 
that a Weng'an-related post has an average lifetime of 15 seconds before 
being deleted by the administrators.  That was supposed to be a record 
speed.  The same thing was happening at Sina.com, Sohu.com, Baidu, etc.  So 
this was building massive dams all over the map which builds up a tremendous 
pressure.  Where was the pressure release point?  You may be amazed that it 
was over at the Xinhua Forum.  The webmasters posted the official Xinhua 
news story on the forum.  That does not help in itself because Chinese 
netizens think that this Xinhua story was vague and misleading.  However, 
the webmasters allowed the comments to run freely.  This meant that the 
Xinhua posts became the meeting points of all those who want to talk about 
the Weng'an incident but could not do so elsewhere.  Although that post did 
not contain any news information (such as photos and videos), it was a place 
for people to vent their outrage.  As a result, Xinhua got a record-setting 
number of visitors who were very appreciative.  Is this the plan for the 
future?  You'll find out at the next mass incident (and there will be 
many)."

     On the independent forums earlier this week, an abundance of anonymous 
posts have emerged from "authoritative local sources" who dispel rumors of 
official meddling and blame the dust-up on small band of rowdies. Soong, who 
has translated quite a few of those posts, notes that Netizens do not trust 
them:

"On one hand, there is the legendary "50-cent gang."  These are supposed to 
be professional Internet writers who get paid 0.50 RMB for every post 
favorable to the government position.  When yet another version of the 
Weng'an mass incident gets published as being the ultimate truth, the author 
is accused of being a member of the "50-cent gang" who is trying to confuse 
the public.  Indeed, if you read through enough versions, you will probably 
throw up your hands and decide that you don't know what the truth is 
anymore.  Instead, you change your investigation to questioning the motives 
of the people who are producing these versions."
"On the other hand, there is the legendary "Internet special agent (网特)." 
These are supposed to be professional spies who are paid by anti-China 
hostile forces to publish unfavorable information about China.  For example, 
some of the posts mentioned that the People's Liberation Army has been 
dispatched to Weng'an with tanks and artillery, with the hint of a 
Tiananmen-like massacre to follow.  Immediately, the other netizens reacted 
by pointing that these posts are coming from "Internet special agents."  The 
netizens want to draw a very clear line: they may be protesting against what 
is happening in Weng'an but they will not serve the purpose of the 
anti-China hostile forces.  This is very clear."

     By Monday, local authorities had detained or questioned as many as 300 
rioters, and ordered a new inquest into the girl’s death. But the results of 
the review appeared a foregone conclusion. Three days after my encounter 
with Little Wang, state media across the country were leading on the file 
compiled by Guizhou’s Communist Party-run media – the Guizhou Daily, Guizhou 
Television, and the Guizhou Metropolis Daily – which took on key questions 
in the case point by point. It stood faithfully by the provincial government 
findings that the young men with the dead girl had no family connections to 
officials and had done no wrong - the girl had simply jumped into the river. 
The file was broken down into a series of “inquiries” in The Beijing News, a 
progressive tabloid. At the top of the Maopu message board, the same body of 
information was packaged as “rumor” and “fact”.
     Maopu was back to its perplexing ways on Thursday. One featured link on 
the Weng'an protest poked a number of holes in the eyewitnesses accounts 
from the dead girl's friends. But the topmost link turned the problem of 
public mistrust in the case on its head: "Why didn't anyone doubt the 
rumors?" begged the title.
     One reason is officials in Weng'an did too little, too late to address 
people's suspicions. So argued the Jinan-based Qilu Evening News, far from 
Guizhou in Shandong province, in an editorial on Tuesday:

"In the Internet age, if public information lags in the slightest, it can 
leave room for rumors to be broadcast. This is a reality that must be 
confronted."

     Arguably, senior leaders did react much faster and more attentively 
than they might have in the past. The provincial government sprung to 
action, backed by orders from Chinese leader Hu Jintao. Guizhou Party 
Secretary Shi Zongyuan, formerly chief of the state press and publication 
regulator, was in Weng'an within 48 hours of the incident.
     Shi ultimately pinned the riot on a "criminal elements" with "ulterior 
motives" - not a popular statement at all, as noted. But at a "public 
forum", according to the Guizhou Daily, he also did acknowledge "social 
conflicts that had accumulated over time", "tense relations between cadres 
and the masses", and "people's dissatisfaction toward our work".

   But the remarks were airbrushed when compared to unpublished comments Shi 
made behind the scenes at a meeting of 100 local officials. Blogging For 
China translated the intriguing account of a Guizhou journalist named Wu 
Hanpin, who apparently was in attendance and later blogged on the exchange:

"After listening to the comments of those attending, Shi Zongyuan said: Weng’an 
county has always had tense relations between cadres and citizens, police 
and citizens. Weng’an county has repeatedly had violent incidents of 
robbery, murder, and rape which have gone unsolved. The people who live here 
lack a sense of security. The failures of the county public security 
ministry has made everyone in the local community angry. He advised that 
those responsible for county public security should be “dismissed from 
 class”. Hearing this, all of the local political leaders (members of the 
people’s congress, political consultative conference) clapped in approval."
      That page of Wu's blog now appears to be blocked.

     By the end of the week, Little Wang was not impressed by the Guizhou 
government's moves to resolve the issue fairly. He'd read a dizzying array 
of accounts and arguments, from Wu's to those on Maopu. He still believed it 
highly plausible that the dead girl was raped and murdered; that the two 
young men she'd been with were related to top Weng'an officials; and that 
the protesters were instigated to commit violence.
     He did not believe the provincial government was going over the heads 
of Weng'an officials to conduct an independent probe into the death or the 
riots. "Even if they sack a few officials, it's just a show," he concluded. 
"But how am I to really know?"

http://english.sina.com/china/1/2008/0628/168979.html

Police station assaulted, torched by local people in southwest China county
2008-06-28 22:33:15 GMT       2008-06-29 06:33:15 (Beijing Time) 
Xinhua English

GUIYANG, June 29 (Xinhua) -- A police station and a county government office 
building in southwest China's Guizhou Province were assaulted and torched by 
local people Saturday night, official sources said.
The chaos started in Weng'an county seat Saturday afternoon when people who 
were dissatisfied with the medicolegal expertise on the death of a local 
girl student gathered at the county government and public security bureau, 
police said.
When officials were handling the case, some people who did not know about 
the exact context of what had happened were instigated to mob the police 
station and the office buildings of the county government and Communist 
Party committee.
They smashed and torched many offices and some cars, police said.
Provincial public security chief Cui Yadong, who is also member of the 
standing committee of the provincial Communist Party committee, rushed to 
the scene to help quiet down the incident.
By 2 a.m. Sunday, the county seat was gradually resuming order while 
lookers-on began to disperse.

