[Onthebarricades] CHINA: Weng'an "mass incident" coverage

[Andy]

Lengthy report on the Weng'an incident in China, from Chinese bloggers and 
news monitors, with translations from the Chinese media.

http://zonaeuropa.com/20080701_1.htm

Yet Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident (06/30/2008)  (Boxun)
The name of the female student victim was Li Shufen.  She was 15 years old 
and she was a resident of Yuhua town.  At around 6pm on June 21, Li Shufen 
was asked to go out by her classmate Wang Jiao.  Li was raped by two young 
men who killed her and tossed her body into the Simen river.  At some time 
past 11pm that night, some people heard cries for help.  At around 12:30am, 
Wang Jiao called the elder brother of Li Shufen to report that Li Shufen 
"had committed suicide by jumping into the river."
Li Shufen's elder brother and others went down by the river and saw Wang 
Jiao standing by the bridge with two men.  They found that there was no 
water in Li's stomach.  Given that Li had given no indication of suicidal 
tendency, they took the three people down to the police station.  But at 
10am the next morning, the three people were released unconditionally 
without any interrogation or statement-taking.  The police also said that 
the victim had died by "suicide."
The next day, someone told the relatives of Li Shufen that she had been 
raped, killed and thrown into the river.  The police did not conduct an 
autopsy and ignored the request from the family to do so.  Based upon 
information provided by local citizens, the Li family found out that Wang 
Jiao and the two  young men were related to the leaders of the county public 
security bureau, county party committee and provincial party committee. 
That was why they were released after being detained only eight hours.
On Monday, the forensic doctor said that the cause of death was 'suicide.' 
The family went to petition at the country party committee office.  Li 
Shufen's uncle who is a teacher at the Yuhua Middle School was assaulted by 
six plainclothes security guards and subsequently died from the injuries. 
Li Shufen's aunt was also beaten unconscious.  Meanwhile, the parents of Li 
Shufen guarded the coffin by the Simen river.
According to the godfather of Li Shufen, "The public security bureau sent 
out people to try to steal the corpse to force a quick interment.  When the 
family relatives refused, they were assaulted.  The country mayor and the 
public security bureau all wanted a quick interment.  Many people are on the 
site ready to defend the corpse.  The corpse had been retrieved from the 
water by the family, but the public security bureau wanted them to say that 
the fire department retrieved it."
This tragic incident has aroused the anger of the local residents.  The 
students from four Weng'an middle schools went down to the public security 
office to petition.  The police used force to suppress them, which caused 
the students and other citizens to set fire to the public security bureau 
office and more than a dozen police vehicles.  The police officers were 
trapped in the office building, and police reinforcements had to be summoned 
from elsewhere.
According to Mrs. Liu: "The students went to the government office with 
protest banners but nobody paid them any attention.  Then they went down to 
the public security bureau building, where the police attacked them with 
electric prods.  The students and the supporting citizens set fire to the 
dozens of police vehicles as well as the offices."
On this day, several tens of thousand of citizens assembled and protested in 
front of the public security bureau office, the county government building 
and the Civic Affairs Bureau building.  They set fire to the public 
security, county government and county party committee buildings.
Mr. Wang who participated in the action said, "The county mayor and the 
public security bureau director were all in hiding.  Several hundred 
anti-riot policemen were stuck in the building and did not dare to come out. 
The fire department people were blocked by the people from going in to put 
out the fires.  This time, they saw the power of the people.  They learned 
that when people are not afraid to die, then death cannot be used to 
threaten them!"
[ESWN Comment: The story above is unverified.  Nevertheless this is the most 
popular story spread around the Internet.  A competitive alternative with 
the rape angle has Wang Jiao taking revenge because Li Shufen refused to 
pass tips to her during an exam.  The big problem here is this.
First, it is known from the photos and videos that a mass incident had 
occurred in Weng'an county.
Secondly, all mainstream media have been ordered to carry the Xinhua story:
According to the  local police, on the afternoon of June 28, certain people 
were dissatisfied with the inquest on the cause of death for a female 
students and congregated at the county government and public security bureau 
offices.  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.
Afterwards, the principal leaders of the Guiyang provincial party committee 
and government issued orders for the matter to be quickly and properly 
handled.  Guiyang provincial Party Standing Committee member, Politics and 
Law Committee secretary and Public Security Bureau director Cui Yadong 
arrived at the scene to direct the local party committee and government to 
calm things down.  At around 2am on June 29, the spectators slowly dispersed 
and the incident did not become bigger.  Calm has basically been restored in 
Weng'an county.
The Xinhua story does not satisfy the need to know the truth.  It only 
created many more doubts.  This opened up the space for all sorts of rumors 
to dominate public opinion which cannot be fully blocked anymore at this 
time.]

More 'Facts' About The Weng'an Mass Incident (06/30/2008)  (Ming Pao)
(1) The uncle of the female student was alleged to have been beaten by the 
police and later died at the hospital.  He is still alive, but in critical 
condition.  He is interviewed by Hong Kong Cable in this YouTube Video: 
香港有线电视台29号贵州瓮安
ncle of the female student was alleged to have been beaten by the police and 
later died at the hospital.  He is still alive, but in critical condition. 
He is interviewed by Hong Kong Cable in this YouTube Video: 香港有线电视台29号贵州瓮安

(2) There were reportedly four attempts by unidentified men to snatch the 
body of the female student.  Alternately, the body of the female student was 
given a quick autopsy in which her internal organs were removed to destroy 
the evidence.  In fact, the body is still resting in a refrigerated coffin 
by the river awaiting an autopsy.

Yet Another Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident (06/30/2008) 
(DWnews)
Today, I read a Xinhua report which was vague and misleading.  I have heard 
the story from a fellow student who was an eyewitness.
The dead female student was a Form 3 student attending the Weng'an County 
Number Three Middle School in Yuhua town, Weng'an county, Guizhou province. 
To study at the school, she rented a room near the gas station on the north 
side of the  county city.
This female student took her middle school exams this year with excellent 
results.  She died for a reason that you may find it unimaginable -- during 
the exams, she refused to let three male students copy her answers.  In 
revenge, the three male students raped her and then pushed her into the 
Simen river where she drowned.
That night, people tried to locate her body but they were unsuccessful.  The 
next day, the police retrieved the body and arrested the three murderers. 
But one of them has family connections.  When the body was brought out of 
the river, there were many spectators.  The parents of the murderer called a 
certain department head at the Guizhou provincial level, and this person 
then issued an order.  The next day, the Weng'an county police released the 
three murderers.  This was how the mass incident got started, so that the 
police had to scramble on top of the roof while the masses aimed 
firecrackers at them.  My fellow students asw more than two dozen police 
vehicles vandalized and set on fire.  Even the fire truck got vandalized.
An additional point was that the female student was not murdered by another 
female student.  The three male murderers asked another female student to 
get the victim to come out.  The parents of the murderer addressed the 
department heard as "Department head Jiang."
My fellow student said that the police did not do anything wrong in terms of 
how they handled the matter.  The main issue was with "Department head 
Jiang."  Such was the immediate assessment by my fellow student based upon 
his personal experience.  But since then, the police had taken the wrong 
actions during the long confrontation.
So far, family elders have been assaulted.  It is not true that family 
relatives were beaten to death.  Also, it is not true that the victim was 
murdered by another female student named Wang Jiao.  It is not true that the 
victim was gang-raped by the son of the deputy county mayor and associates. 
If someone has to be investigated, it is "department head Jiang."

Signal-To-Noise Ratio (06/30/2008)  With respect to the Weng'an mass 
incident, I have so far translated the following versions:
Mass Incident in Weng'an
Yet Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident
More 'Facts' About The Weng'an Mass Incident
Yet Another Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident
There is plenty more versions, variations and recombinations out there.  Out 
of these versions arise two interesting phenomena.  They are not necessarily 
new, but they are quite apparent this time.
The first phenomenon has to do with hydrological engineering.  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.  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).
The second phenomenon was the amount of noisy chaff released.  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.

Government Reactions To The Weng'an Mass Incident (07/01/2008)  (Xinhua via 
Daqi.com)
On June 30, the Guizhou provincial party secretary and provincial people's 
congress standing committee chairman Shi Zhongyuan rushed to Weng'an county 
to personally supervise the handling of the 6.28 incident ... At around 
11am, Secretary Shi Zhongyuan arrived at the scene of the incident; he went 
deep among the people to understand the situation; he met with militia and 
armed police officers.  At around noon, Secretary Shi Zhongyuan left the 
scene and held a meeting with the relevant Weng'an county leaders; he 
summoned the school principals and education department director to listen 
to their reprots; he invited more than 100 county people's congress 
delegates and political consultative conference members to attend a forum. 
They representatives enthusiastically condemned the criminal elements whose 
smashing, vandalizing, looting and arson have seriously damaged the images 
of Weng'an county and Guizhou province, the excellent social and economic 
development of Weng'an county and disrupted the unity and harmony of the 
county and the province.  The representatives asked the Party Committee and 
the government to severely punish the saboteurs and defend social stability 
and harmony.  At 7pm, Shi Zhongyuan proceeded to another meeting in Yongyang 
town with veteran cadres, representatives of the masses, businesses 
operators, middle school students and teachers and other eyewitnesses of the 
mass incident.
Shi Zhongyuan pointed out the 6.28 incident was a simple affair that a small 
number of people with ulterior motives manage to manipulate and leverage, 
with the direct participation of organized crime forces, to provoke and 
challenge the Party and the government publicly.  It was a bad situation 
with serious damages, leading to huge property and economic losses while 
also affecting the stability and image of Guizhou.  Afterwards, the Party 
central and the State Council paid a high degree of attention.  Secretary 
General Hu Jintao issued an important directive; the Politburo standing 
committee member and Central Political and Legal Committee secretary Zhou 
Yongkong issued two important directives; Minister of Public Security Meng 
Jianzhu telephoned multiple times to command the frontline actions ... The 
provincial Party Commitee and government carried bout the spirit of the 
important directives from the central government leaders and calmed things 
down with the restoration of stability being the top priority ...
The above Xinhua article is just about unreadable because it is just another 
stream of homilies without content.  Is this how people really think and 
talk?  What exactly are these 'important directives' from the central 
government leaders?  Wouldn't you want to do?
(Ming Pao)
A disturbance took place in Weng'an county, Guizhou province.  It is said 
that Chinese president Hu Jintao has questioned why the disturbance took 
place.  According to informed sources, Hu Jintao personally asked about this 
incident and what to know, "Why did such a small criminal case trigger such 
a large-scale mass incident?"  In his directive, Hu Jintao demanded that the 
local government should calm down the demonstrators and protect social 
stability; at the same time, the directive asked that the local Guizhou 
media should actively report the affair and lead public opinion, without 
blocking information from going to the outside.
(Boxun)
The 6.28 incident in Weng'an (Guizhou) was defined by the Chinese Communist 
as "smashing, vandalizing, looting and arson" and thte local public 
security, armed police and armies imposed heavy suppression.  The news is 
that there were many deaths.  At present, the entire county and the 
surrounding towns are under martial law.
According to known internal information and published reports, this massacre 
was personally ordered by Hu Jintao and supervised by Zhou Yongkong and 
others.  The murders were carried out by Guizhou officials and the locally 
based soldiers.  Someday, the 6.28 Weng'an (Guizhou) massacre will be 
vindicated and the people will have already recorded the names of those 
Chinese Communist officials who ordered and participated in the massacre 
beginning with Chinese Communist Party secretary-general Hu Jintao ...
[ESWN comment:  The last report above shows why Boxun is an example of what 
the Chinese government refers to as "hostile overseas forces."  Nobody else 
but the "hostile overseas forces" and the "Internet special agents" have 
talked about a massacre carried out by military soldiers.  Boxun cites 
anonymous "internal information" which it is very unlikely to have access to 
(as in, what insider would speak to a 'hostile overseas force'?) and does 
not name the 'published reports' (as in, Epoch Times? Radio Free Asia? BBC? 
New York Times?).]
Related Link: Weng’an Riots: How the state media hurts China Blog for China

Yet Another Another Another Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident 
(07/01/2008)  (CReaders.net)
[in translation]
I am a Weng'an resident and I am one of the few people who know the entire 
story from beginning to end.  My information comes from official sources, 
civilian sources and even people who have ulterior motives.
At just past 8pm on June 21, Weng'an middle school Form 4 female student Li 
Shufen and apprentices Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan from a certain aluminum 
alloy factory dined at a friend's place.  At 11:30pm, the four went down by 
the Simen river.  Li Shufen sat on the bridge and said: "If I jump down from 
here, will I die?"  The other three people thought she was joking and did 
not pay too much attention.  She said: "If I don't die after I jump, I will 
try to lead a good life afterwards."  At that time, Chen Guangquan was 
chatting with another girl and Liu Yantao was doing push-ups.  At 00:10pm 
June 22, there was the sound of a splash.  The three looked and saw that Li 
Shufen had jumped into the river.  Liu Yantao jumped in immediately after 
her, and then Chen Guangquan did so too.  But by the time that they got in, 
Li Shufen was nowhere to be seen.  Liu Yantao called aloud for help too.  So 
Chen could only save Liu first and then they called the police.  Half an 
hour later, the fire brigade retrieved the body of Li Shufen.
The Weng'an county medical doctor determined that Li Shufen had no signs of 
physical trauma except for a mild injury on her forearm from brushing with 
the sand in the bottom of the river.  There were no signs of sexual 
violence, so that there was no possibility of rape.  The results of the 
medical exam and the verdict of the public security bureau were handed over 
to the parents of Li Shufen.  At the time, the parents did not object.

