Freedom of Press: June 2011 Archives

By James Pomfret | REUTERS | The West Australian | via YAHOO
June 13, 2011

Riot police poured into a southern Chinese factory town crowded with migrant workers on Monday, a day after militia fired tear gas to quell rioting over the abuse of a pregnant street hawker who became a symbol of simmering grassroots discontent.

Hong Kong television showed crowds of workers and stall holders, many from the rural southwestern province of Sichuan running through the streets of Zengcheng in Guangdong province over the weekend.

The rioters smashed windows, set fire to government buildings and overturned police vehicles, bringing to a climax anger over security guards who had set upon the hawker, Wang Lianmei, on Friday. Footage showed riot police firing tear gas and deploying armored vehicles to disperse the crowds, and handcuffing protesters.

By Monday evening the unrest had subsided. But hundreds of riot police guarded the streets, and continued arriving by the busload, while wary workers watched on street corners.

Though protests have become relatively common over anything from corruption to abuse of power, the ruling Communist Party is sensitive to any possible threat to its hold on power in the wake of the protests that have swept the Arab world.

Guangdong is also a pillar of China's export industries, and persistent unrest there could unnerve buyers and investors.

Witnesses said more than 1,000 protesters had besieged at least one government office in Zengcheng.

"People were running around like crazy," a shop owner in the area told the South China Morning Post. "I had to shut the shop by 7 p.m. and dared not come out."

News reports said the incident was sparked on Friday night when security personnel in nearby Dadun village pushed pregnant hawker Wang, 20, to the ground while trying to clear her from the streets.

"The case was just an ordinary clash between street vendors and local public security people, but was used by a handful of people who wanted to cause trouble," Zengcheng Mayor Ye Niuping was quoted as saying by the China Daily newspaper.

Other clashes have erupted in southern China in recent weeks, including in Chaozhou, where hundreds of migrant workers demanding payment of their wages at a ceramics factory attacked government buildings and set vehicles ablaze.

Last week, protests erupted in central China at the death under interrogation of an official.

Over the weekend, state media said that two people were slightly injured in an explosion in Beijing's neighboring city Tianjin, set off by a man bent on "revenge against society."

Despite pervasive censorship and government controls, word of protests, along with often dramatic pictures, spreads fast in China on mobile telephones and the Internet, especially on popular microblogging sites.

In 2007, China had over 80,000 "mass incidents," up from over 60,000 in 2006, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Many involved no more than dozens protesting against local officials over complaints about corruption, abuse of power, pollution or poor wages.

No authoritative estimates of the number of protests, riots and mass petitions since then have been released.

Guangdong's Communist Party boss, Wang Yang, is one of the ambitious provincial leaders who may win a place in China's next central leadership, after President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao retire from power from late next year.

In past months, Wang has sought to cast himself as a moderate leader willing to heed ordinary citizens' gripes, and has said his priority is improving the public sense of wellbeing -- a gentler message than the hardline one that domestic security officials have pushed.

"Use rule of law to protect and realize people's democratic rights," Wang told a meeting in April, according to the official Xinhua news agency. "People don't fear poverty; what they fear is not having the market conditions for fair competition so that they can achieve prosperity."

Also in April, the Communist Party committee of Guangdong heard a lecture from Sun Liping, a sociologist from Tsinghua University in Beijing who has bluntly warned that corruption, inequality and divisions threaten to "rupture" Chinese society.

(Additional reporting by Xavier Ng, and Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Daniel Magnowski)

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By Ben Blanchard - REUTERS | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
Jun 04, 2011

The United States and Taiwan pressed China to release dissidents and fully address the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations around Tiananmen Square 22 years ago, as China tightens the noose on rights activists.

The 1989 protests that clogged Beijing's Tiananmen Square and spread to other cities remain a taboo topic for the ruling Communist Party, all the more so this year following online calls for an Arab-style "jasmine revolution" in China.

The events of more than two decades ago continue to affect international perceptions of China, now the world's number two economy and increasingly active on the international stage.

The State Department said China must release all those still jailed for their participation in the 1989 protests.

"We ask the Chinese government to provide the fullest possible public accounting of those killed, detained or missing," deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.