http://english.sina.com/china/1/2008/0701/169452.html

Police defend riot measures, admit 150 injured in SW China protests
2008-07-01 14:38:59 GMT       2008-07-01 22:38:59 (Beijing Time) 
Xinhua English
GUIYANG, Guizhou, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Public security officials on Tuesday 
defended police actions in dealing with violent protests in southwest China 
at the weekend, saying they showed "great restraint".
However, more than 150 people, including more than 100 police, were injured 
in Saturday's riots in Weng'an county, Guizhou Province, but no deaths were 
reported, said Wang Xingzheng, provincial public security department 
spokesman.
"Most of them were slightly injured," Wang told a press conference on 
Tuesday evening.
The police, who were keeping order, had showed "great restraint" in face of 
the attacks with bricks and water bottles, he said.
The incident began when about 300 people, including some who were 
dissatisfied with a police report on the death of a 17-year-old girl, 
started to gather at about 4 p.m. on Saturday at the county government and 
public security bureau.
The police report said Li Shufen, an eighth grader, had drowned herself. 
However, her family insisted she was raped and killed.
The crowd swelled and reached as many as 30,000 people at one point. 
Eventually, they charged into the police building, smashed office 
facilities, burnt vehicles and later some of them broke into the building of 
the county government and set about destroying facilities there.
The chaos lasted almost seven hours and subsided on Sunday morning.
The provincial Communist Party chief Shi Zongyuan on Monday called for local 
authorities to handle the incident properly. "We must put maintaining social 
harmony and stability on the top of our agenda," he said.
The incident started from a simple cause, but was used and incited by a few 
people with ulterior motives, and some criminals took part, Shi said.
Shi called for strict punishments for the organizers, ringleaders and key 
rioters, but an verbal caution for minor offenders.
There must be deep-seated reasons beyond the death of the girl behind the 
violent protest, he said. Disputes over mines, immigration, relocation of 
residents for construction projects and other issues had not been given due 
attention for quite a long time.
He criticized local officials, saying they had shortcomings that 
dissatisfied residents. "We must draw a lesson from the problems exposed."

http://www.china.org.cn/china/local/2008-07/10/content_15987185.htm

Final autopsy shows Weng'an girl drowned

The girl whose death sparked violent protest in southwest China's Guizhou 
province was drowned, confirmed authorities after the final eight-day 
autopsy on Wednesday.
Qu Jianping, the doctor in charge of the third and final autopsy, went to 
Weng'an County Wednesday to convey the results to the family of of Li 
Shufen.
An examination on the vagina of 17-year-old Li Shufen shows that she was 
still a virgin at her death, dispelling rumors that she was raped before her 
death.
A team composed of four doctors failed to find sperms inside and her 
maidenhead was still complete.
The examination was done last Wednesday witnessed by Li's father, aunt, and 
two others.
Apart from scratches on her right cheek and legs, experts who anatomized her 
head and body didn't find deadly injuries, said Qu.
The doctors concluded that the scratches were not a result of assaults but 
was caused when Li struggled in the water or when her body was salvaged.
No toxin was found in her stomach, Qu added.
Experts also found blood spots on her conjunctiva and pericardiac velum and 
said the girl had swollen lungs, signs that she died after falling into 
water.
The dead girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in 
Weng'an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22.
This was the third postmortem and previous reports concluded she had 
drowned, but her relatives contended that she was murdered. Some suspected 
that Li was raped and killed by people who had connections with local 
government officials.
Some people said they found blood on the spot. The autopsy report, however, 
said the blood was not of human being, but that of an animal yet to be 
decided.
controversy over the cause of Li's death has sparked off a massive protest 
and riots in the county seat, in which the office of the county government 
and that of the county's public security bureau were torched. Dozens of 
government vehicles were smashed.
Provincial Party Chief Shi Zongyuan attributed the riots to "rude and 
roughshod solutions" by local authorities to solve disputes over mines, the 
demolition of homes for public projects, the relocation of residents for 
reservoir construction and other issues.
He also blamed local authorities for long-standing disregard for rampant 
crime in the county and incompetence in maintaining public security.
Shi urged Weng'an officials to make the people's rights and interests their 
first priority and to deal with public grievances.
The government also moved swiftly to sack four local officials. They were: 
Wang Qin, Party secretary of Weng'an county, Wang Haiping, the head of the 
county government, Luo Laiping, secretary of the politics and law committee 
of the Weng'an county CPC Committee and commissar of the county's public 
security bureau, and Shen Guirong, chief of the public security bureau.
(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2008)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-07/04/content_6820613.htm

Police chief sacked after violent protest in Guizhou
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-04 14:47
Comments(0) PrintMail
Guiyang- Two officials of the southwest China county that saw violent 
protests over the death of a teenage girl at the weekend have been 
recommended for dismissal for "severe malfeasance".

Armed police stand guard on a street in Weng'an, Guizhou Province, July 2, 
2008. [Asianewsphoto] Click for More Photos

The Guizhou provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) 
proposed to Weng'an county's CPC committee and People's Congress at a 
meeting on Wednesday to remove county public security bureau director Shen 
Guirong and political commissar Luo Laiping from their posts.

The provincial committee also required local CPC discipline inspection and 
supervision departments to investigate allegations against other officials 
in dealing with the protest.

Leaders of the county's CPC committee and government had an undeniable 
responsibility for Saturday's violent protest ignited by a controversial 
police report into the girl's death, said Shi Zongyuan, Party Chief of the 
province.

Wang Fuyu, provincial deputy Party chief, who is heading an investigation 
into the violence, said the protest would not have happened if local 
officials had communicated appropriately with the aggrieved people after the 
first signs of protest emerged.

The deep-rooted reasons behind the protest were the "rude and rough-hand 
solutions" of local authorities to solve disputes over mines, demolition of 
homes for city building, relocation of residents for reservoir construction 
and many other issues, said Shi.

"Some officials neglected their duties, but resorted to police forces when 
any dispute happened, which led to strained relations between officials and 
the people, and police and the public," he said.

Shi also blamed local authorities for long-time disregard on rampant crimes 
in the county and incompetence in maintaining public security.

He urged Weng'an officials to put the people's rights and interests at the 
first place and pay great attention to deal with people's complaints.

"If the people's rights and interests are hurt because of improper polices 
or government decisions, we should admit the mistakes and correct the 
wrongdoings in time," he said.