On June 24, through the insistence of other family members, the parents took 
the body of Li Shufen in front of the public security bureau and demanded 
that Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan be arrested for raping and killing Li 
Shufen (see Weng’An riots: The family’s petition).  Since there was no 
factual basis, the public security bureau officers refused.  According to 
information, the Li family wanted to extort money from the families of the 
three persons (Liu Yantao, Chen Guangquan and the other female student) and 
this was the excuse.
At 10am on June 25, Li Shufen's uncle led the family members to the office 
of the Criminal Investigative Bureau on the third floor of the county public 
security bureau building.  The officer on duty was Zhang Ming, who asked 
them: "What are you here for?"  The uncle said: "Nothing.  Can't we just 
come in?"  Zhang Ming said: "This is an office.  If you don't have business 
here, please leave."  The uncle refused and Zhang Ming attempted to push him 
out.  But as soon as Zhang Ming touched the uncle, the latter fell down on 
the floor and screamed: "The police is beating me!  Save me!"  The aunt and 
another woman took off their high-heel shoes and hit Zhang Ming with them. 
Zhang Ming considered his own status and did not fight back.  As a result, 
he suffered some minor injuries.  Other police officers heard the commotion 
and arrived to restrain the two women.  A video-taped interrogation of the 
three individuals was made in the presence of an education department 
leader.  The uncle admitted that he and his family had assaulted Zhang Ming 
(there is a signed statement as well as videotape as evidence).
At 16:30 on June 25, the uncle completed his testimony and left the 
building.  Outside the public security bureau office, he was assaulted by 
the friends of Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan. (This was based upon the 
testimony of the uncle and other family relatives in the form of signed 
statements and videotapes).  The uncle was admitted to the Weng'an County 
Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a mild concussion.
At 6am on June 28, the uncle and other family members placed the body of Li 
Shufen by the Simen river with big-character posters to appeal to the 
central government.  All those who wish to view the body was charged 5 RMB 
apiece, and almost 20,000 RMB was collected.
On the afternoon of June 28, the uncle and his sister (who was a teacher at 
the Number Three Middle School in Weng'an) instigated the students (who are 
as young as eight years old) who did not know the truth to march and 
demonstrate in order to magnify the impact.  But certain criminal elements 
used the opportunity to gather almost 10,000 people together.  These 
criminal elements prepared rocks, bricks and gasoline and went to the public 
security bureau building where they smashed and burned all the police 
vehicles in front.  They also set fire to the first floor office and 
destroyed files and computers.  Several dozen police officers were injured, 
including one in critical condition.  The first three floors of the 
buildings were in flames.  The rioters then turned to attack the armed 
police, whose leader fired one shot in the air and stopped the mob.  The 
rioters then backed out of the public security bureau building and turned 
their attention to the Weng'an county government building, where they 
smashed all the cars and set fire to the courtyard.  Next the rioters turned 
their attention to the private cars parked in the basement garage of the 
Civic Affairs Bureau.  The rioters went over to the Telecommunications and 
Postal Building and destroyed the communication structures.
>From start to end, none of the militia or armed police officers was seen 
using violence.
I personally witnessed these incidents and I am willing to accept legal 
responsibility for what I wrote.  But I would like to say a few more things.
1. According to the uncle, Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan are family members 
of people working in the Weng'an county public security bureau and that was 
why no full autopsy was conducted.  (Later on, one of the two was said to be 
the son of a deputy mayor of Weng'an county; this morning, he had become the 
son of the provincial public security bureau director).  The Guizhou 
provincial county public security bureau has done its own investigation and 
their findings are identical to the initial one.  There is no possibility of 
secret help to Liu and Chen, who were found to be farmer children presently 
working as apprentices at an aluminum alloy factory.  Therefore, the facts 
are inconsistent with the allegations.
2. According to the uncle, Li Shufen was raped and then tossed into the 
river.  Three separate medical exams showed that the deceased had not been 
sexually violated -- she was still a virgin.  So how could she have been 
gang-raped?  Besides, nobody heard any cries of help or sounds of struggle 
that night.
3. According to certain people with ulterior motives, the armed police 
assaulted the masses.  As for 23:00 on June 29, no Weng'an hospital has come 
across a single person who was injured on June 28.  Instead, the hospitals 
have admitted more than 30 seriously injured police officers.  More than 100 
other police officers had their wounds treated and bandaged and then 
released.  You  can check out all the photos on the Internet and there are 
no scenes of the police officers attacking the rioters.
4. If this was just dissatisfaction with the police action, why were the 
government, political consultative conference and telecommunications 
buildings also set on fire?  Why vandalize the private vehicles parked in 
the underground garage?
5. You have all seen the photos on the Internet.  These photos were of high 
resolution and did not come from mobile camphones.  Many of them were taken 
from above.  How do these photos come about from a suddenly breaking 
incident?  Also, the incident took place at the center of the county town. 
Where did the crowd find all the rocks and bricks?  Where did they get the 
gasoline and machetes?  All of this shows that this was a well-organized, 
pre-planned riot.
6. This incident is analogous to the 3.14 Tibet incident in that certain 
people who did not know the truth were incited to "hit, smash and loot." 
The uncle and the aunt could not have started something on this scale.  I 
cannot preclude the possibility that organized criminal elements are 
involved in the planning and execution behind the scene.
The above is based upon the facts that I experienced personally.  If you 
disagree, please provide your counter-evidence.  Or else you should not 
mislead people with rumors to further the interests of those with ulterior 
motives.

The Official Guizhou Provincial Version of the Weng'an Mass Incident 
(07/01/2008)  (Dayoo)
According to the Guizhou provincial public security bureau information 
office spokesperson, the Weng'an county public security bureau received a 
call at 00:27 on June 22, 2008 that someone had jumped into the river.  The 
command center ordered the Yongyang town police station to send militia 
police officers to the scene and also notified the fire department.  The 
militia police arrived at the scene and began to search for the body.  Since 
it was dark, it was around 3am that they finally fetched the body of the 
drowned girl.  The emergency medical crew determined that the girl was 
already dead.  The police then interrogated the three persons (Liu, Chen and 
Wang) who made the call to 110 (the police telephone number).  The police 
learned that the drowned girl was named Li Shufen, who was born in July 1991 
and is a Form 2 student at the Number 3 Middle School in Weng'an county. 
The Yongyang police also inspected the scene, examined the body and 
conducted the investigative work.
According to the investigation: At around 20:00 on June 21, Li Shufen and 
her girlfriend Wang went out.  They had dinner along with Wang's boyfriend 
Chen and Chen's friend Liu.  Afterwards, they strolled down to the bridge 
over Simen river to chat.  During the chat, Li Shufen suddenly told Liu: "I 
might as well as kill myself by jumping into the river.  But if I don't die, 
I will try to lead a good life afterwards."  Liu immediately grabbed Li and 
stopped her from doing so.  About 10 minutes later, Chen said that he was 
leaving.  Liu saw that Li had calmed down and so he began to do push-ups. 
By the third one, Liu suddenly heard Li said: "I'm going" and then she 
jumped into the river.  Liu jumped in after her immediately.  Wang phoned 
Chen and then she began to cry for help.  Chen raced back to the riverside 
and jumped in to help search for Li.  Liu was exhausted, so Chen had to drag 
him back to shore first.  Wang and Liu called the police and notified Li's 
elder brother.
According to information, Chen is a resident of Yanmen brigade, Naxiang 
village, Caotang town, Weng'an county.  He is presently working at a paper 
factory in Weng'an county.  His parents are villagers of the Yanmen brigade, 
Naxiang village, Caotang town, Weng'an county.
Liu comes from the same villager as Chen and is presently working at a paper 
factory in Weng'an county.  His parents are villagers of the Yanmen brigade, 
Naxiang village, Caotang town, Weng'an county.
Wang is a Form 2 student at the Number 3 Middle School in Weng'an County. 
Her parents are villagers of the Jiajiabo bridage, Jiajiabo village, Tianwen 
town, Weng'an county.
According to the investigation conducted by the Weng'an public security 
bureau, Li Shufen committed suicide by jumping into the river.  This was not 
a criminal case.  They informed the family which refused to accept the 
conclusion because they believed that this was a rape case.  They asked for 
a DNA analysis.  On the afternoon of June 5, the southern Guizhou public 
security bureau sent a medical examiner to conduct another examination and 
the conclusion was that this was death by drowning.  At the time, the family 
accepted the conclusion.  However, they indicated that they would not bury 
the Li Shufen yet and they asked the public security bureau to order Wang 
Jiao, Liu Yanchao and Chen Guangquan to pay restitution to the amount of 
500,000 RMB.
On June 26, the family of Li Shufen said that they agreed with the mediation 
recommendation by the county workgroup and promised to sign an agreement on 
June 28.  On June 28 at 16:00, the family invited more than 300 people to 
march in the streets of Weng'an with banners.  This was a Saturday and there 
were many people in the street, some of whom began to follow the procession. 
At 16:30, the marchers assembled in front of the public security building. 
The police set up a police line, but the marchers in front got emotionally 
excited.  At the incitement of a small number of people, some criminal 
elements threw water bottles, rocks and bricks at the police.  They broke 
through the wall of police officers and charged into the first floor lobby, 
smashing the equipment, setting fire to the vehicles and assaulting the 
police and firemen.  They grabbed the fire nozzles and they cut up the fire 
hoses.  The firemen were forced to withdraw.  At about 20:00, the criminal 
elements hit, vandalized, looted and burned the Weng'an county Party and 
government office buildings.  They even charged at the county detention 
center.  The whole incident took almost seven hours.
On July 1, after repeated explanations to the family, they agreed for a 
burial after another medical examination.  The body will be unfrozen and the 
Guizhou provincial procuratorate and the medical examiner will conduct a 
joint examination.