At least five people remain in jail for joining the protests.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency, said the U.S. comments "ignored facts and groundlessly accused the Chinese government, (which) is a rude interference in China's internal affairs and its judicial sovereignty."

"We urge the U.S. side to abandon its political bias and rectify wrong practices to avoid disturbing China-U.S. relations."

The president of democratic Taiwan, the island China claims as its own and has never renounced the use of force to recover, said Beijing should follow Taipei's example and reform politically.

"As we look back upon the June 4th incident, we urgently hope the mainland Chinese authorities will have the courage to undertake political reforms and promote the development of freedom, democracy, human rights, and rule of law," President Ma Ying-jeou said in a statement.

On Saturday, Tiananmen Square was packed with tourists as normal, with no obvious signs that already tight security had been stepped up significantly.

Some roads in central Beijing did have greater numbers of police on them. Police checked some cars on at least one section of the city's main interior ring road.

"I didn't agree with the method of the protest, making a disturbance on the square," said a 60-year-old Beijing resident who gave her family name as Chen. "But I think there should be a way for people to express what's on their mind."

FASTING FOR THE DAY

Dissidents said controls over them had been strengthened.

"I can't come out today. I've been kept at home. But I'll be fasting for the day, like I do every June 4 anniversary," said Zhou Duo.

Zhou was one of the four activists in 1989 who negotiated with troops to evacuate Tiananmen Square of student-protesters, avoiding bloodshed on the square itself on June 4. He was later jailed for his role in the protests.

"Of course, sooner or late June 4 will be reassessed and rehabilitated. That's inevitable. History can never be completely erased."

Zhang Xianling, who lost her son in the Tiananmen protests, said she had been allowed out to visit her son's grave, but was being followed and was not allowed to go as a group with other bereaved parents, as she has done in the past.

"It shows that even after all these years, China is still limiting human rights," Zhang said.

Later in the day, tens of thousands are expected to flock to a downtown park in Hong Kong to hold a candlelight vigil that drew about 150 thousand people last year.

Hong Kong, a former British colony that reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 with a promise of a high degree of autonomy, has remained a beacon for the overseas Chinese pro-democracy movement.

After the crackdown, the government called the movement a "counter revolutionary" plot, but has more recently referred to it as a "political disturbance."

Recent unrest in Inner Mongolia and explosions in two provinces sparked by social grievances have also ruffled authorities as the leadership prepares to hand over power to a new generation at a Party Congress next year.

"Traditionally in the one to two years before any Party congress, the leadership is very stubborn about maintaining law and order," said Willy Lam, a Hong Kong-based China watcher.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Ken Wills and K.J. Kwon in Beijing, Paul Eckert in Washington, James Pomfret and Xavier Ng in Hong Kong, and Jonathan Standing in Taipei; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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By BBC Word News
May 31, 2011

China's Foreign Ministry has claimed that foreigners are stirring up trouble in the province of Inner Mongolia.

Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said attempts cause trouble would not succeed, but she did not specify which foreigners she was talking about.

Last week, hundreds protested after two ethnic Mongolians were killed - allegedly by Han Chinese assailants.

Protest groups say the deaths have highlighted wider concerns about the economic development of the region.

Many ethnic Mongolians say their traditional nomadic way of life is being overridden, particularly by mining projects.

'Ulterior motives'

The Chinese authorities have tightened security across the region, and there have been no reports of demonstrations this week.

The government has largely removed references to the protests from the internet.

Ms Jiang told a regular news conference that the authorities would try to tackle the grievances of the people in Inner Mongolia.

"As for the reasonable claims by the people, the local authorities will respond positively to them," she said.

But she added that people overseas were trying to use the incident to cause trouble.

"As for those overseas trying to play up this incident for ulterior motives, we feel that it would be impossible for them to succeed," she said.

The unrest erupted last week after two ethnic Mongolians were killed in separate incidents.

A farmer was run over and killed on 10 May while trying to protect his land.

Five days later, another ethnic Mongolian was killed during a protest at a mine.

Less than 20% of Inner Mongolia's estimated 25 million residents are ethnic Mongolians. About 80% are Han Chinese.

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