He also told local government to strengthen construction of the cadre team 
and management of the police force and vowed to seriously punish those who 
cover up for gangsters.

Up to 30,000 people were involved in the protest, which was prompted by a 
police report on the death of the junior high school student Li Shufen last 
month. Police said the 17-year-old drowned, but her family and relatives 
contend she was raped and killed.

The protest turned violent and rioters mobbed government office buildings. 
More than 150 police and protesters were injured, but no deaths were 
reported. About 160 offices and more than 40 vehicles were torched.

Police believe 134 people committed the destruction, and later took 59 into 
custody. Sixteen are still in detention.

Xinhua reporters found that most local people could name several gangs 
during their interviews, and the residents felt insecure because of the 
gangsters.

Earlier in the day, police announced a four-month crackdown on gangs who 
were accused of inciting violence during the protest.

Luo Yi, police chief of Qiannan prefecture, which administers Weng'an 
County, said the crackdown would "target gangs and criminal elements in 
Weng'an and its neighboring areas".

Police would also investigate the illegal possession of guns and explosives, 
gambling, and other organized criminal activities, he said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/30/asia/AS-GEN-China-Protest.php

Police swarm Chinese town where thousands rioted after suspecting cover-up 
in teen's death

The Associated Press
Published: June 30, 2008

WENG'AN, China: Paramilitary police swarmed the streets of this town in 
southwest China on Monday and detained hundreds of people for allegedly 
torching police and government buildings in an outburst of public anger over 
the suspected police cover-up of a teenage girl's death.
Official vehicles roved the town with loudspeakers blaring recorded appeals 
for rioters to turn themselves in as squads of paramilitary police in riot 
helmets and wielding batons patrolled the streets. Television stations also 
broadcast warnings to surrender, residents said.
Police stood guard on corners and still hundreds more stood by in alleys and 
side streets.
Authorities rounded up 300 people accused of taking part in Saturday's riot, 
a Hong Kong-based human rights organization said.
The unrest is especially sensitive for China ahead of the Beijing Olympics 
in August.
Citizens venting anger over official corruption, land confiscation and a 
growing gap between the rich and poor have been a thorn in the side of the 
Communist leadership in recent years, and top leaders have called for a 
focus on building a "harmonious society."
The unrest in Weng'an, a town in hilly Guizhou province, stemmed from the 
death of a high school student, whom Internet chat sites said was raped and 
murdered. Her body was pulled from a river June 22, the official Xinhua News 
Agency said.
Investigators questioned three young men — two of whom may be related to 
local police officials — but let them go, the Hong Kong-based Information 
Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
As many as 30,000 people rioted Saturday because they were angry about a 
police report that said the girl drowned, Xinhua reported. One person 
carried a banner with the message "Return justice to the people," it said.
Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and the violence injured 20 
police and 30 protesters, Xinhua said.
The crowd left 20 charred vehicles scattered in the yard of the county 
government compound and burned parts of the Weng'an Communist Party 
committee building.
A preliminary investigation found no links between children of local 
officials and the girl's death, Xinhua cited vice county chief Xiao Song as 
saying.
Liu Zhongmin, a teacher at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng'an County, where 
the girl studied, said further investigations by higher level medical 
experts and authorities are not complete. But residents feared they will 
also blame drowning in the death, he said.
"The girl's teacher is now explaining the whole situation to her fellow 
students, trying to keep them calm," he said.
Though shops were open, the announcements and heavy police presence lent a 
tense undercurrent to Weng'an — set in a valley of terraced rice and 
vegetable fields about three hours from the provincial capital of Guiyang.
The girl's landlord told Xinhua the girl's uncle recently had several 
confrontations with police, and was beaten by unidentified men in the 
street. The report did not specify whether the confrontations took place 
before or after the girl's death.
The uncle was hospitalized last week in a county hospital, but has since 
been transferred elsewhere, Xinhua said.
Telephones were not answered at the Weng'an public security bureau and 
county government office. A male employee at Qiannan prefecture's public 
security bureau, which oversees Weng'an, said the investigation into the 
student's death was continuing. Like many Chinese officials, he refused to 
give his name or position.
Xinhua said the provincial government has set up a work team involving 10 
criminal investigators and forensic experts to reinvestigate the death.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-07/03/content_6816840.htm

Social grievances behind violent protest in Guizhou
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-03 14:00
Comments(2) PrintMail

Armed police stand guard on a street in Weng'an, Guizhou Province, July 2, 
2008.Local authorities beefed up security after the death of a 17-year-old 
girl led to riots, in which the county's public security bureau was set 
ablaze and ransacked by locals. [Asianewsphoto]

Officials in southwest China's Guizhou Province have admitted there are 
social grievances in Weng'an County where a girl's death sparked a violent 
protest over the weekend.
At a panel discussion on the protest on Wednesday, officials from the 
provincial and local governments said local authorities in Weng'an County 
had failed to solve disputes over mines, demolition of illegal buildings, 
immigration, reform of state-owned enterprises and many other issues.
Related readings:
 No officials' kin involved in girl's death
 Guizhou stresses stability
 Up to 30,000 took part in mass action

"Some legitimate interests (of the people) were not effectively protected, 
and some people bore grievances," said a Guizhou Daily report on Thursday.
The officials also blamed rampant crimes in the county, between 600 and 800 
cases annually. About half had not been solved. Theft, robbery and fighting 
were frequent occurrences.
Up to 30,000 people were involved in the protest, which was prompted by a 
controversial police report into the death of Li Shufen last month. Police 
concluded the 17-year-old drowned, but her family and relatives contend she 
was raped and killed.
The protest turned violent and rioters mobbed government office buildings. 
More than 150 police and protesters were injured, but no deaths were 
reported. About 160 offices and more than 40 vehicles were torched.
Police believe 134 people committed the destruction, and later took 59 into 
custody. Currently, 16 are in detention.
Earlier, provincial Communist Party chief Shi Zongyuan said the incident 
started from a simple reason, but was used and incited by a few people with 
ulterior motives. However, he added there must have been deep-rooted reasons 
behind the violent protest.
He criticized local officials, saying they had shortcomings that 
dissatisfied residents. "We must draw a lesson from the problems exposed."
Wang Fuyu, provincial deputy Party chief, and Vice Governor Huang Kangsheng 
joined the discussion on Wednesday.
Wang, who is also heading a work team in investigating the protest, urged 
Weng'an officials to listen to the people and solve the problems that were 
closely related to their interests.