Public Security Bureau Office Building

Public Security Bureau Office Building

Weng'an County Party and Government Building

Weng'an County Party and Government Building

Weng'an County Party and Government Building
YouTube links:
(Pt. 1)
贵州新闻办举行发布会公布
(Pt. 2)
贵州新闻办举行发布会公布
(Pt. 3)
贵州新闻办举行发布会公布

"I Am Not Dead Yet"  (07/02/2008)  In The Weng'an Mass Incident, rumors 
abounded.  Prominently featured at first was the story about the uncle who 
went to complain at the police station and was beaten to death by the 
police.  The uncle was a teacher and the protest launched his students 
triggered the riot on June 28.  Later, Hong Kong media interviewed this 
uncle in a hospital and dispelled the rumor of his death.  Then another 
rumor said that the uncle has been removed from the hospital and presumably 
placed under police arrest.  Here is the most recent interview with this 
uncle as published in Guizhou Daily.
[in transation]
At 13:30 on July 1, our reporter interviewed Weng'an county Yuhua Town 
Middle School teacher Li Xiuzhong at the Weng'an People's Hospital.  Li 
Xiuzhong is the uncle of the Form 3 Weng'an County Number Three Middle 
School student Li Shufen.  At the time of the interview, Li Xiuzhong was in 
bed.  He was very angry about the rumors of his death at the hands of the 
militia police: "I am not dead yet.  Please do not spread rumors."
He told the reporter: "Late night on June 22, I received the news that my 
niece Li Shufen had died in the Simen River of the county city.  I 
immediately went to the scene to help recover the body.  After the body was 
recovered, the county public security bureau notified me to go down.  I 
entered the office of militia police officer Zhang Ming.  He was working and 
he impatiently yelled at me: "What are you doing here?"  Due to the recent 
death of my niece, I was impatient and I said: "I've come to fool around." 
Zhang Ming yelled: "Get out!"  Then he came over to push me out.  There was 
a clash.  Afterwards, the Education Department asked me to go down to the 
police station so that they can find out what happened.  Afterwards, I left 
the police station.  When I reached the insurance company office, six 
unidentified persons suddenly appeared and assaulted me.  I called 110 and 
the police came and took me to the hospital for treatment.  Since I was 
seriously injured, I was kept in the hospital during the whole time.  I had 
no idea that there was a demonstration that led to hitting, vandalizing and 
arson.  On the day of the incident, my family members told me that nine out 
of ten people in the street thought that the police had beaten me death and 
that as many as 10,000 people were seeking justice for me and Li Shufen."
Li Xiuzhong said: "As a member of the family of the deceased, I never 
imagine that things would turn out this way.  I believe that my family 
members would never hit, vandalize and burn the county party, county 
government and public security bureau offices.  I did not want to see 
instances of hitting, vandalism and arson.  My family members knew that I 
was still alive, and they would never say that I was dead.  They knew that 
the public security people would not beat me to get a confession and there 
had only been an accidental clash.  They knew that I was assaulted by 
unidentified persons outside of the public security bureau office.  They 
would never say that I was beaten to confess."
"I believe that the matter had been expanded and manipulated by certain 
people with ulterior motives," said Li Xiuzhong.  "I am thankful to the 
leaders, reporters and citizens who care about me.  The provincial public 
security bureau, county education department and other leaders have visited 
me at the hospital.  With the good care from the hospital, I am feeling a 
lot better physically.  I heard that the militia police officer who clashed 
me was suspended for fifteen days.  The public security bureau is 
investigating the incident of my being assaulted by unidentified persons.  I 
believe that the government will be fair and just in how they handled the 
hitting, vandalism and arson, and give justice to those criminal elements, 
my attackers as well as the masterminds.  I believe that the government will 
deal with the case of my niece appropriately.  I hope that she will be 
buried in peace.  I hope that people will not believe in any rumors."

More Photos From Weng'an (07/02/2008) (QNBS.net via ifeng.com)

(China Daily)  No officials' kin involved in girl's death in Guizhou.  By Fu 
Jing.  July 2, 2008.
Police on Tuesday reiterated that no officials' relatives were responsible 
for the death of a girl that sparked violence in Weng'an county of Guizhou 
province on Saturday.
About 30,000 people torched the local public security bureau and government 
buildings and 42 vehicles, alleging that the children of some officials had 
raped and killed the 17-year-old Li Shufen.  The mayhem that lasted seven 
hours left 150 people, including policemen, injured, for which 59 people had 
been arrested till on Tuesday.  The burned vehicles have been removed from 
the government complex, and life is returning to normal in parts of the 
town.
Police insist that Li, a student of No 3 Middle School in Weng'an, committed 
suicide by jumping into a river on June 21 because she was unhappy with 
life. Her body was found floating the next day.  The three persons she last 
met were members of farmers' families, Wang Xingzheng, a spokesman for the 
provincial public security bureau, told a news briefing last night.
She had gone on an outing with her 21-year-old boyfriend surnamed Chen, and 
two other friends, an 18-year-old boy surnamed Liu and a 16-year-old girl 
surnamed Wang on June 21, the spokesman said.  She had told them about her 
feelings, which her friends did not take very seriously, Wang Xingzheng 
said. But while they were busy with something else, she jumped into the 
river.  They tried to save her, but when they realized it was impossible to 
do so, they called police, the spokesman said.
The provincial government has sent 10 officers and forensic experts to 
re-investigate the death. And Wang Daixing, the forensic scientist, who 
conducted a post mortem on Li's body, said that she had not been raped.
Zhou Guoxiang, deputy police chief of Weng'an public security bureau, denied 
rumors that policemen had harassed Li's relatives when they had come to seek 
justice from authorities.  He, however, said that an unidentified man beat 
up Li's uncle on a street, and police are trying to find out who the 
attacker was.
Shi Zongyuan, Party chief of Guizhou, said on Monday that some people with 
ulterior motives had incited the mob into frenzy. Some of those people were 
gangsters, and had taken part in the violence.  Shi was in Weng'an to direct 
officials and police to restore normalcy, and said those responsible for the 
mayhem should get strict punishment.
It was the local officials' shortcoming that angered the people, he said, 
and criticized them for letting the situation get out of hand.  "We must 
learn a lesson from these problems." He said there have to be "deep-seated" 
reasons behind the girl's death and the violence that followed.
Officials had not paid due attention to disputes over mines and relocation 
of people for construction projects for quite a long time, Shi said. This 
may have bred discontent among the residents.  He met with local 
representatives, including retired officials, business people, students and 
witnesses on Monday evening, and stressed the importance of social 
stability. "We must put maintaining social harmony and stability on top of 
the agenda."
The county public security bureau has appealed to people to maintain order.

Reporters And Common Folks In Weng'an (07/06/2008) (YZZK)
At around 8am on the morning of July 1 more than one hundred persons were 
already gathered around the refrigerated coffin that held the body of Li 
Shufen.  When they learned that we were Hong Kong reporers, they surrounded 
us to tell us about what has been happening in Weng'an during the past week. 
"Hong Kong reporters serve some use.  Our local newspapers are useless, 
because officials protect each other."
There were old, middle-aged, young people and children in the crowd.  They 
wore peasant clothes, t-shirts, leather shoes, slippers, ... the talk went 
back and forth.  Some people were angry and emoted; other people were only 
here to enjoy the spectacle and they laughed as they spoke.  "We are Weng'an 
citizens not related to the deceased.  We spontaneously come here to watch 
over the refrigerated coffin out of sympathy."
"The body was retrieved by the uncle of Li Shufen in the middle of the 
night, and the fire department showed up after daybreak on the next morning. 
But the broadcasts are saying that the fire department recovered the body." 
"There were signs of injuries on the body.  There were strangulation marks 
on the throat.  On the night of the incident, nearby peasants heard cries 
for help."  "This was a rape scene.  There was blood here.  The public 
security people arrived and destroyed the evidence."
This is a news story that is vey exciting, rich and fully of legends.  So we 
asked: "Which one of you personally witnessed the recovery of the body? the 
beating of the uncle? the blood at the rape scene? the removal of the 
internal organs during the autopsy?"  Everybody became quiet for a while. 
Finally, a Ms. Zhang in front laughed and said: "We all heard about it.  We 
did not see it."  "But all officials are crooked.  When the son of the 
director of the public security bureau murders someone, he is not punished!" 
she added.
As we left, a dozen citizens walked with us along the side of the Simen 
river and waited until we got into the taxi and left.  "You should take care 
and leave Weng'an quickly.  There are bad people who may want to take 
revenge on you."  The people may not be able to tell right from wrong, but 
they are not asking for too much.  More than one taxi driver told us: "The 
Li Shufen affair was just the fuse.  Many people may not know what the truth 
is.  But public anger has been tremendous during the recent years.  Things 
have calmed down because there are several thousand armed policemen here. 
If they are not around, the people will go into action again sooner or 
later."
There are varous civilian versions about the death of Li Shufen: it was a 
rape-murder; it was revenge; it was a love quarrel.  But none of these are 
backed up by accurate information.  Likewise, the government version does 
not pass either.  Nobody has been able to contact the three key persons at 
the scene: Wang Jiao, Chen Guangquan and Liu Yanchao.  Everybody says, "They 
have disappeared."

More Reports From Weng'an (07/03/2008)
(Journalist Wu Hanpin's blog)
I visited several places this morning, including a hospital.  I saw a 
seven-year-old boy whose left leg was injured.  The doctor said that it was 
a flesh wound and there was no bone damage.
On June 28, this boy took part in the mass incident.  A reporter asked him 
why.  He said that he was angry because the police refused to care about the 
death of a person.  Someone asked him who told him to say these things.  He 
said that this was what he saw himself.  He said that he went down by the 
river to look at the refrigerated coffin of the dead girl.  Nobody cared 
either.
I asked him what he did on that day.  He said that he was small and could 
not do the other things.  So he only released air from the car tires.  I 
asked him how many car tires did he work on.  He answered in his childish 
voice, "Two."

