Chinese Police With Shotguns Man Checkpoints Near Protests
source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-16/chinese-police-with-shotguns-man-checkpoints-near-s...
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Police armed with shotguns restricted movement in and out of the village of Wukan in southern China, the scene of protests this week following the death in police custody of a local butcher.
A dozen uniformed officers and three vehicles manned a checkpoint yesterday about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the village, checking identification cards and preventing some people from entering. The restrictions remain after Communist Party officials began a probe of local officials and halted a real-estate development that sparked protests.
Wukan, about 150 kilometers east of Hong Kong in Guangdong Province, rose up in protest after the Dec. 11 death of a villager while in police custody. The local government said Xue Jinbo, 42, died of a heart failure. He was “suspected” of leading more than 400 villagers to “vent their anger” over a land dispute, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
“Several thousand” people held a memorial for Xue at a temple in the village center yesterday, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unidentified local residents. Xue’s remains are still held by local officials, the newspaper said.
Wu Zili, the acting mayor of Shanwei, which has jurisdiction over Wukan, said the government is “determined to crackdown” on “criminal ringleaders” who incited the protests and destroyed property, the China News Service reported. At the same time, he said the land development will be halted and local authorities questioned about the incident.
The standoff is the latest in a series of demonstrations that have sparked concern among Communist Party leaders seeking to maintain stability in the world’s most populous country, where three decades of growth averaging 10.1 percent a year has also led to increasing income disparities.
A dozen uniformed officers and three vehicles manned a checkpoint yesterday about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the village, checking identification cards and preventing some people from entering. The restrictions remain after Communist Party officials began a probe of local officials and halted a real-estate development that sparked protests.
Wukan, about 150 kilometers east of Hong Kong in Guangdong Province, rose up in protest after the Dec. 11 death of a villager while in police custody. The local government said Xue Jinbo, 42, died of a heart failure. He was “suspected” of leading more than 400 villagers to “vent their anger” over a land dispute, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
“Several thousand” people held a memorial for Xue at a temple in the village center yesterday, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unidentified local residents. Xue’s remains are still held by local officials, the newspaper said.
Wu Zili, the acting mayor of Shanwei, which has jurisdiction over Wukan, said the government is “determined to crackdown” on “criminal ringleaders” who incited the protests and destroyed property, the China News Service reported. At the same time, he said the land development will be halted and local authorities questioned about the incident.
The standoff is the latest in a series of demonstrations that have sparked concern among Communist Party leaders seeking to maintain stability in the world’s most populous country, where three decades of growth averaging 10.1 percent a year has also led to increasing income disparities.
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artemis6
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Great post - this SHOULD BE all over the media , it is a big deal !
- 5 months ago
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artemis6