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-7-6/73079.html

Following Mass Protests in Weng'an, Many Chinese Renounce the CCP
By Li Xin, Li Sisi and Xiong Bin
Sound of Hope Radio StaffJul 06, 2008

In the wake of bitter unrest in Weng'an County, Guizhou Province, a large 
number of people in mainland China quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on 
July 1�the CCP's birthday. The Weng'an protest on June 28 had over 10,000 
people�furious over an apparent cover up of a 15-year old girl's death by 
local authorities�surround local government buildings. The protest was 
violently put down by armed police.
In response to these events "A special day to withdraw from the Chinese 
Communist Party" was initiated by the Global Service Center for Quitting the 
CCP. Many people said that they could not bear to CCP's violent suppression 
of the Weng'an people and thus wanted to withdraw from the evil party.
One Weng'an resident, knowing of the special call by the service center and 
of the almost 40 million people who have already withdrawn from the CCP, 
stated on July 1 that he would quit the CCP's Young Pioneers. He said that 
what happened in Weng'an was unbearable and people are rising one after 
another against the CCP's tyranny.
He said, "A young girl was murdered. The government said she committed 
suicide. This made people very angry. The police used tear-gas grenade and 
caused the chaos. Then government buildings and the Public Security Bureau 
were burned." He also pointed out that the local government colludes with 
criminal syndicates to engage in all manner of criminal activities, but no 
media dares to tell the truth. People seeking justice were suppressed with 
force by armed police. Now the armed police are everywhere. He said he could 
hold out no hope for this evil party.
"You can see disorders all the time. Killing happens everywhere. There are 
many crime syndicates. Media reports are only interested in saving the 
government's face, but not the truth," added he.
Guizhou resident, Miss Zhang, went beyond just quitting the Young Pioneers 
and the Communist Youth League herself. She decided to help more than 20 
relatives and friends withdraw from the CCP and its related organizations. 
She said that the CCP suppressed Weng'an people, and many good people like 
Falun Gong practitioners and Christians of family churches [who attend 
non-registered churches] have long been persecuted. As such, many people 
want to quit this evil party.
Miss Zhang said, "Not only me, all my relatives have agreed to withdraw from 
the CCP. I have helped more than 20 people quit the CCP. They all understand 
how evil the CCP is. We have no civil rights, no democracy and no freedom of 
faith. We really are living in an abyss of misery." [Taken from recording]

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2349295,00.html

Murder sparks violent protests
30/06/2008 09:27  - (SA)
Beijing - China has ordered "rioters" to surrender following violent 
protests by 10 000 residents of a southern county angry over the alleged 
rape and murder of a local girl, a dissident website said on Monday.
Residents of the restive county of Weng'an in southwestern Guizhou province 
reported a tense calm on Monday amid a heavy police presence two days after 
huge crowds attacked and burned government and police targets.
"There are many police in front of the county government building and police 
station. Students are going back to classes, social order is back to 
normal," a resident who gave only his surname, Lai, told AFP.
The incident comes at a sensitive time for China's Communist Party rulers as 
they seek to showcase the nation as harmonious and stable ahead of the 
Beijing Olympics in August.
The riots on Saturday were triggered by anger over the alleged rape and 
killing of a 15-year-old schoolgirl amid reports that local officials were 
protecting the suspect, who has been identified as the son of the county's 
deputy chief.
The anger was further fuelled by the death in police custody of the girl's 
uncle after he protested the handling of the case, locals told AFP.
The state-run China Daily newspaper on Monday quoted officials as saying 10 
000 protesters had taken to the streets due to "officials' alleged attempt 
to cover up a murder case of a girl student".
The dissident website Boxun.com featured a photo of a public notice ordering 
those involved in the rioting to turn themselves in.
Phone calls by AFP to the local police station went unanswered on Monday.
The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said 
on Sunday that more than 1 500 paramilitary and riot police had been 
dispatched to the area and that nearly 200 people had been arrested.
Although numerous internet postings on the violence were seen over the 
weekend, few could be found on Monday. The government's internet censors 
typically block information on such clashes.
China sees thousands of such outbursts each year as ordinary Chinese, faced 
with an unresponsive legal system and rampant official corruption, lash out 
violently at perceived government abuses and graft.
China typically cracks down harshly on such outbursts and metes out stiff 
punishments for protesters.

http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-07/10/content_8519852.htm

Final autopsy shows girl in southwest China protest drowned

    GUIYANG, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The girl whose death sparked violent protest 
in southwest China's Guizhou province was drowned, confirmed authorities 
after the final eight-day autopsy on Wednesday.
    Qu Jianping, the doctor in charge of the third and final autopsy, went 
to Weng'an County Wednesday to convey the results to the family of Li 
Shufen.
    An examination on the vagina of 17-year-old Li Shufen shows that she was 
still a virgin at her death, dispelling rumors that she was raped before her 
death.
    A team composed of four doctors failed to find sperms inside and her 
maidenhead was still complete.
    The examination was done last Wednesday witnessed by Li's father, aunt, 
and two others.
    Apart from scratches on her right cheek and legs, experts who anatomized 
her head and body didn't find deadly injuries, said Qu.
    The doctors concluded that the scratches were not a result of assaults 
but was caused when Li struggled in the water or when her body was salvaged.
    No toxin was found in her stomach, Qu added.
    Experts also found blood spots on her conjunctiva and pericardiac velum 
and said the girl had swollen lungs, signs that she died after falling into 
water.
    The dead girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in 
Weng'an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22.
    This was the third postmortem and previous reports concluded she had 
drowned, but her relatives contended that she was murdered. Some suspected 
that Li was raped and killed by people who had connections with local 
government officials.
    Some people said they found blood on the spot. The autopsy report, 
however, said the blood was not of human being, but that of an animal yet to 
be decided.
    controversy over the cause of Li's death has sparked off a massive 
protest and riots in the county seat, in which the office of the county 
government and that of the county's public security bureau were torched. 
Dozens of government vehicles were smashed.
    Provincial Party Chief Shi Zongyuan attributed the riots to "rude and 
roughshod solutions" by local authorities to solve disputes over mines, the 
demolition of homes for public projects, the relocation of residents for 
reservoir construction and other issues.
    He also blamed local authorities for long-standing disregard for rampant 
crime in the county and incompetence in maintaining public security.
    Shi urged Weng'an officials to make the people's rights and interests 
their first priority and to deal with public grievances.
    The government also moved swiftly to sack four local officials. They 
were: Wang Qin, Party secretary of Weng'an county, Wang Haiping, the head of 
the county government, Luo Laiping, secretary of the politics and law 
committee of the Weng'an county CPC Committee and commissar of the county's 
public security bureau, and Shen Guirong, chief of the public security 
bureau.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/the-wengan-model-china-s-fix-it-governance