How did he get injured?  He said that he got hurt when the police advanced. 
He had no idea what caused his injury.  He said that there were too many 
people around him at the time.
His dad was unhappy.  He took the boy there to watch what was happening.  At 
first, he held the boy in his arm.  But the boy said that he could not see 
anything and wanted to come down.  Once down, he vanished in a flash.  The 
next time the dad saw the boy, it was at the hospital.
I don't know what to say.  This matter gave me a lot to think about.
Also on the morning, Guizhou provincial deputy party secretary Wang Fuyu and 
vice-governor Huang Kongsheng visited the Weng'an 6.28 incident command 
center to check on the preparations of the report from the working group of 
seven persons.
These seven people are the Weng'an Number Three Middle School Form 2 student 
Wu Qing, Weng'an entrepreneur Zhao Chengguo, 82-year-old retired cadre and 
party member Cheng Wenqing, Weng'an county Yuhua town party disciplinary 
committee secretary Huang Guoxing, Weng'an county Fire Department comander 
Huang Wei, Weng'ai county public security bureau police patrol squad 
commander Huang Cheng and Weng'ai county deputy mayor Xiao Song.
The draft speeches for these seven persons have been repeatedly edited and 
revised by the Publicity Department.  My guess is that the local Publicity 
Department "interviewed" these individuals first and then wrote their 
speeches based upon what these said, while adding what needs to be added and 
deleting what needs to be deleted.  I just received a copy of their speeches 
and some of the content is impenetrable and won't be easily understood by 
ordinary people.
This morning, the Guizhou provincial leaders listened to the speeches once 
and gave it a "high rating."  Tomorrow, these people will go to Guiyang City 
and deliver the speeches again.
(Guiyang Daily via 163.com)
At 7:00pm on June 30, this reporter interviewed some of the eyewitnesses of 
the 6.28 incident.  They told the reporter what they saw and heard.
Villager Peng Qinggui: I personally saw how the county party, the county 
government, the public security bureau, the treasury and the civic affairs 
bureau buildings being set on fire.  It was a terrifying situation.  The 
decent people of Weng'an know that it is a crime to smash car and set fire 
to buildings so they would not be doing that.  It is just some criminal 
elements who used the drowning death of Li Shufen to incite the crowd to 
riot.  Based upon the situation, there was about a couple of hundred people 
who were leading the the looting, vandalism and arson.  They usually charged 
at the sound of long whistles and they retreated at the sound of short 
whistles.
Villager Chen Qingshu: At the time of the incident, I saw a few teenagers 
throwing rocks at the police and the building as well as setting off 
fireworks.  I was very worried.  I asked them why they were throwing rocks. 
The children said that they had no idea and they were doing this because 
others were doing it.  This showed that they did not realize the causes or 
consequences of the incident and they were just feeding off rumors.  This 
showed that the crowd and the students were being used.
Entrepreneur Zhao Chenggui (the boss of a hair salon): At around 4pm that 
afternoon, I had just finished talking business.  Suddenly my family called 
me to say that up to ten thousand people are causing trouble at the county 
public security bureau building.  It went through my head immediately that 
the Toyota Corolla that I parked in front of the public security building 
was doomed.  So I rushed over to the scene and saw that my vehicle was 
resting upside down.  Someone had punctured the gasoline tank and set a 
fire.  I saw that there must be 10,000 spectators.  Several hundred people 
were ready to charge into the lobby of the public security building. 
Several dozen militia policemen had formed a police line.  Several dozen 
people threw rocks and bricks at these militia policemen, some of whom were 
bleeding from the assault.  But the militia policeman were restrained and 
stuck to their discipline of never retaliating with words or actions. 
Finally, when the bricks, rocks and steel rods got too much, the militia 
policemen retreated into the lobby.  At the sound of long whistles, two to 
three hundred people attacked; at the sound of short whistles, they 
retreated.  I saw many people going into the public security bureau building 
and coming out with confiscated restricted weapons such as machetes and 
daggers.  After the militia policemen were forced to retreat to the second 
floor, a few dozen people hauled two police vehicles up the steps in front 
of the entrance.  Someone smashed the car windows, placed large numbers of 
file documents taken from the offices on the car seats and set off fires. 
The flames soared high while the black smoke rose into the sky.  The entire 
public security bureau building was on fire.  The crowd then charged at the 
county government building which they set on fire with the liquid gas that 
they brought.  People went through the first floor to the fifth floor, 
emptying drawers, smashing desks and throwing computers on the ground. 
Someone looted the computer CPU boxes and monitors.  Then they set the 
county party office building on fire.  The sky was red from the fire. 
Several dozen armed police officers came to defend the county party office 
and county government office buildings.  But a group of people with machetes 
and iron rods attacked them and made them back off.
A Weng'an High School student: At 4:30pm on that afternoon, we were still 
taking an examination.  After the exam was over, we heard that there was an 
incident at the county.  When I and my fellow students arrived at the scene, 
the looting, vandalism and arson had already begun.  We did not understand 
the truth, but we wanted to watch.
Provincial People's Congress and County People's Congress representative Cao 
Dongmei: I did not think that this was a case of middle school students 
causing trouble.  This was not as simple as people speaking out on behalf of 
the dead person.  This incident was exploited by persons with ulterior 
motives, with the possible direct participation of organized crime figures. 
At the scene, I observed that someone was directing the charges and retreats 
by blowing long and short whistles.  When the students and the masses moved 
up, the 200 rioters backed off.  When the students and the masses got quiet, 
these people moved up to create disturbance.  Sometimes, the noise was too 
loud and people could not hear the sound of the whistles.  So these people 
watched the hand signal from their leader.  When I told the students not to 
charge, one of the persons in the group told me fiercely, "If you dare to 
dissuade them again, I'll beat you to death."
7-year-old boy Wang XX participated in releasing air from car tires: At 
around 1pm on July 1, the reporter interviewed Wang XX at the Weng'an County 
People's Hospital.  At the time, his father Wang Huafei was tending after 
him.  The young boy was lying on the bed.  When asked why he was releasing 
air from car tires, he said: "I heard that people were creating a scene over 
at the county government building.  So I went with my father to see what was 
going on.  Since there were too many people standing in front of us, I could 
not see anything.  My father put me on top of the engine hood of a tricycle. 
When my father was not paying attention, I sneaked out into the crowd.  Then 
two adults told me to release the air out of car times.  So I went and 
released the air out of two car tires.  When asked how he got hurt, he said: 
"The police moved up and the people retreated.  I got hurt."
Detained troublemaking youth Huang X: At 2pm, the reporter went to the 
Weng'an county detention center and interviewed 13-year-old Huang X who had 
just graduated from elementary school.  An armed police officer brought him 
into the courtyard.  He cried and said: "At just past 4pm on June 28, I was 
at the school entrance and someone said that many people are causing a scene 
at the county government office.  Out of curiosity, I went over there to 
see.  I saw many people throwing rocks to smash the windows at the county 
government and public security bureau buildings.  Someone was calling to 
dare the police on top of the public security bureau building to come down. 
Several dozen adults led the way by overturning cars.  Someone else was 
settling the cars on fire.  The people who set the fires were armed with 
steel rods.  I did not know what was going on, but I joined them.  I pushed 
at one car.  I did not overturn it, and I did not set it on fire. 
Afterwards, I was scared and I hid on the roof for a while.
(Xinhua Net)  Photos from June 28, 2008.


Why Is It So Easy To Not Know The Truth? (07/04/2008)  (Rose Luqiu)
A girlfriend of mine who only cares about Korean serial dramas and cosmetics 
but not current affairs angrily told me: "Have you heard about the Guizhou 
affair?  The son of a department chief raped many girls, but the government 
took no action.  So several tens of thousands of people took to the streets 
to protest."  At first, I thought that there was a new incident in Guizhou. 
After listening to her some more, I was sure that she was talking about the 
Weng'an incident.  I tried to explain to her, but I found out that she was 
actually not interested in the truth.  The reason why she was angry was that 
she found that this piece of hearsay once again reaffirmed her fixed opinion 
about local governments in mainland China.
When faced with this kind of hearsay, a journalist would not accept it 
lightly.  Instead, it may ignite an interest to investigate the case.  After 
all, the videos and photos on the Internet are not hearsay.  As for the 
cause, it requires a third-party confirmation.  Another type of person who 
would not accept it lightly are those who are used to listening to hearsays 
and prefer to use their own judgment and thinking to reach a conclusion. 
These people hold a cautious attitude and pay continual attention to the 
developments.  After all, rumors usually contain too many flaws, some of 
which are not reasonable.  Of course, sometimes the rumors get confirmed and 
it only makes it worse.
The people who readily believe it are like my girlfriend.  They have a 
pre-existing credibility issue with the local governments in mainland China. 
Therefore, they will believe it anything bad because this re-affirms the 
fact that the local governments are bad.  These people hold such attitudes 
out of a strong sense of justice and sympathy.  And then there are some 
people who will believe whatever they hear.  There are also those who want 
to have a good time whether the activity is legal or not, because if other 
people are doing it, then it must be alright.
...
Hong Kong media paid close attention to this affair.  Many reporters went to 
Weng'an immediately, even though they did not have any investigative 
reporting.  Even so, the Hong Kong media interviewed the uncle of the 
deceased girl.  His comments on camera and the follow-up mainland media 
reports provided at least two credible facts.  First, the uncle had not been 
beaten to death.  Secondly, he was beaten by unidentified persons.  Another 
confirmed fact was that the local citizens have been asked to be careful 
about what they say.  It is somewhat abnormal to demand that citizens be 
careful about what they say.  I frequently receive letters and telephone 
calls to ask about certain injustices, as if the petition system does not 
exist.  This is also somewhat abnormal, because this leads one to wonder why 
these people could not count on the administrative and judicial systems and 
had to place their hopes on the media (and public opinion) instead.
It does not matter how dissatisfied you are, because it is definitely 
against the law to take those kinds of actions (namely, hitting, 
vandalizing, looting, arson, etc).  As the Guizhou provincial government 
official said, it is necessary to reflect on the underlying structural 
causes about why these people employed such extreme methods.  If this was a 
case of organized crime challenging the authority of the government, then 
two questions are raised.  First of all, how did the government leave room 
for organized crime to grow and flourish?  Secondly, does the government 
have the ability to go after organized crime?  But if this case was an 
explosion of public discontent and distrust, then this case rose out of 
other problems (and not organized crime).  This kind of distrust is like the 
distrust of my girlfriend.  The distrust of the local citizens is the 
accumulation of many mundane issues in daily life over time.  To regain 
their trust, it is necessary to make them feel that the government is there 
to serve the people.  Of course, after the local citizens regain their 
trust, the prejudices of people like my girlfriend will also change 
gradually over time because there will be fewer biased rumors to go around.
Even if organized crime was involved in the Weng'an incident, the local 
government cannot avoid its share of responsibility.  It was dereliction of 
duty on the part of the local government that organized crime had the power 
and opportunities.  Some people may use the excuse that people are dumb and 
ignorant, but even so it is still the responsibility of the government (to 
educate people about civics and law).

Wang Jiao, Chen Guangquan and Liu Yanchao Meet The Press  (07/06/2008)  In 
the item below, the YZZK reporters wrote: Nobody has been able to contact 
the three key persons at the scene: Wang Jiao, Chen Guangquan and Liu 
Yanchao.  Everybody says, "They have disappeared."  Not so.  The three have 
been reached by Guizhou Commercial News (via China News; China News)

Chen Guangquan

Liu Yanchao

Wang Jiao
(ni translation)
Yesterday noon, our reporter went to Naxiang village, Caotang town, Weng'an 
county.  After some runaround, the reporter managed to locate the Yanmen 
brigade where Liu Yanchao and Chen Guangquan belonged.  "The Chen and Liu 
families are all respectable farmers whose standard of living belongs to the 
lower class in his village," said the village party secretary Wen Wenchuan.
Liu Yanchao's father Liu Yangfu had gone to Weng'an county city.  With the 
help of villagers, the reporter found Liu Yanchao's mother Xu Zhengying who 
was working in the fields.
According to Xu Zhenghing, at around 5pm on June 27, Liu Yanchao returned 
home from Weng'an county city.  That evening, Liu Yanchao informed his 
parents that he and some friends were playing by the river on June 22 and 
one of the friend Li Shufen suddenly jumpted into river and drowned.  He 
also jumped into the river to save Li Shufen.  "But for Chen Guangquan, I 
might have drowned as well."  Around noon on June 29, the public security 
bureau criminal investigation squad called and asked Liu Yanchao to be 
interrogated.  "At the time, his dad accompanied him.  I have not seen my 
son since.  His dad has called me and told me not to worry because he is 
with our son," said Xu Zhengying.
THe reporter asked Xu Zhengying about contacting her son.  She said that she 
could try.  At 2:22pm, Xu Zhengying used the home telephone to call Liu 
Yanchao's mobile telephone.  "Chao-son!  Where are you?"  The phone call got 
through and Xu Zhengying got excited.  "I'm staying in the office of the 
detention center.   You don't have to worry."  After learning that her son 
was safe, Xu Zhengying breathed a sigh of relief.  When Liu Yanchao heard 
that a reporter wanted to interview him, he said, "We can speak by phone. 
We don't have to meet."
By telephone, Liu Yanchao told the reporter what happened.  At around 20:00 
on June 21, he and Chen Guangquan were with fellow student Qin ing at a 
rented room in Weng'an.  During that time, he rode a motorcycle to pick up 
Li Shufen and Wang Jiao.  Then He, Li Shufe, Wang Jiao, Chen Guangquan, Qin 
Ming and Liu Sitao began to drink liquor.  Li Shufen drank one full cup of 
rice wine, Wang Jiao drank half a cup, while the other men drank two cups. 
At around 10pm, they were about to go home.  Li Shufen suggested that they 
go down by the Simen river.  So Liu Yanchao, Li Shufen, Wang Jiao and Chen 
Guangquan walked down to the rier.  When they reached the Dayan bridge, Li 
Shufen sat down on the railing facing the water.  At the time, Liu Yanchao 
was about two meters on the left of Li Shufen, while Chen Guangquan was 
lying on the ground by the riverside.  "I was shooting the breeze with Li 
Shufen.  She said that she wanted jump into the river; if she survives, she 
wants to live well afterwards."  As soon as Liu heard that, he went up, 
grabbed her and said, "You want to jump into the river? Have you gone mad?" 
Li was dissuaded by Liu and things calmed down.
After about ten minutes, Cheng Guangquan said that he was tired and left 
early.  About two minutes later, Liu Yanchao heard a loud cry of "I'm going" 
and Li Shufen jumped into the river.  Liu jumped into the river immediately 
to rescue her.  Wang Jiao was standing at the top of the bridge and 
immeidately called Chen Guangquan.  Chen returned immediately.  At the time, 
Liu Yanchao was physically tired, and Chen and Wang had to pull him ashore 
first.  By the time, they were ready to try to rescue Li Shufen, she could 
no longer be seen.
Wang Jiao called 110 (police) immediately, and then she called Li Shufen's 
elder brother Li Shuyong.
When the reporter asked "Why did Li Shufen kill herself by jumping into the 
river?", Li Yanchao said that she had told him that she felt that her 
parents favored males over females; her elder brother bullied her 
frequently; her parents childed her frequently, and therefore she was better 
off dead than alive.
The reporter then went to the home Chen Guangquan.  His mother Lu dengyong 
used the home telephone to dial her son's mobile phone.  Chen Guangquan said 
that he was staying at the office fo the detention center and everything was 
fine.  He told the reporter that he was in a romantic relationship with Li 
Shufen.  But he emphasized repeatedly: "I have never had sexual intercourse 
with Li Shufen."
============
Wang Jiao speaks coherently and unhurriedly.  Apart from her petite size, 
her coolness and maturity makes it hard to realize that she is just a Form 2 
students.  Wang Jiao, who claims to be the best friend of Li Shufen, met 
with the reporter in a courtyard of the Weng'an county detention center.
"I have known Li Shufen since sixth grade in elementary school.  Since then, 
we have been classmates.  It can be said that we are best friends among 
classmates," said Wang Jiao.
She told the reporter what happened on the early morning of June 22 when Li 
Shufen jumped into the river.  "On that night, the four of us (Wang Jiao, Li 
Shufen, Liu Yanchao, Chen Guangquan) ate dinner and drank wine at the place 
of Liu's classmate QIn Ming.  We were going to go  home, but Li SHufen that 
we walk home.  When we got to the Dayan bridge of SImen river, Li Shufen 
suggested that we go play around.  We got on the bridge.  I was about 20 
meters away from Li Shufen and I was worried about being scolded by my 
parents for going home late.  Liu Yanchao and Li Shufen were about two 
meters away from each other.  Li Shufen was sitting on the railing facing 
the river.  They talked and they laughed.  Then came the horrible scene when 
Li Shufen said 'I am going' and jumped into the river.  I saw that she 
actually jumped into the river."
Wang Jiao said that Liu Yanchao jumped into the river to save Li while she 
called Chen Guangquan to come back to help.
This girl who did not seem saddened by the death of her best friend said 
that Liu Shufen loved to get on the Internet and she may have been having an 
Internet romantic affair for a month because the guy was calling her by 
phone.  She also told the reporter that Li Shufen has been staying at a 
rental room with her elder brother Li Shuyong.  Her elder brother is in High 
School Form 3 and has just taken the university entrance exam this year. 
Wang Jiao said that Li Shuyong resents her sister's Internet addiction and 
has been verbally abusive towards her.  The parents give Li Shuyong 500 RMB 
for living expenses, but just 100 RMB to Li Shufen.  Thus, the parents 
favored boys over girls.  "Her death may be related to her family," Wang 
Jiao told the reporter.

