Villagers Riot in China, Attack Officials

Villagers Riot in China, Attack Officials

abcnews.go.com

BEIJING (Reuters) - Villagers rioted in southwestern China, attacking officials and burning cars, in protest against attempts to enforce strict family-planning policies, witnesses said on Monday, the latest in a series of protests nationwide.

"The government office was a big mess," a villager, who witnessed the scene, said by telephone.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 24-5-2007 by UM_Gazz]

The protest started after officials had intensified family-planning policies, making couples with more than one child pay fines of up to tens of thousands of yuan.

The people who can't pay the fines pay anyways as their homes are ransacked, and everything is taken away from them by Chinese officials. Houses are also at times tore down by the Chinese officials according to the article.

The story says that up to 10,000 Chinese people were part of the riot in this province. Several were inprisoned, and there were some injuries from both sides.

There have been reports of female infanticide, and forced abortions by Chinese officials for years, and more often than not families decide to keep the boys instead of the girls due to traditional preferences.

This is really getting out of hand. I understand that there are too many people in China, but these forced abortions, female infanticides, and fines imposed by the Chinese government on people who most often cannot pay for these fines is way out of line.

This is nothing new, but it seems the Chinese people are starting to fight back against these imposed family policies.

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I agree the fines and forced abortions are out of line, and the ransaking of the homes, but what are they going to do when they run out of room for all the people in China, which they will?

6 of 1 half dozen of the other. I don't like it either, but is there another solution?

It is good that they are revolting against unfree things (fines for to many kids is
actually Ok to me) like forced abortions.

However I have to wonder how successful this will be, if millions can be silenced ala
Tianmen square, 10,000 does'nt seem like it would be to much to handle.

This is only in one province, it is happening and has been happening all over China.

The following is not exactly because of the enforcing of family planning, but it shows what has ben happening in China.

Chinese villagers riot over land graft
Email Print Normal font Large font May 8, 2007 - 3:09PM

Mobs of villagers in southern China, furious over suspected corrupt land deals, attacked and looted a former official's home and harassed other local cadres, a Hong Kong newspaper reported.

Last Wednesday, about 100 villagers in the township of Gurao in the booming Guangdong province surrounded the home of a former village Communist Party leader, Ming Pao newspaper said.
..................
The central government has said the number of "mass incidents" - a term that includes protests, riots, petitions and demonstrations - was about 23,000 last year.

www.smh.com.au...

3 Peasants Sentenced in Riot in China

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 10, 2006; A09

BEIJING, Jan. 9 -- A Chinese court sentenced three villagers to prison terms ranging from one to five years Monday after convicting them of illegal acts during a peasant riot last April in Zhejiang province, according to attorneys and village activists.

The violent uprising at Huaxi near the city of Dongyang, which was described in a Washington Post article in June, erupted over farmers' complaints that local officials unfairly confiscated their fields and allowed the land to be used by chemical factories that polluted the area. Dozens of policemen were injured and hundreds more fled the village after about 3,000 farmers attacked them with stones and bricks.

The riot was one of thousands that have broken out across China over the past two years, often in disputes over land confiscations. President Hu Jintao and the Communist Party on Saturday urged officials to exercise particular care in confiscating land for industrial development, warning that corruption among local authorities and businessmen would be severely punished.

www.washingtonpost.com...

20 Reported Killed as Chinese Unrest Escalates
Published: December 9, 2005

SHANGHAI, Dec. 9 - Residents of a fishing village near Hong Kong said that as many as 20 people had been killed by paramilitary police in an unusually violent clash that marked an escalation in the widespread social protests that have roiled the Chinese countryside. Villagers said that as many as 50 other residents remain unaccounted for since the shooting. It is the largest known use of force by security forces against ordinary citizens since the killings around Tiananmen Square in 1989. That death toll remains unknown, but is estimated to be in the hundreds.
..............
By the government's tally there were 74,000 riots or other significant public disturbances in 2004, a big jump from previous years.

[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/international/asia/09cnd-china.html?ex=1291784400&en=a8df95dd8c4eaaaa&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss]Link[ /url]

And that's what the Chinese government is reporting.

Last Updated: Friday, 15 April, 2005, 10:58 GMT 11:58 UK

China riot village draws tourists
By Francis Markus
BBC News, Shanghai
......................................
The unrest is one of a series of recent outbursts of frustration and anger in rural China, over various issues.


Residents say tens of thousands of people from nearby towns and cities have flocked each day to visit the site of last Sunday's confrontation, in the village of Huaxi, in eastern China's Zhejiang province.

Thousands of angry villagers forced a huge contingent of police to beat a humiliating retreat.

news.bbc.co.uk...

And those are some of the riots we know about.



[edit on 21-5-2007 by Muaddib]