The Weng'an model: China’s fix-it governance
Li Datong
The Beijing government's response to an eruption of local fury in Guizhou 
province signals a vital change in its operating mode, says Li Datong
30 - 07 - 2008

A constant feature of the extraordinary social flux of contemporary China is 
the occurrence of serious clashes between the public and the police. A few 
examples from May-July 2008 indicate the extent and variety of this 
phenomenon:
* on 26 May, police in Chengdu arrested people who witnessed them attempting 
to steal tents meant for earthquake-relief work; this sparked a 
confrontation between members of the public and the police
* on 28 June, over 10,000 people attacked government and party buildings and 
set fire to a police station in Weng'an county, Guizhou province; this 
action was related to a belief that a local high-school girl had been raped 
and killed by people with links to the government
* on 5 July, family members of a drowned driver in Fugu county, Shaanxi 
province attempted to seize the body of the deceased from police; this 
sparked a riot in which three police cars were smashed and seven people 
arrested
* on 9 July, several police officers in Yuhuan county, Zhejiang province 
were injured when over 1,000 migrant workers attacked their building; this 
was related to problems migrant workers had had in obtaining temporary 
residence permits in the county
* on 17 July, dozens of people were injured when members of the public 
clashed with the police in Boluo, Guangdong province; citizens had suspected 
the police of beating a motorcyclist to death
* on 19 July, rubber-plantation workers in Menglian county, Yunnan province 
held a protest; police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing two and 
injuring one.

Li Datong is a Chinese journalist and a former editor of BingdianFreezing 
Point), a weekly supplement of the China Youth Daily newspaper.

When a conflict between the public and police occurs, the Beijing 
authorities routinely classify the event under the broad heading of "mass 
incidents". Media workers in China know that the term "mass incident" in 
fact refers to any incident which has to be quelled using the police. How 
many such incidents take place in China each year? The estimate for 2007, 
collated by weighing a number of sources, is 80,000. But this number is hard 
to verify. The authorities strictly prohibit reporting on where incidents 
take place, their causes, the extent of casualties and the outcome of the 
conflicts.
Even if media outlets become aware that such an event is taking place, most 
will not send anyone to investigate it because they know that their reports 
will not be publishable. In this light the fact that so many reports on 
"mass incidents" have seen the light of day in the first seven months of 
2008 is a real sign of progress. Of all the incidents that have been 
reported, the one that has been covered in most detail, and which has been 
most discussed online, is one of those listed above: the Weng'an incident of 
28 June 2008.
A change in the climate
The riot that took place on 28 June in Weng'an county was even more serious 
than the protests in Lhasa in mid-March 2008. In Weng'an, over 10,000 people 
directly attacked the party committee and government building, and the local 
police station. Images of the chaos spread quickly across the internet. The 
official media - perhaps as the result of some modification of the 
censorship system - broke with the tradition of covering up such events. At 
the same time, the news stories that did appear were full of familiar, 
hackneyed phrases (such as "a minority of people incited the masses, who 
were ignorant of the true situation" and "attacked the party and 
government.") The establishment media stuck to this line even though China's 
netizens all knew that such reporting was inaccurate and thousands posted 
comments questioning the official story.
After three or four days, however, there was a change in the climate. The 
Guizhou provincial party secretary Shi Zongyuan made a personal inspection 
tour of Weng'an and offered his views on the fundamental reasons for the 
unrest. His comments suggested that these went far beyond the ostensible 
trigger of the assault on the high-school student: Shi Zongyuan instead 
cited the way that the process of developing the mining industry in the 
area, accommodating migrants and relocating residents after their homes had 
been demolished had repeatedly infringed people's rights.
In dealing with the disputes that these changes had provoked, local 
officials had acted brutishly, and even made indiscriminate use of police 
power. The county government's failure to implement strong and fair 
policies, the party secretary implied, had brought public resentment to 
boiling-point."Local authorities have failed to pay sufficient attention to 
the concerns of the public", Shi Zongyuan said. "They have failed to crack 
down on dark forces and serious criminality. The crime rate is high, arrest 
rates are low, and this has created an unsafe environment."