(Xinhua)  Final autopsy shows girl in southwest China protest drowned.  July 
11, 2008.
    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.

(Caijing)  A Sad Drowning, A Summer of Discontent.  By Luo Changpin.  July 
10, 2008.
Few Chinese knew about a remote, ethnically diverse county in the mountains 
of Guizhou Province before a tense night in June when about 200 people, 
emboldened by a surrounding crowd of thousands, set fire to offices of the 
local government and public security bureau.
But the June 28 incident, which locals now call “6-28,” thrust Weng An 
County into a public spotlight -- at home and abroad.
The riot, which the official Xinhua news agency said injured 50 police 
officers and protesters, coincided with a community protest march. The march 
was triggered by public outcry over the suspicious death of 17-year-old Li 
Shufen.
Li was the pretty daughter of tobacco-farming parents who drowned in the 
Ximen River six days before 6-28. Police say it was a suicide. Relatives 
call it murder.
Although Li’s death was said to have sparked the riot, a range of local 
injustices -- from mining disputes to police thuggery -- apparently laid the 
foundation for seething discontent among the county’s farmers and 
townspeople.
The town is poor and primarily composed of the Buyi and Miao minorities. Per 
capita income among farmers -- who account for 90 percent of the county’s 
460,000 people -- is just 2,000 yuan a year.
Provincial officials for the Communist Party who met less than a week after 
the riot acknowledged not only public angst over Li’s death, but also the 
public’s hard feelings tied to mining disputes with landowners, relocations 
of villagers from a dam project zone, callous government officials, and weak 
law enforcement by police.
In hopes of regaining public trust, the party’s Guizhou committee dismissed 
the chief and commissar of the Weng An public security bureau on July 3. 
County party chief Wang Qing and government head Wang Hairong were removed 
the next day.
Yet resentment over Li’s late-night death has continued to hang over Weng An 
like the humid summer air.
It all began when police investigators concluded that Li committed 
suicide -- and her relatives passionately disagreed.
Teacher Zhang Guoming told Caijing that Li was a good student who never 
skipped school and ranked sixth in a class of 87. Classmate Lan Xiaoyin said 
Li’s scores had slipped in the past semester but added that “recently, she 
worked diligently.”
Li’s older brother, Li Shuyong, said his sister’s death came after she 
accepted an invitation from another girl -- her classmate Wang Jiao -- to go 
out on the night of June 21.
Additional details were released by a Guizhou provincial public security 
bureau spokesman. He said Li, Wang and two young men -- Chen Guangquan and 
Liu Yanhcao -- ate dinner together that evening and walked to the Ximen 
River. The spokesman claimed Chen was Li’s boyfriend.
Li told Liu she wanted to kill herself by jumping into the river, police 
said. But the man apparently managed to change her mind. Thinking Li was 
safe, Liu then went to a nearby bridge to do push-ups. Chen also left the 
scene, police said.
Police said Liu, from the bridge, soon heard Li cry out, “I will go!” before 
she leapt into the water. Police were later notified by Wang.
A Caijing check of the records found that Wang phoned police at about half 
past midnight -- four hours after Li, Wang and the men walked to the 
riverside.
Records also show police chose not to try pulling Li from the river on 
grounds that none of the officers could swim, and that rescue team members 
who arrived later said “conditions are not proper for a rescue.”
Li’s body was retrieved by relatives and neighbors at 3 a.m. on June 22.
Chen, Liu and Wang were detained but released the following day after police 
said they lacked evidence to press charges.
All three were said to be related to high government officials. The claim of 
kinship was later discounted as a rumor by Luo Yi, the party official in 
charge of the local prefecture’s police and justice systems.
Separate autopsies were conducted at the county, prefecture and provincial 
levels. The final autopsy results, released July 9th, confirmed the findings 
from the first two, saying that Li drowned, and that there were no signs of 
sexual activity prior to death.
Word among locals in Weng An, however, was that Li was raped and killed, and 
that government officials were protecting Chen, Liu and Wang.
Li’s relatives pressed for a more thorough investigation. Police refused. 
Tension mounted. The dead girl’s uncle clashed with a county police officer 
on June 25 and was later brutally beaten by six unknown men.
Meanwhile, Li’s body was kept in a cooled coffin by the riverbank. Relatives 
and neighbors kept guard. Police urged the mourners to dispose of the corpse 
and, on June 28, issued a notice ordering its removal. If mourners disobeyed 
orders they were told that the “police will deal with the body according to 
law.”
The notice ignited fury. A taxi driver who saw events unfold said it began 
when two students started marching with a white banner. Other local 
residents, sympathetic to the plight of Li’s family, joined the protest 
march throughout town. It was Saturday, and the streets were filled with 
people.
The protesters stopped at the gate of a county government building, but no 
officials emerged to receive them. Eventually, the protest turned violent. 
Stretching from mid-afternoon to late night, the demonstration lasted seven 
hours.
Li’s corpse was buried four days later, while riot police were stationed 
around town and soldiers guarded government buildings.
The Communist Party of China’s Guizhou committee, headed by Shi Zongyuan, 
met a few days later.
Shi said Li’s death were not the only reasons for the incident. Weng An was 
also a hot spot for struggles over mine ownership and villager relocations. 
Citizens’ interests and rights had repeatedly been trampled upon.
Local party official Luo said the incident exposed complex conflicts tied to 
economic development in the poverty-stricken county. “Numerous conflicts 
criss-crossed, including the relocation of residents for reservoir 
construction, downtown reconstruction, struggles over interests in coal and 
phosphorus mining, as well as the ownership transfer of state-owned 
enterprises,” Luo said.
Another party official, Mo Tao, said many party and government officials had 
overstepped the law in the past by handling issues through personal 
connections, sometimes with criminal gang protection.
Shi further stressed that many government officials had dealt with sensitive 
issues callously. These officials frequently used police force to settle 
disputes, he said. In addition, the party leader said, many officials and 
police officers had been negligent toward their duties in battling the area’s 
gangs.
Official provincial reports indicate that crime, including theft and gang 
fights, have been rampant in Weng An. Only about half the crimes are solved 
by local police, souring public views of the government.
The community well remembers last summer’s late-night attack on a schoolgirl 
and her boyfriend by the Ximen River. The boy was beaten and the girl raped 
by four of the five attackers. Two hours passed before police arrived.
Another sore spot stems from the relocation of 45,812 people, including 
32,553 farmers, to make way for the Goupitan hydroelectric station -- the 
biggest in the province. Complaints focused on heavy-handed house 
demolitions and inadequate compensation for displaced residents. At least 
one struggle turned bloody.
Weng An is also home to phosphorus mines and considerable coal reserves, 
creating clashing interests over mine ownership. Some locals blame 
land-grabs on government officials, including administrative and judicial 
powers who work with criminal gangs.
Referring to the violent demonstration that put Weng An on the map, Shi 
admitted, “the incident seems to have been spontaneous. But it was doomed to 
happen sooner or later.”