Shi Zongyuan apologised three times to the people of Weng'an for the 
situation in their county. Even more surprising, the primary target of 
official sanction was not the rioting townspeople but the local officials. 
The county head, county party secretary, chief of police and commissar were 
all dismissed from their posts. In the end, even the more senior prefectural 
party secretary was sacked over the incident.
The significance of Weng'an is that this is the first time that local 
officials have been the first to come under scrutiny following a "mass 
incident" (see Simon Elegant, "China Protests: A New Approach?", Time, 4 
July 2008). After the initial riot, Hu Jintao himself - general secretary of 
the Chinese Communist Party and state president - issued a memo on how the 
incident should be handled. This evidence suggests that the highest 
authorities were dissatisfied with the initial response to events in Weng'an 
at local level, and demanded an investigation into their root causes. The 
contrast between the immediate official reaction and what was to follow 
within a few days shows how the party's style of governance is evolving.
A power beyond law
China's breakneck economic development since the mid-1980s has to a certain 
extent been founded on the premise that the state's monopoly on violence 
will protect the government and official institutions even as unfair burdens 
are imposed on the public. For two decades and more, Deng Xiaoping's mantra 
of "stability above all else" has been the highest article of faith at all 
levels of government. Those who protest or petition to the authorities - no 
matter the cause - can according in principle be accused of "breaching 
stability", and subject to legal repression.
The most common examples of this are the forced relocation of urban 
residents whose homes are to be demolished, and the appropriation of 
farmers' land in the countryside. The lack of any balancing power or 
democratic accountability has led to officials using ever cruder methods to 
deal with disputes. At the scene of almost all conflicts, the police tend to 
be out in force - as an instrument of state rather than of social 
protection. The use of state agencies as a tool in official hands is 
reflected in the way that the party secretary of Xifeng county, Liaoning 
province sent police to Beijing to arrest a journalist at a large newspaper 
who had written an article that the secretary found offensive (see Edward 
Cody, "Move to Arrest Journalist Sparks Backlash in China", Washington Post, 
9 January 2008) . This is but one classic example of the abuse of police 
power with no regard for law or principle.
It is obvious that this form of governance cannot persist. Weng'an helps to 
show why, in three ways.
First, citizens have more access to information and freedom in circulating 
it than ever before. The fact that so many members of the public knew that 
the authorities' version of events in Weng'an was untrue or deficient, and 
were able to post their own stories and experiences, means that the total 
monopoly of information that was a bulwark of state power no longer holds 
(see Geoffrey A Fowler & Juliet Ye, "Chinese Bloggers Score a Victory 
Against the Government", Wall Street Journal, 5 July 2008).
Second, the Weng'an riot is revealing in that none of the rioters were 
themselves affected by the incident which sparked their protest. After all, 
the death of a girl in suspicious circumstances directly affects at most a 
few families. At a deeper level, however, an environment where public anger 
and frustration have been bottled up for a long time can lead to any 
available incident becoming the occasion for an eruption of mass fury. The 
commentator Xu Zhiyong, who said that "Weng'an could be any county in 
China", was right.
Third, local governments often act with wanton disregard for the law and 
public opinion. In the past the central government has chosen to tolerate 
this situation in order to maintain a united front. This has meant that the 
actions of some local officials have come to reflect on the government as a 
whole. The inevitable result - evident in Weng'an in the disparity between 
initial and eventual official reactions - is a crisis of governance.
A new rulebook
The central government will do its best to address the first two points, 
however difficult this may prove. It also appears to have understood and 
begun to take action to meet the third - by, in effect, refusing to be held 
to ransom by local officials. Beijing is conscious that if local officials 
are not held to account, it will be the object of the public's accusations: 
it needs to act to defend itself.
Thus, the logic of the central government's demand for an investigation of 
"the root causes of events" in Weng'an is an examination of the culpability 
of officials at all levels. Indeed, three government departments have 
(independently of the Weng'an events) jointly released a set of regulations 
on punishments for the violation of rules on dealing with petitioning. A 
close reading of these makes it plain that they aim to lay responsibility 
for any unrest with local officials. If a "mass incident" develops, the 
local officials responsible will be punished. A single line speaks volumes: 
"Those who make indiscriminate use of police power during mass incidents 
will be stripped of party membership and dismissed from their posts."
The new rules appear already to be having some effect. The media has 
reported on some meetings between local officials and petitioners. Such 
gatherings are often extremely crowded, an indication of how deep and 
complex the task of solving the problems petitioners raise will be. True, 
neither this new approach nor the specific response to the Weng'an riot can 
solve all the problems the party is facing. However, the fact that officials 
as well as the public are now being held responsible for "mass incidents" is 
at least a step in the right direction of solving China's crisis of 
governance.

This article was translated from Chinese by Chris Allen

 http://networks.org/?src=abc:5402960

More Than 100 Chinese Villagers Protest Man's Death
Chinese police: Villagers attack police station to protest man's death
BEIJING July 18, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press

More than a hundred Chinese villagers attacked a police station to protest 
the death of a man they say was beaten by local Communist Party security 
guards, police said Friday, the latest in a recent spate of violence 
triggered by discontent with authorities.
Relatives gathered Thursday after Ouyang Jiusheng, 40, died in a motorcycle 
accident near Shangnan village in the southern province of Guangdong, 
according to a police statement sent via e-mail.
A police officer and a doctor determined that Ouyang died of injuries 
sustained after his bike overturned, however, the relatives argued he was 
beaten by the guards who refused to let police take his body away, it said. 
The statement did not give a reason for the relatives' allegation.
The crowd grew to more than 100 people and they attacked the police station, 
the local Communist Party office and a supermarket, the statement said. Four 
guards were injured and police cars were overturned, it said.
Police and government officials tried to negotiate with the protesters but 
were unsuccessful and even more people joined in.

"To prevent the incident from escalating, police had to clear out the site," 
the statement said.
Eight people were taken into custody and a 25-year-old man, Ouyang's cousin, 
was detained for inciting the violence.
As Beijing enters the final stretch before the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, the 
government is trying to limit protests or complaints across the country that 
could embarrass the image of a modern nation.
Last week, hundreds of migrant workers attacked a police station in eastern 
Zhejiang province after one worker was allegedly beaten while trying to get 
a residence permit.
In Guizhou province, more than 30,000 people protested and torched a police 
station in a town last month over what they believed was a cover-up of a 
teenage girl's death.
A notice issued this week by the central government ordered local leaders to 
be more responsive to people's complaints and be better at resolving 
disputes and conflicts.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-18-china-protests_N.htm?csp=34

Chinese police: Villagers attack police station as protest
BEIJING (AP) — More than a hundred Chinese villagers attacked a police 
station to protest the death of a man they say was beaten by local Communist 
Party security guards, police said Friday, the latest in a recent spate of 
violence triggered by discontent with authorities.
Relatives gathered Thursday after Ouyang Jiusheng, 40, died in a motorcycle 
accident near Shangnan village in the southern province of Guangdong, 
according to a police statement sent via e-mail.
A police officer and a doctor determined that Ouyang died of injuries 
sustained after his bike overturned, however, the relatives argued he was 
beaten by the guards who refused to let police take his body away, it said. 
The statement did not give a reason for the relatives' allegation.
The crowd grew to more than 100 people and they attacked the police station, 
the local Communist Party office and a supermarket, the statement said. Four 
guards were injured and police cars were overturned, it said.
Police and government officials tried to negotiate with the protesters but 
were unsuccessful and even more people joined in.
"To prevent the incident from escalating, police had to clear out the site," 
the statement said.
Eight people were taken into custody and a 25-year-old man, Ouyang's cousin, 
was detained for inciting the violence.
As Beijing enters the final stretch before the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, the 
government is trying to limit protests or complaints across the country that 
could embarrass the image of a modern nation.
Last week, hundreds of migrant workers attacked a police station in eastern 
Zhejiang province after one worker was allegedly beaten while trying to get 
a residence permit.
In Guizhou province, more than 30,000 people protested and torched a police 
station in a town last month over what they believed was a cover-up of a 
teenage girl's death.
A notice issued this week by the central government ordered local leaders to 
be more responsive to people's complaints and be better at resolving 
disputes and conflicts.