(Southern Weekend)  Weng'an, an unpeaceful county city.  July 10, 2008.
[in translation]
It took only a short six days from the day of the abnormal death of a junior 
high school female student to the disturbance that rocked Weng'an county 
city and gained the attenton of the entire nation.
On the day when Guizhou province Weng'an County Number Three Middle School 
Form 2 student Li Shufen died (June 22), the medical examiner made a 
preliminary determination and informed the family she "had drowned by 
suicide" and the three principals present at the scene were released.
On the next day, her father Li Xiuhua raised doubts and asked for a full 
autopsy.  He submitted an application for a crime investigation.
On the fourth day after the death of Li Shufen, rumors began to float around 
the city.  Her uncle Li Xiuzhong clashed with the police at the county 
public security bureau and was then assaulted by unidentified persons 
outside.  The case is still unsolved at this time.  Her father filed an 
emergency appeal to ask the government to "solve the case and punish the 
evil doers in order to calm public discontent."
Seven days after the death of Li Shufen, several dozen people marched with 
banners and then engaged in vandalism, looting and arson at the Weng'an 
county government and party buildings as well as the public security bureau 
building.  More than 10,000 people were at the scene.
The family of Li Shufen is reluctant to discuss her death now.  The young Li 
Shufen could not imagine that her death would lead Guizhou Provincial Party 
Secretary Shi Zongyuan to say directly: "Weng'an is unsafe; the masses feel 
unsafe; the people won't tell the truth."
In six days, how did the escalating clashes and associated rumors around the 
death of a female student cause the city to explode?  What kind of unsafe 
city was Weng'an during those six days?
There was no prior hint for the incident.  On the day when Li Shufen died, 
her family did not have many questions.  On the morning of the same day, the 
three principals present at the scene were questioned by the police and 
released because there was no suspicion of wrongdoing.
When the family of Li went to the police station to talk to the three 
principals, the latter were no longer there.  At the same time, the three 
began to appear in the rumors: "The principal murderer is the niece of the 
county party secretary, and the other two men are relatives of the police 
station chief.  The deceased had been raped and killed."
"The relatives were submerged in sorrow and they did not considered the key 
issues about what had occurred before her drowning death.  They did not 
demand an autopsy or an examination of her lower body party," Li Xiuhua 
described the initial situation.
In order to preserve her body, Li Shufen's godfather Xie Qingfa rented a 
refrigerated coffin at a daily rate of 120 RMB.  The refrigerated coffin was 
placed at the end of the Dayan bridge where the accident took place.  This 
concrete bridge is less than 1.5 meters wide.  The balustrades on both sides 
are about 1 meter high.  The Simen river which is several dozen meters wide 
flows underneath the bridge.  There are weeds floating in the river, which 
is as deep as two meters.  There is no open space by the riverbank.  The 
refrigerated coffin was placed inside a temporarily erected tent.
Some spectators swore that they heard screeching cries for help in the 
middle of the night.  Someone said that they saw condoms and blood stains on 
the river bank.  A grassy patch by the river was said to be the spot where 
the crime was committed.
The death of the girl Li Shufen became interwined with government officials, 
merciliess policemen and injustice across this small county city.
The family of Li Shufen thought that there was an injustice at first.  On 
June 23, they asked for another medical examination.  At the time, the 
maternal grandmother Cheng Shujen witnessed the process and swore that 
"there was no water in the stomach and there were pills in her throat."
The increasingly distorted rumors began to spread through the streets of 
Weng'an.  "16-year-old Li Shufen was murdered because she refused to let a 
female classmate copy her answers during an exam; her throat had many wound 
marks -- she was obviously strangled to death!; the son of the Weng'an 
county deputy mayor with another young man raped a Weng'an County Number 
Three Middle School female student, killed her and tossed her body into the 
Simen river ..."
This small space by the river became a stage.  From morning to evening, 
people came continuously.  People brought their own discontent to gawk at 
this girl who died of unknown causes.
They opened their wallets generously because they wanted to see justice 
rendered for her.  Many citizens told the reporters that they heard that 
someone gave as much as 3,000 RMB.  "That person told her relatives to take 
the money to file a lawsuit.  We will support you to the end.  If you don't 
want to go to court, you return the money to me."  This is as if they had 
personally seen this occurred.
The donors included common folks.  "There were peasants who don't earn much 
from the vegetables that they sell.  But they donated their ten RMB of the 
day."  According to an eyewitness, the donations totalled several tens of 
thousands of yuan.
On June 25, a new incident occurred.  Li Shufen's uncle Li Xiuzhong clashed 
with militia policeman Zhang Ming.  Afterwards, the official statement was 
that "the two had clashed but Li was not injured."  But Li Xiuhua wrote in 
this petition letter that his brother Li Xiuzhong "had been beaten with 
truncheons and kicked before being interrogated by the militia policeman."
Li Xiuzhong was then summoned by the county education department to go down 
to the police station for questioning.  Afterwards, he left and when he got 
to the Weng'an insurance company, he was assaulted violently by a group of 
unidentified men in plain clothes.
In his "emergency appeal," Li Xiuhua wrote: "Li Xiuzhong was assaulted ... 
he was bleeding, unconscious and in critical condition."  He also claimed 
that "my beloved daughter Li Shufen was murdered but the public security 
bureau refused to estabalish a case for investigation ..."
The aforementioned episode showed up in the street rumors as: "The family of 
the deceased went down to the public security bureau but the police beat the 
uncle severely.  Then they ordered gangsters to beat him further.  His uncle 
died at 4pm after medical treatment failed."
The rumors about the injustices rolled bigger and bigger, but these were 
clearly ignored by the government.  The Simen river flowed on silently and 
nobody noticed what was happening.  But these small dark changes were 
brewing silently and gathering strength.
On the morning of June 28, the Weng'an County Public Security Buerau 
delivered the <Notice to urge a speedy disposition of the body> to the 
family of Li Shufen.  The notice stated that Li Shufen "had jumped into 
river on her own accord and drowned."  "The cause of death has been 
established, so there is no need to preserve her body."  The Li family was 
enjoined to send the body of Li Shufen back home for burial before 14:00, 
June 28 2008."  "If not, the public security bureau will handle this in 
accordance with the law."
This aroused the ire of the spectators.  At around 3pm on that day, two 
middle school students raising a banner saying "Justice for the people" in 
front and several dozen followers marched on behalf of Li Shufen.
None of these marchers were family relatives of Li Shufen.
The group started from the Dayan bridge and chanted slogans.  Then they got 
on the Old Ring City Road.
At the Seven Stars village alongside the Old Ring City Road, there resided 
almost 1,000 people who had been displaced by the hydroelectricity project. 
After the 6.28 incident occurred, Guizhou provincial party secretary Shi 
Zongyuan said that his incident appeared to have been triggered by the 
controvesial death of a middle school female student, but the deep 
structural reason is that there had been frequent infringements of citizen 
rights over the relocation of migrants, demolition of buildings and mining 
rights disputes.
The "relocated migrants" that Shi Zongyuan was referring to included the 
1,000 or so people at Seven Stars village.  These people were displaced by 
the construction of the largest hydroelectricity project in Guizhou 
province.  More than 4,000 were displaced for the dam, including more than 
3,000 who had previously been farmers.  As early as 2004, the villagers in 
Laiyuan district had clashed with government workers over the compensation 
and relocation plans.
The villagers recalled that the relocation began in late 2002.  The entire 
village was to be relocated.  At the time, the compensation was 19,000 RMB 
per person, but the villagers thought that the amount was too low and they 
suspected the relocation department was keeping some of the money for 
themselves.
In terms of land compensation, the villagers also thought that the amount 
paid for fruit trees was also too low.  According to the national standard, 
each mu of garden land should be given more than 16,000 RMB.  But these 
villagers were only offered 100 RMB per tree, which worked out to be only 
7,000 RMB per mu.  Meanwhile, a neighboring village received 1,000 RMB per 
tree.
In December 2004, then county mayor Wang Qin visited the village along with 
members of the provincial-, prefecture- and county-level relocation bureaus. 
"We asked them why the compensation was so low," said a villager.  "We were 
not communicating.  They could not explain so we were not going to let them 
go."
The angry villagers took away the cars and blocked the roads.  Other people 
in the neighboring areas also came over when they heard the news.  Together 
with the more than 1,000 outsiders, there were 2,000 to 3,000 migrants in 
the village.
The government officials including the county mayor were forced to stay in 
the village for three days and three nights.  The two sides could not reach 
an understanding.  On December 16, the villagers found that a large number 
of armed policemen had arrived.
Once the clash began, many villagers were injured, including women and 
children.
"We called 120 but they did not care.  We brought our injured people to the 
town clinic but they were ordered not to receive injured people.  In the 
end, we had buy our own medicine to treat our injured," said this villager.
Finally, the government officials managed to leave with the escort of the 
armed policemen.
After more than half a year later, the government agreed to provide a total 
of 5,000 RMB in medical compensation to 34 injured persons.  But the issue 
of relocation compensation remained unresolved.
More than two years later in late March 200, the villagesr received notices 
from the town government to complete their relocation by March 31.  "If you 
fail to relocate before then, you will bear all the consequences."
On April 6, 2007, the Weng'an county government leaders led a team of more 
than 100 government workers and demolished the buildings in the village, 
including setting some on fire.
Not only this, but these officials saw all the fruit trees under the 
waterline, destroyed all the grown crop and sprayed poison on the seedlings. 
At the time, the pears were ripe but they were gone before being picked. 
"It rained heavily that night.  So people could only hovel under some tent 
clothes."  That was how the villagers spent a sorrowful night.  Today, that 
village is a pile of weed-filled deserted rubble.
As of today, 54 of the more than 200 migrant families have stayed in the 
village.  They have not received any compensation from the government.  They 
managed to build shacks above the water level.  They have no water or 
electiricity.  They survive on the farmland and fruit trees that are above 
the water line.  When they try to get construction work at the town 
government, they are told that they are not needed.  "We only want a 
transparent policy in which we receive our compensation.  We want to live 
peacefully above the water line."  They are waiting without much hope for 
the problems to be resolved.
The more than 1,000 villagers who have relocated to the Seven Stars village 
have received their compensation which they think is too low.  So they are 
still pursuing the matter.
On June 28, when the demonstrators went by the Seven Stars village, some of 
the migrants who were still pursuing the compensation issue joined in.
After going down Old Ring City Road, the marchers led by middle school 
students turned into Northeast Road.  The Weng'an Number Three Middle School 
is located on Northeast Road.  The deceased girl Li Shufen had attended this 
school.
"The school is unsafe.  Many fellow students have joined gangs and they show 
off their membership," said a male student who did not want to disclose his 
name.
He said that there were almost daily fights in front of the Number 3 Middle 
School each day after classes.  There were group melees or individual 
face-offs involving machetes, daggers, poles and so on.  The brawlers 
included students as well as local "hooligans" from various gangs in the 
city.  According to two teachers at Number Three Middle School, "Students 
assaulting teachers is nothing new."
Another students said that it is not just male students who join gangs.  In 
Weng'an, if you want to concentrate on studying and not be bullied, you must 
join a gang and get 'protection' and this applies to girls as well as boys.
The gangs are not just active among students, for that was just the lowest 
ring in the organizations.  According to someone who had invested in mining, 
at the tip of the pyramid are the gangsters in the mining industry, who 
sometimes collude with government officials.
"It is tough to operate a mine if you refuse to accept the terms of the 
gangs."  According to the informant, the terms include payment of protection 
money; distrubution/sales rights of mined products; ownership of shares in 
the mines.  Some gangs operate mines themselves.
Between the mines and the gangs, the villagers live awkwardly.
In Yuhua town where Li Shufen came from, there are many phosphorous mines. 
The reporter saw that the river water was greyish-white murky.  The 
villagers said that since 2002, the mines have contaminated the water source 
which meant that people and animals could not drink from it and the crops 
withered.  When the villagers complained to the government and the mines, 
they were ignored.
In addition, the mines created soil erosion but the villagers received 
little or nothing in compensation for losing their land.
At the Tianba briadge of Yanganhe village, Yuhua town, the villagers found 
that the water level was sinking due to the mining.  In 2007, a well dried 
up completely so that there was no water for man and animals.
According to a villager who declined to disclose his name, the Tianba 
villagers went to the mine to complain.  The mine representative said that 
the falling water level was a natural phenomenon.  The villagers also went 
to the complain to the county and town governments to no avail. 
Reluctantly, the villagers tried to cut off the electricity as well as 
blockade the mine shaft.  Clashes occurred between the two sdies.
This villager said that the Weng'an government organized a work group to 
come down on March 15.  The villagers said "as long as the water problem is 
unresolved, we won't let you go."  The work group was detained in the 
village for three days and three nights before being released.
On April 29 last year, the county governmetn asked the village 
representatives to attend a meeting "to resolve the problems."  A group of 
14 villagers including the village mayor and the village party secretary 
went to the county government office building to meet in the conference 
room.  According to a villager who attended the meeting, the county police 
showed up in the middle of the meeting and took away 11 of the 
representatives.
"When the villagers heard that their representatives had been arrested, the 
whole brigade went to the county city.  At the police station, a police line 
was set up to prevent the villagers from seeing their representatives. 
Amidst the chaos, a physical melee occurred.  22 people from the brigade, 
including the representatives, were arrested."  The eyewitness said that 
some of the villagers were accused to assaulting the government office. 
Ultimately, seven of the village representatives were found guilty of 
"assembling and disturbing public order," with prison sentences between two 
to six years in length.
The godfather of the deceased school girl Li Shufen, Xie Qingfa, is a member 
of the Tianba bridage in Yuhua town and he particpated in the aforementioned 
incident.
So when the demonstrators went by on June 28, the mining district residents 
who had suffered at the hands of the government workers and the gangs were 
quickly ignited and many joined the marchers.  According to an eyewitness, 
many shop owners by the road shuttered their shops and joined the 
demonstration.
On July 3, Guizhou party secretary Shi Zongyuan said that in the process of 
handling conflicts and mass incidents, certain cadres were violent and 
simplistic, frequently invoking the police force ... some cadres were lazy 
and derelict and they pushed the police onto the front line whenever an 
incident occurred.  This ired the people greatly.  The result was that there 
was not only tension between the government and the people, but also between 
the police and the people.
Guizhou provincial deputy party secretary Wang Fuyu said that some cadres 
are corrupt and collude with the gangs by acting as their "sentries" and 
"protection umbrellas."
After the 6.28 incident, the Guizhou police quickly established a crime 
squad and arrested 249 persons belonging to six different gangs.  The 
largest gang was "the Yushan gang which was established in 1998 and has more 
than 50 lieutenants."  In one day, the gangs that had existed safely in 
Weng'an were wiped out.
On July 3, Weng'an county public security bureau director was recommended 
for dismissal; on July 4, the Weng'an county party secretary Wang Qin and 
county mayor Wang Haipnig were dismissed from their posts.
When the demonstrators left North East Road to turn into Wenfeng Middle 
Road, the crowd had swelled from the several dozens in the beginning to one 
thousand.
The lesson to be drawn after the incident was expressed on the afternoon of 
July 2 at a mobilization meeting for the anti-gang campaign in southern 
Guizhou province.  The prefecture party secretary Wu Ting described the 
situation to the party and government leaders from the twelve counties.  The 
incident occurred on June 22 and the Weng'an government paid attention to it 
by establishing a work group.  They were still discussing the issues on the 
morning of July 3.  "So why did everything change at 3pm?"
Wu Ting said that he could not see how two or three hundred people holding a 
banner could swell up to four to five thousand by the time that they reached 
the county government buildings.  During the process, how come nobody in the 
government knew or mediate?
On Wenfeng road, the shops are mostly "sales agents" and "recreational 
massage parlors."  According to an informed sources, the "sales agents" are 
pawn shops and loan sharks with gangster backgrounds and hidden government 
backers.
The official presentation of Weng'an county is that this was a historical 
revolutionary county, a top 100 green county in the nation for is forestry, 
a model county for protecting the old and the young and a red flag county 
for public safety in the province.
But a taxi driver said that Weng'an is an unsafe city.  "I am definitely 
home by 11 o'clock at night.  That is when the gangs come out."  A parent 
named Feng Zhongming cried to the reporter that his 9-year-old son died from 
poisoning last year and the case is unsolved.
At past 10pm on June 26, the Changsha Water Pump Shop on Wenfeng Road was 
robbed by two masked men.  According to the owner, "Two men armed with guns 
just walked into the shop."  They pointed the guns at the owner's head and 
ordered him to bring out his money.  The robbers rolled down the steel gate, 
tied up the family of three, took two mobile phones and 1,000 RMB in cash 
and they left.  "I called 110, and they showed up more than 40 minutes 
later."  The owner thought that police were too slow in responding.
On one evening on the year before last, a middle school students was killed 
as soon as he stepped out of the school gate.  Last month, a middle school 
girl suddenly went "missing."  Later on, her body was found in a corn field. 
She had been strangled.  That case is still unsolved.
"I go and pick up my child after school each day or else I feel very 
insecure," said a parent named Shi.  Although the child is already in high 
school, the parent is uneasy because of the general lack of safety.  There 
is a local doggerel: "The good people are in disarray, the bad people have 
formed gangs; if security is no good, there cannot be any prosperity."
According to published information, the police noted that there were four 
explosions on September 12, 19, 22 and 26, 2007 at the Weng'an county Audit 
Department dormitory, Jinlong Garden, the North Gate Well and the Pedestrian 
Mall.  Those cases are unsolved at this time.
Guizhou provincial deputy party secretary Wang Fuyu believes that an 
underlying reason for the 6.28 incident was the bad public safety situation 
in Weng'an.  Although the police have gone after the gangs, the latter have 
not been eradicated.  Robberies and fights continued to occur.  There were 
600 to 800 crimes committed last year, of which about 50% were solved.  When 
crimes go unsolved and pile up, people feel unsafe.
When the cars were being torched outside the government building, the police 
could not stop the masses.  But the owner of a small shop told the masses: 
"This car is mine.  I need it.  Please don't burn it."  The vandals did not 
torch that car.
Southern Guizhou party secretary Wu Ting sighed: "Why do the vandals refuse 
to listen to us but they would listen to a citizen?  Why is our relationship 
with the masses so tense?"
After the 6.28 incident, the broadcasts continued to urge the participants 
to surrender themselves.  On the streets, the armed police and the regular 
police patrolled.  In front of the county party and government offices, 
there were armed police guards 24 hours a day.  A taxi driver said: "These 
are the safest times in Weng'an."
The most interesting conversation took place between provincial party 
secretary Shi Zongyuan and the workers at a blind-person massage place.  Shi 
asked whether the shop owner felt safe because they were next to the public 
security bureau building.  When the owner hestitated to answer, Shi 
apologized: "Our party and government have failed in our work.  Weng'an is 
unsafe, the people feel unsafe and there are more and more bad people."
When a worker at the shop refused to state his name, Shi Zongyuan once 
against admonished himself: "Weng'an is unsafe.  The people dare not tell 
the truth.  That is our responsibility ... the government is unable to stop 
the bad people and the masses are suffering.  Weng'an is unsafe.  The good 
people cannot defeat the bad people."  He apologized repeatedly to the 
people of Weng'an.
"The incident began with students demonstrators.  Then thousands of people 
gathered to watch.  But the party, government and public security bureau had 
no information beforehand.  They lack information, they were not mentally 
prepared and they had no contingency plan.  When the incident took place, 
they had no response."  On the meeting of July 3, Wang Fuyu said, "In 
condlusion, there were too many unresolved matters, there was too much 
bitterness and things were irreversible."
"The 6.28 incident appeared to be an accident, but it was inevitable. 
Sooner or later, this was going to happen!" said Shi Zongyuan.
At 3:30pm on June 28, citizen Hu saw the demonstrators coming down on 
Wenfeng Road.  The people were chanting slogans and heading towards the 
county party and government buildings.  Hu joined the group.
When the demonstrators reached the county and government offices, more than 
10,000 people had shown up.  There were students, migrants, shop owners, 
farmers, service workers, massage girls and even public servants, relatives 
of police officers ... they were men, women, young, old -- all the groups of 
Weng'an county city were represented here.
Hu said that the students went into the county party and government 
buildings and went from the first floor to the fifth floor without finding 
any relevant government officials.  It was a Saturday.
"If someone in charge had come out and communicated with the people -- even 
if it was just someone saying a few words with a loudspeaker -- what 
happened later on could not have occurred," said Hu.
Since the Li Shufen affair was handled by the public security bureau, the 
demonstrators proceeded to the county public security bureau building.
Hu saw that the police had set up a police line in front of the building. 
They were going to let two students to enter the building  "They seized the 
banner and the students seized it back.  There was a clash and the students 
jostled with the police," said Hu.  "When people saw the students being 
beaten, more people charged past the police line to help."
At that moment, the fully armed anti-riot police appeared and pointed their 
truncheons at the crowd.
Guizhou provincial party secretary Shi Zongyuan said afterwards: "You cannot 
just push the police onto the front line on any flimsy reason. You cannot 
impose the dictatorship of the people onto the people themselves. 
Otherwise, wouldn't it be weird!"  Shi Zongyuan requested the cadre leaders 
to determine the cadres who were derelict in their duties during the 
incident.
The crowd was in an uproar.  When they saw the students being assaulted, 
they tossed the water bottles in their hands, the flower pots in front of 
the building and everything else at the public security bureau building.
"It was over," said Hu.  At that moment, he realized that the crowd has lost 
its head and the situation has spun out of control.
By that time, the triggering fuse was no longer important.  The important 
thing was that the pented-up volcano had suddenly just found what had been a 
very small crack and Weng'an exploded.

(Outlook Weekly)  Weng'an Focused On Economy And Neglected Public Opinion; 
The People Won't Tell The Truth To The Government.  By Zhao Peng, Zhou 
Furong and Liu Wenguo.  July 12, 2008.
"When I saw the county government building go up in flames, tears poured out 
my eyes.  But the spectators were cheering, 'Go!'."
Although the 6.28 Weng'an incident occurred more than a dozen days ago, Cai 
Dongmei (who is a Guizhou provincial People's Congress delegate and the 
chairman of the Auntie Cai's Food Company) was still filled with sorrow when 
she recounted her feelings as an observer at the scene.
"This was not an isolated incident.  Rather, it was the inevitable 
culmination of many social conflicts over a long time."  The 71-year-old 
veteran cadre (and former Weng'an county mayor) Xu Yinfeng said.  "The 
people are bitter.  When their feelings get pented up over time, something 
is going to happen!"  Another veteran cadre Wang Rude told our reporter.
The Weng'an cadres and people have been reflecting: How can the death of the 
middle school female student Li Shufen lead to an extraordinary mass 
incident of 10,000 people gathering together, assaulting, vandalizing and 
torching the county party, government and public security bureau buildings?
Our investigation showed that the local government was slow in reacting and 
they mishandled the incident.  But the more disconcerting thing was that 
"the masses were not longer willing to tell the truth to the government."
With respect to the death of Li Shufen, there were doubts ever since her 
body was recovered by her uncle Li Xiuzhong and others on the early morning 
of June 22 and placed in a refrigerated coffin by the river bank.  The 
various cadres and citizens pointed out that there were two critical periods 
during which the escalation to the 6.28 incident could have been avoided.
The first time period was the seven days between June 22 and June 28. 
Although the county public security bureau and the other relevant county 
departments worked on the Li family, they were unable to persuade the family 
to bury Li Shufen and prevent the incident from escalating.
"That week was the time when the government should have acted to prevent the 
6.28 incident," Xu Yinfeng told our reporter.  From the day when the Li 
family put the body by the river bank, there were thousands of people going 
to the scene each day.  Rumors were flying all over the place.  The 
government and the public security bureau did not provide any clarification 
concerning what the people were saying and they did not issue any 
clarification through communication channels.  As a result, the false rumors 
spread like wildfire.
"Many people who did not know the truth believed in the rumors.  They were 
angry and there were signs that there would be trouble.  But there was no 
awareness.  This meant that the initiative to guide public opinion, prevent 
escalation and stabilizing emotions was lost," said Xu Yinfeng.
The second time period was between 16:00 and 20:00 on June 28.  During those 
four hours, the crowd assembled to state their complaints.  But the county 
party, government and public security bureau leaders (as well as the 
southern Guizhou party and the Guizhou provincial government) leaders did 
not appear in front of the crowd to speak to them.
Many of the interviewed spectators had the same refrain: "If any of the 
county party, government and public security leaders had come out personally 
to meet with the petitioners and communicate with them in front of everyone, 
the situation would not have gone out of control.  There would not have been 
a large-scale clash."
On that Saturday, where were the county and provincial leaders?  Our 
reporter learned that at 10:20pm on June 28, the southern Guizhou party 
leaders had arrived in Weng'an.  But there were too many people around and 
the car could only circle around while they waited for the arrival of 
Guizhou provincial party standing committee member and political and legal 
committee secretary Cui Yadong to arrive from Guiyang.
The actions taken by Weng'an county party secretary Wang Qin were the 
following: 800 cadres of the directly responsible departments and the county 
towns were sent to the scene to maintain order; the fire brigade was sent in 
to put out the fire; the deputy county mayor Zheng Yi was sent in to direct 
action at the scene; the various other cadres were dispatched to the scene; 
Wang Qin himself installed himself at the county armed police headquarters 
to command the actions.
It is worth thinking why the local party, government and public security 
bureau  departments had no information while several hundred people 
including students were marching on June 28.  The local public security 
bureau had inserted an "informant" to report on the actions of the Li 
family, but this person failed to file any reports.  Afterwards, Wang Qin 
concluded: when the informant failed to deliver, they became unprepared, 
they did not even have an emergency plan and they were at a loss when the 
mass incident occurred.
County Political Consultative Conference and People's Hospital doctor Wang 
Deqing said, "Even if this informant failed, while didn't other citizens 
report to the county party?  When the people won't tell the truth to your 
government, you are in trouble."
"Weng'an is not safe place."  This was what our reporters heard repeatedly 
from the people of Weng'an.
In Guizhou province, Weng'an is famous for its chaos.  According to 
information, there have been many cases of abnormal deaths among middle 
school students in Weng'an county since 2007.  None of those cases have been 
solved.  In December 2007, the Caoqiao Middle School student Fu Chaoxian was 
raped and murdered less than 200 meters from her home.  The perpetrator is 
still at large and the people are strongly dissatisfied.
According to Yonghe town villager Zhang Yanhong, his 9-year-old nephew Zhang 
Xiaoyun was kidnapped in May 2006 with no information available since.  He 
went down to the public security bureau to complain and he got a beating for 
his trouble.
A taxi driver said that his colleague Xu Anqi was assaulted by Yushan gang 
members and the county public security bureau refused to take action.  Only 
when all the taxi drivers in Weng'an county threatened to go out on strike 
did the public security bureau make the other party pay 3,000 RMB in 
compensation.
Between September 12 and 26, 2007, there were four explosions at the Golden 
Dragon Garden, Flower Bamboo Garden, Northgate Water Well and the Plaza 
Restaurant.  None of those cases have been solved.  These four sites are 
places near which county cadres live, or where government workers pass 
through.
According to Lu Xiaoli, who owns a blind-person massage parlor: "So many 
children are being murdered in the city and not a single bad guy has been 
apprehended.  Why would the people trust them?"  A middle-aged woman cried 
to the reporter: "The people pressed for an explanation in the case of Li 
Shufen because we are trying to protect our own children!"
Behind the chaos of public safety in Weng'an county are the criminal gangs. 
According to the people, there were more than a dozen gangs such as the 
Yushan gang, the Green Dragon gang, the Axe gang, the Kitchen Knife gang and 
others.  The reasons why the gangs proliferate was that the police were so 
poor at solving crimes and some of the police were even helping gangsters.
Since the place was unsafe and the rate of solving crimes was poor, the 
people and the police were like fire and water.  Our reporter could sense 
this strong emotion of opposition during the interviews.  At 21:00 on July 
3, the reporters observed at the textile factory workers' dormitory that 20 
to 30 volunteers were making dumplings for the armed police officers who had 
been sent in to restore order.  "They are like a blue sky.  It is normally 
very unsafe.  There are many robberies, which begin to happen around 7pm or 
8pm.  We don't dare to go out at night.  We feel very safe when the armed 
police are around for the past several days," said a laid-off worker at this 
textile factory.
An armed police officer who was eating dumplings told the reporter: "The 
local crowds are very enthusiastic and nice.  During the day, they bring us 
mineral water bottles.  During the night, they bring us snacks.  They treat 
us like family.  But they act very differently towards the local public 
security personnel.  When we wanted to share the mineral water that they 
brought us with the local public security people who were standing guard 
alongside us, they scolded us and they made it very clear that they did not 
want to give the mineral water that they purchased with their own money to 
the local public security personnel."
...