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=8697488&nav=6DJI2cTB

Chinese villagers protest man's death

Associated Press - July 18, 2008 11:03 AM ET
BEIJING (AP) - Chinese authorities are dealing with more protests ahead of 
the Olympics.
Police say more than a hundred Chinese villagers in the south attacked a 
police station to protest the death of a man they say was beaten by local 
Communist Party security guards. It's the latest in a recent spate of 
violence triggered by discontent with authorities.
The police say the man died in a motorcycle crash. The protesters haven't 
said why they think otherwise.
The crowd overturned police cars and attacked the local Communist Party 
office and a supermarket.
Police and government officials unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the 
protesters, leading even more people to join in. Police say they were forced 
to clear the site. Eight people were taken into custody and a cousin of the 
man was detained for inciting violence.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/14/worldupdates/2008-07-14T174132Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-345057-1&sec=Worldupdates

Monday July 14, 2008
Migrant workers protest, riot for 3 days in eastern China
By Chris Buckley
BEIJING (Reuters) - Migrant workers in eastern China rioted and protested 
for three days last week, officials said, vowing tough steps to quell the 
latest ripple of unrest ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
The clashes broke out in Yuhuan County in coastal Zhejiang province, where 
dizzying manufacturing growth has attracted a torrent of migrant workers 
from poor parts of the countryside.
The county government gave a sparse account of the confrontation on a local 
official Web site (yhnews.zjol.com.cn). But officials left no doubt they 
were alarmed.
"This was a grave crime of obstructing public security organs in carrying 
out their duties and assembling a crowd to attack state offices," a deputy 
head of the Yuhuan police force, Weng Zhengui, told local reporters, 
according to the Web site.
"We will thoroughly investigate it, sternly attack and show no softness."
Thousands of protests, riots and "mass incidents" occur in China every year, 
most of them small and never openly reported. But the recent spasm of 
reported unrest comes at a tense time, with Beijing readying for the Games 
in August that it has promoted as a show of social progress and harmony.
Rioting broke out in Kanmen town in Yuhuan on the night of July 10 after a 
migrant worker surnamed Zhang came to a local law-and-order office to 
complain about injuries from "colliding with a wall" there the previous day, 
said the account posted late on Sunday. The report did not say how he 
collided with the wall.
Zhang agreed to be taken to a hospital by police, but on the way an angry 
crowd surrounded the police and yanked the fuel pipes out of six of their 
motorcycles.
"Seeing that the situation was tense, the police decided to first withdraw, 
but while they were doing so the surrounding crowd threw rocks at them, 
injuring three police officers."
The confrontation grew out of a quarrel over Zhang's application for a 
temporary resident permit and drew hundreds of workers to the Kanmen police 
station, some of them throwing stones, the official Xinhua news agency 
reported late on Monday.
Migrant workers' sometimes complain that local officials and police abuse 
rules requiring residence permits and other checks, demanding exorbitant 
fees for them.
The Yuhuan government report said 23 people were "dealt with according to 
the law" after authorities regained control.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a 
group that often reports on unrest in China, said 300 anti-riot police were 
deployed to restore control.
Calls to village and county offices were not answered.
But on the following night, angry migrant workers again assembled in front 
of the Kanmen police station to "stir trouble," the report said, and again 
on July 12 a crowd surrounded the station and smashed some windows.
Weeks before the Beijing Olympics, Chinese officials have been told to keep 
a tight lid on any flickers of unrest.
But a riot involving 30,000 in the southwest Chinese town of Weng'an Fugu 
County, Shaanxi province has prompted widespread media discussion about the 
sources of continued discontent.
Officials in Yuhuan said they would issue rules to strengthen management of 
migrant workers while also opening a "rights defence centre" for them.

http://insidechinatoday.net/2008/07/15/bloggers-debate-suppression-of-zhejiang-workers-protest/

Bloggers debate suppression of Zhejiang worker’s protest
Posted by Daniel on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
According to reports on July 14, tensions were sparked between police and 
temporary residents of Kanmen in Yuhuan county of Zhejiang province.
The conflict, which began on July 10, due to police checks on 
identification, lasted for several days. According to the Hong Kong based 
Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, outraged workers 
violently attacked police stations for three consecutive nights. Most of the 
glass windows in the Kanmen Police Station have been broken. Internet news 
sources indicate tens of people had been killed, while police staff denied 
that they had beaten anyone to death. Information and discussion in relation 
to this incident have since been blocked and censored on major Chinese 
Internet blogs and forums.
The Information Center revealed protesting workers were requesting the 
release of those who had been arrested. Yet, in response, the Yuhuan 
government has widened the scale of arrests, causing the conflict to further 
escalate. A local government website has given evidence of this protest 
event. One local government official told the Associated Press that 300 
police officers arrived at Yuhuan County on July 13.
According to an anonymous Chinese Internet blogger, officers with police 
batons would beat anyone within sight, and this continued until early 
morning. Reportedly, one man from Jiangxi and two from Sichuan were beaten 
to death. However, at an interview with overseas media, local police 
officers claim no one was killed.
Another anonymous blogger also exposed that on the fourth day since the 
incident began there were still fights outside and that a normally busy 
street mall was devoid of shoppers as a direct result of conflict between 
the police and protesting mobs.
An Internet blogger revealed that actual events did not follow the official 
line of a government statement. People were physically beaten until they 
moved on, not that they dispersed of their own accord under police force and 
that even casual passers-by and children under 14 were the subjects of 
violent abuse by police.
Another blogger suggested that Sichuan workers would not protest for three 
days without reason, they also needed to make a living. The blogger wished 
that the government would reveal the truth behind the incident.
In recent years, due to discontent toward government corruption, land 
repatriation and abuse of power by government officials, protests and riots 
have continuously arisen in many regions across China. Similar events have 
also taken place in Guizhou during which tens of thousands of people 
surrounded more than ten government buildings in protest, while its County 
Police Bureau and government buildings were attacked by arsonists.
The Chinese Communist regime seems to be deeply unsettled by these protests. 
All government officials have received instructions to ensure that the 
Olympics would not be affected by protest activities. A “Yuhuan 7-10 event” 
leadership team has already been established, and up to ten thousand Chinese 
Communist officials have been summoned for meetings on strategies to control 
the situation.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/19/asia/AS-China-Protest-Deaths.php

Report: Chinese police kill 2 in fight with rubber farmers in country's 
southwest

The Associated Press
Published: July 19, 2008

BEIJING: Chinese police killed two people during a fight Saturday with 
rubber farmers in the country's southwest, a government news agency said.
About 400 people fought with police in Menglian county in Yunnan province, 
the Xinhua News Agency said. It said some of those involved were rubber 
farmers who had protested against a local rubber company but gave no details 
about the source of Saturday's violence.
Police used guns and clubs, killing two people and injuring a third, the 
report said. It said 13 police officers were injured. The area has residents 
from the Dai, Lagu and Wa ethnic minorities, Xinhua said.
There are thousands of protests a year in China over complaints about 
official corruption or misconduct, the seizure of farmland for redevelopment 
and other issues. Some erupt in violence but fatalities are rarely reported.
The Communist government is trying to limit protests ahead of August's 
Beijing Olympics, which it hopes will showcase China as a prosperous, stable 
country.
Beijing has ordered local leaders to be alert to grievances and solve them 
quickly, the state press reported this week.
Authorities in Yunnan were investigating Saturday's violence, Xinhua said.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/209864.html

Police Kill Two in China After 400 Protesters Attack Officers
Government stresses need for stability in run up to Olympics but faces 
string of direct protests
Chinese police killed two people in a clash with local residents in the 
south-western province of Yunnan, according to official media, in the latest 
of several mass disturbances.