(yWeekend)  Weng'an Officials Provide "Full Company" At Interviews.  By Ma 
Jun.  July 17, 2008.
[in translation]
The 'unusual death' of a girl in Weng'an county (Guizhou province) led to a 
mass incident in which county government buildings were attacked, vandalized 
and set on fire.  Had the government been open about information, would the 
incident have occurred?  The China News Weekly reporter Wang Weibo went to 
Weng'an to investigate and found the following during his ten days or so of 
work there:
If the reporter does not register with the local authorities, he does not 
get cooperation; the family members of the deceased are provided "full 
company" by local officials during interviews; the 'bulletins' provided to 
the reporter are deliberately filtered; more than a dozen local teachers 
have been organized to comment and guide opinion on the Internet ...
"But it was an improvement to observe that the local officials are 
reflecting on the issue of information openness," said Wang Weibo to 
yWeekend.
On the evening of July 3, I arrived in Weng'an.  On the next day, the county 
party secretary and mayor were removed from their posts.
At about two to three kilometers from Weng'an county, there is a toll booth 
on the main road to Weng'an county city.  Inside, there is a notice in red 
with the big letters: "Welcome Chinese and foreign media reporters to come 
and gather news."  The reception and mobile telephone numbers were listed 
underneath.
But we did not dial those contact numbers.  Based upon our previous practice 
in investigative journalism, we entered the city and set out to find the 
principals directly.
On the streets of Weng'an, there were patrols wearing red armbands.  At the 
major street intersections, armed policemen stood guard.  There were banners 
everywhere that said: "Thank you for your hard work, media reporter 
friends!"  These banners sounded very warm and friendly, showing a certain 
posture by the local authorities.
But when we wanted to interview people, we had to produce a special press 
pass.  This pass is issued by the 6.28 Incident Management Team.  When a 
reporter applies with the team, he receives a special press pass.  Without 
this pass, many people (especially officials) will refuse to be interviewed.
At first, we did not go through this process.  Without the pass, we ran into 
many obstacles during our interviewing.  We arrived at Yuhua town where the 
family of the deceased lived, and the local cadres questioned and blocked us 
repeatedly.  Our press cards issued by the General Administration of Press 
and Publications were not good enough.  At the home of the deceased Li 
Shufen, the reporter encountered the people from the county publicity 
department.  We reasoned with them for a long while before they reluctantly 
permitted the family members to be interviewed.
The next day, we went back to the county city and got our press passes. 
This press pass gave us some guarantees.  But it also allowed the 
authorities to keep track of whom we were interviewing and what we were 
asking about.
Generally speaking, the government has been open about media coverage from 
the start of the incident to now.  As long as we had our press pass, they 
did not directly stop us.  But on July 3 and 4 when the reporters 
interviewed the parents and elder brother of the deceased, the local 
officials were present.  Town cadres and county publicity department workers 
were present the whole time.
It would seem that the family members did not want to say too much.  Some 
reporters would try to get a family member to go on the side and have a 
private chat for a few minutes and maybe get something new.  Otherwise, the 
family members repeated the information that has already been provided at 
the press conferences.
The final version of the facts is completely different from the original 
Internet rumors.  Of course, there are still some doubts that are still 
unknown, such as the motive for the girl to commit suicide and so on.  But 
basically, the possibility of murder, rape, and other Internet rumors have 
been excluded.  This is actually favorable to the government.  Such being 
the case, then why won't they let the reporters gather information freely?
I think that this situation is understandable.  The local officials are 
hoping to do their work well to get the media publish positive reports.  So 
they will necessarily try to manage the process.  That is to say, they would 
not interfere with the interviews but they still wanted to put the reporters 
under control if possible.
They wanted even more for the reporters to help them dispel the rumors and 
calm people down.  But when there are large numbers of media from the 
outside whose contents are beyond their control, they can only control the 
interviewing process.
Actually, this is still the same traditional way of thinking.
The interviews with the three principals who were at the scene was a joint 
interview with various media organizations.  Of course, they were 
accompanied by local officials.
The three principals said the same things that were already said at the 
press conferences.
We are a group of three reporters and we took different directions in our 
stories.  I was covering the angle of the responses by government officials 
during this affair.
The handling of the 6.28 incident was probably inappropriate based upon the 
outcome.  The situation went out of control.  Therefore, the local officials 
were being evasive and did not want to say much.
On July 5, I asked to interview the county leaders in order to understand 
the details of how they dealt with the situation on June 28.  I hoped to 
interview Xiao Song who was at the scene of the disturbance.  He was the 
county vice-mayor in charge of petitions and public security.
The Information and Publicity Office people told me to go and get the 
bulletins at the incident emergency command center.  These bulletins were 
issued on a daily basis and they documented the government's emergency 
responses.
The command center was located at another site.  When I got there, I was 
turned back because they said that the bulletins were also available at the 
Information and Publicity Office.  So I went back to the Information and 
Publicity Office and one of their directors was decent enough to run over to 
the command center in the rain and got me the bulletins.  But there were 
only three bulletins.
Actually, more than a dozen bulletins had been published already.  The three 
bulletins that they gave me was principally about how they had finished 
their propaganda work and other items that showcased their achievements. 
But I wanted above all to read the bulletins between the critical days of 
June 28 to June 30.  Those were absent.
Without doubt, they had "filtered" the bulletins to be given to me.
"Why won't you provide me with all the bulletins?  You filed these bulletins 
for your superiors to read, and they should also be released to the media." 
I raised this question right there.  They replied that the bulletins 
involved certain secret matters such as the movements of the armed police. 
As such, it was inappropriate to release the information to the press.
This explanation may seem alright, but it couldn't be the case that all of 
the other bulletins were about the movements of the armed police?
I argued back and forth, but I never got the bulletins that I wanted.
This chunk was a key missing part of my report.  Afterwards, I could only go 
through many interviews, including government officials who wanted to stay 
anonymous and certain citizens (who had taken videos at the scene) before I 
could reconstruct how the government officials reacted and coped during the 
7 hours of the afternoon of June 28.
Previously, there are many taboos and customs in covering similar mass 
incidents.  But this time, there were many breakthroughs.
In less than one hour after the incident, netizens were posting videos and 
photos on the Internet.  On the evening of June 28, 'roadside rumors' began 
to circulate on the blogs and forums.  Not only were the local police 
accused of injustice, but the rumors also said that the police had beaten an 
uncle of the deceased to death.
These stories drew innumerable angry comments.  At the Tianya and Strong 
Nation forums, the relevant posts soared to the top.  These stories contain 
the ingredients that rile the Chinese people the most: official corruption, 
rape-murder, police inaction, etc.
The Internet action created a different kind of worry for the local 
officials.  They organized to counterattack.  Although they were reacting 
passively, they nevertheless achieved decent results.
Certain posts that counterattacked the rumors began to appear on the 
Internet.  These posts came mostly from the "Group for policy discussion and 
law publicity" in Weng'an county.  More than a dozen teachers who were 
familiar with the Internet were selected and transferred from the county 
schools and they acted systematically and purposefully to dispel rumors and 
calm people down with comments on the Internet.
The leader of this publicity team is the Guizhou provincial party committee 
publicity department deputy director Zhou Xiaoyun.  According to the 
presentation of a local official, the principal mission of this publicity 
team is to organize personnel to make Internet comments, "and use the 
Guizhou media to affect national opinion."  Since the government website 
office was destroyed by arson, the workers worked on the second floor of the 
Telecom Building.  The dozen or so workers from the relevant county 
departments and schools worked daily to collect information and followed up 
with comments on inaccurate information.
An official with the emergency handling command center also explained, 
"Apart from Weng'an county, all other counties and cities in the Southern 
Guizhou Prefecture assigned 5 Internet commentators each.  Each day, they 
consulted the Xinhua news reports and other recently published information, 
and then they use a variety of flexible methods to guide Internet 
discussion."
Obviously, the local government has begun to study news tactics.  These 
methods are much more effective than what they used to do.
Of course, they were doing different things on and off the Internet too.
Off the Internet, they were mainly guiding and restricting the traditional 
media.  This close monitoring of the traditional media gives the sense of a 
pro-active technique.
On July 29, the 6.28 incident emergency response command center was 
established.  The aforementioned "Group for discussion and law publicity" 
was one of eight work groups within the center.  They also have an incident 
investigation team, a persuasion/guidance team and so on.
On the morning of July 29, Xinhua published the report titled <An incident 
of assault, vandalism and arson occurred in Weng'an county, Guizhou 
province>.  By comparison to the historical record, this type of incident is 
usually reported several days afterwards.  Afterwards, the Guizhou 
provincial and Southern Guizhou Prefecture media began their reporting on 
the incident.
The government began its work to dispel the rumors on the fourth day after 
the incident occurred.  On July 1, the Guizhou provincial government 
information office, the Guizhou provincial public security bureau and other 
departments held a press conference in Guiyang concerning "the major 
incident of assault, vandalism and arson on June 28 in Weng'an."  They made 
the following clarifications: (1) the evidence showed that the girl had died 
by drowning and was not raped/murdered; (2) the county party secretary Wang 
Qin is from the local area and he has no relatives in the Weng'an area; etc.
An analysis showed that from June 30 and July 3, the reporting on the case 
(including the interviewing by the militia police, family members and the 
three principals on the scene) was controlled by the Guizhou media.  Outside 
media could not make any breakthrough mainly because they could not find 
anyone to interview.
Afterwards, the local government arranged several interviews of the 
principals by outside media for publicity reasons.
During the interviewing process, we observed certain improvements.  But this 
is still far away from genuine openness of government information.  With 
respect to channel availability and timing for information openness, there 
is still a lot of room for improvement.
Openness of government information means genuine openness, but the local 
officials still have an antiquated idea about propaganda and they want to 
control the media.  I interviewed one government officials and he kept using 
words such as "monitoring," "controlling" and "blocking."  These terms 
clearly exhibited an old style of thinking.
If they had started out with open information, what happened later need not 
have occurred.
Between June 22 and June 28 (from the death of Li Shufen to the presence of 
thousands in the streets), the government was basically silent.  I spoke 
with local government officials, and they admitted that the government 
stayed silent because it had no awareness about the need of openness of 
government information.  They also did not have the kind of communication 
means.  It may be said that the system of information openness has not been 
effectively built at the time.
In today's interview (July 14), I spoke with a director at the Weng'an 
county emergency response office.  They had also reflected and summarized 
this experience.
They were confounded by one problem: For the government, information 
openness often implied an openness that is authoritative and accurate; for 
the public, information openness should be as transparent and clear as 
possible.
For an emergency incident, there always needs to be an investigative 
process.  This implies an conflict between information openness and 
timeliness.  How to resolve the conflict?
For this director, he thinks that they should let the people hear the 
government's voice in the first instant, even if this voice does not contain 
an authoritative explanation yet.
But the voice in the first instant can at least show the attitude of the 
government and give a promise to the people.  When the masses hear this 
voice, they know that the government is going to ignore this matter.  This 
is the way to calm people down.