The government has stressed the need for stability in the run-up to the 
Olympic games next month, but has faced a string of protests and the direct 
targeting of government property in recent weeks.

The state news agency Xinhua said police used baton guns after they were 
attacked by around 400 local residents in Menglian County, a rubber farming 
area.

Thirteen policemen and one local resident were also injured in the violence 
on Saturday, which broke out as police tried to take away people suspected 
of involvement in illegal activities, according to Xinhua.

Rubber farmers are said to have been in dispute with a large rubber company 
in recent years.

While thousands of protests and riots take place in China each year, most 
are small and never widely reported. But with the games fast approaching, 
the authorities are keen to find swift solutions.

While Beijing has ordered local leaders to ensure they maintain security and 
stability, it has also ordered them to be more responsive to people's 
complaints. The provincial party secretary of Yunnan, Bai Enpei, ordered a 
swift investigation into this weekend's incident and urged officials to 
"listen attentively to the complaints and appeal of local residents, make 
great efforts to rescue the injured people, and console family members of 
the dead to prevent the matter from escalating".

After another recent incident - when 30,000 people protested in Guizhou, 
bordering Yunnan, about an alleged cover-up over a teenage girl's death - 
officials accused "gangsters" of stirring up trouble.

This weekend police said they had detained 117 people in connection with the 
riots, in which people set fire to police headquarters.

But the authorities also acknowledged that local people had "social 
grievances" and sacked the head and political commissar of the public 
security bureau.

The provincial party chief accused local officials of neglecting their 
duties, being incompetent and using "rude and rough-hand solutions" to solve 
problems.

On Friday, Xinhua reported that more than 100 people in Huizhou city in the 
southern province of Guangdong had attacked police in a row over the death 
of a motorcyclist.

Angry protesters claimed that he had been beaten to death by security 
guards - not, as the police stated, in a traffic accident.

The incident came only a few days after hundreds of migrant workers attacked 
a police station in Zhejiang, eastern China, during three days of unrest.

They alleged one man had been beaten while applying for a residence permit.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKPEK2000420080707

China sees another clash over a disputed death
Mon Jul 7, 2008 9:57am BST

BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) - A week after rioting erupted in southwest China 
over a disputed death, another controversial death in the country's 
northwest sparked a clash between villagers and police, local newspapers 
reported.

The earlier riot in Guizhou province brought 30,000 locals onto the streets 
after a local teenage girl's death sparked claims of a police cover-up of 
her rape and murder.

The more recent clash on Saturday in Fugu County, Shaanxi province, was 
smaller and less destructive -- but nonetheless another reminder of the 
widespread distrust of authorities in parts of the countryside.

China, with its vast and poor rural populations, sees many thousands of 
protests and what officials call "mass incidents" every year.

But especially in the build-up to the Beijing Olympic Games in August, 
authorities want to stamp out any signs of unrest.

The Shaanxi-based Sanqin Metropolitan Daily reported that on July 3 the 
driver of a farm vehicle jumped into the Yellow River to escape police 
checking him for traffic violations.

Police fished his body out of the river two days later, and were then 
pursued by angry kin of the dead man, who demanded to know why they were not 
told of the find and also demanded to have control of the corpse.

"The two sides struggled over the corpse...and neither side would back down, 
and this immediately attracted many spectators," said the report, which was 
reproduced on many Chinese news Web sites on Monday.

In the earlier incident, residents in Weng'an, Guizhou, torched police and 
government headquarters and vehicles, demanding justice after claims spread 
that police had covered up as a suicide the rape and murder of a teenage 
girl.

Police denied that relatives of officials had anything to do with the girl's 
death and said she drowned herself.

Province authorities, however, subsequently sacked Weng'an Communist Party 
chief, county mayor and two top law-and-order officials. They said 
corruption and abuses of police power were widespread there. (Reporting by 
Chris Buckley; Editing by David Fox)

http://seagullreference.blogspot.com/2008/05/protesting-chengdu-residents-tear-gased.html

Friday, May 23, 2008
Protesting Chengdu Residents Tear Gased by Police

A Chengdu resident climbed on the top of car to take a picture of the police 
woman, No. 006677.

It had been raining like no end in the disaster area after the Sichuan 
Earthquake, and refugees had to stay overnight on the street in cold rain. 
Where had those tents donated by people around the world gone? No detective 
is needed, they were stolen.

Police used tear gas on people protesting officials stealing donated tents. 
The incident started when self-appointed Netizens mobilized to find out the 
truth behind numerous relief supply tents appeared in stores on Chengdu 
streets. Chengdu is not a disaster area of this earthquake, but these tents 
are all relief supplies that were not for sale. Some of the tents found on 
black markets were donated from foreign countries.

Police forces were dispatched to suppress the protesting people who 
discovered a location of illegal retail place on Beisen Road. When more than 
870,0000 affected by the quake do not have a tent for the night and the 
government placed the up most priority on getting in more tents, it's 
understandable the situation was explosive already. The bomb was ignited 
when a police woman, No. 006677 (police woman in the picture taken by 
protectors) told the protectors that they did not have a say on corruptions, 
and beat some of the protectors.

Soon many angry Chengdu residents came to confront the
police woman, No. 006677
, and demanded an apology. Instead of issuing an apology, the police chose 
to use tear gas to disperse the protectors. Around 30-40 policemen were seen 
beating Chengdu residents with batons. Many women, children and elderly 
people were beaten by the police, just because they happened to be witnesses 
of corruptions in the earthquake relief.

It would be the first time Chengdu residents were tear gased by police after 
the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

In one sense, foreign government and organizations should stopped donating 
tents to China. If they stop sending tents, then corrupted communism 
officials will have nothing to steal, then innocent people will not be 
beaten by police. In the least, anyone who still wants to donate needs to 
get an answer from the Chinese government first: Who is the police women No. 
006677? Who are the police women No. 006677 trying to cover? Who ordered the 
use of tear gas on people who dare to point out officials corruption? How 
were the 40 Chengdu policemen rewarded for beating protectors?