public protest | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

19/08/2013

China summons Japanese ambassador over shrine visit

Reuters: “China summoned Japan’s ambassador on Thursday to lodge a strong complaint after two Japanese cabinet ministers publicly paid their respects at a controversial Tokyo shrine for war dead, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Anti-Japan protesters carry posters depicting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as they march to the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong August 15, 2013. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

The ministers’ visit to the Yasukuni Shrine “seriously harms the feelings of the people in China and other Asian victim countries”, the ministry said in a statement.

Visits to the shrine by top Japanese politicians outrage China and South Korea because it honors 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal, along with war dead.

For Koreans, the shrine is a reminder of Japan’s brutal colonial rule from 1910-1945. China also suffered under Japanese occupation before and during World War Two.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin summoned Japanese ambassador Masato Kitera for an emergency meeting to lodge “stern representations and express strong opposition and severe condemnation”, the ministry said.

“The issue of the Yasukuni Shrine relates to whether or not Japan can correctly recognize and face up to the history of invasion of the Japanese militarists and whether or not they can respect the feelings of the people of China and the other victim nations in Asia,” the ministry said.”

via China summons Japanese ambassador over shrine visit | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Diplomacy, Foreign invasion, GeoPolitics, History, Military, Neighbour conflict, Politics, public protest, Territorial dispute, war | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia, Cabinet of Japan, China, Japan, japanese ambassador, japanese cabinet, Japanese militarism, japanese militarists, japanese occupation, japanese politicians, South Korea, Tokyo, war criminals, Yasukuni Shrine

22/07/2013

Knife attacks and bomb threats follow Beijing airport explosion

SCMP: “Several incidents of violence have been reported in Beijing in the aftermath of the attempted suicide by an aggrieved petitioner at the capital’s international airport on Saturday.

On Monday, a man armed with a knife went on a rampage at a Carrefour shopping centre, in Beijing’s western district, wounding at least four people. Police have arrested a Beijing-native surnamed Wang, born in 1963 at the scene, local police said in a statement.

One child was among those wounded, Beijing News reported on its microblog. The report did not say what triggered the attack.

Last Thursday, a knife-yielding man stabbed two people, including one US woman, to death, in a similar incident.

In two unrelated incidents, Beijing police arrested two men for “threatening to carry bombs and attempting to disturb social order” in the capital.

Four hours after petitioner Ji Zhongxing caused an explosion at Beijing Capital International Airport on Saturday, a 39-year-old man surnamed Wang from Beijing’s Miyun county threatened to set off explosives at a Beijing airport to protest against land seizures, according to a statement by Beijing police.

Only one hour later, a 31-year-old man surnamed Liu from Jiangsu province, threatened to detonate explosives at a video arcade, police said. Both men have since been arrested.

Many Chinese netizens blamed a “butterfly effect” and criticised the government for failing to address petitioners’ grievances. “If the government continues in its corrupt ways, everybody will become Ji Zhongxing,” said one Weibo user. “Using lives to protest is the last way for ordinary people to seek changes,” wrote another.

via Knife attacks and bomb threats follow Beijing airport explosion | South China Morning Post.

Blast hits Beijing airport terminal (bbc.co.uk)

Posted in China alert, Petition, Politics, public protest, social media | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Beijing Capital International Airport, China, politics, Sina Weibo

20/07/2013

China officials held over watermelon-seller death

BBC : “Six urban security personnel have been detained by police investigating the death of a fruit seller in southern China, state media say.

Deng Zhengjia, in his 50s, died on Wednesday in Chenzhou City, Hunan.

He was hit with a weight from a set of scales after a row erupted with the officials, known as “chengguan”, Xinhua reported, citing Mr Deng’s niece.

The six are being held on suspicion of intentionally harming others, added the news agency.

The row in Linwu county, Chenzhou, erupted after Mr Deng, 56, and his wife tried to sell home-grown watermelons at a scenic riverside spot without a licence, the county government said in a statement.

Having asked the couple to leave, “the enforcers temporarily confiscated four of the watermelons, requesting that the couple sell their melons in an authorised location instead”.

The couple began “insulting” the officers when they encountered them again 50 minutes later, the statement said.

“The enforcers tried to reason with the couple, the dispute between the two sides became a physical conflict, and in the process Deng Zhengjia suddenly collapsed and died,” it added.

There were anti-chengguan protests in Linwu on Wednesday, and the fruit seller’s death has also sparked outrage on China’s microblogs.

In July 2011, the death of a disabled street vendor who was reportedly beaten by local law enforcers sparked a riot in Guizhou province.

Who are the chengguan?

Urban law enforcers tasked with enforcing ”non-criminal administrative regulations” such as traffic, environment and sanitation rules

Chengguan operate separately from the police

They are employed by the Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureaux of their individual cities

Critics call them “violent government thugs”

Reports that a disabled street vendor was beaten to death by chengguan in 2011 sparked riots in China’s Guizhou province

There are thousands of chengguan in at least 656 cities across China, Human Rights Watch says

The chengguan, or Urban Management Law Enforcement force, support the police in tackling low-level crime in cities and have become unpopular with the Chinese public after a series of high-profile violent incidents.

“They are now synonymous for many Chinese citizens with physical violence, illegal detention and theft,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a report last year.

via BBC News – China officials held over watermelon-seller death.

BBC News – Probe over China fruit-seller ‘beaten by enforcers’ (chindia-alert.org)

Posted in China alert, Human rights, Illegal practices, Justice, Politics, public protest, Rule of law, social media | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Chenzhou, China, Guizhou, Human Rights Watch, Hunan, Linwu County, Police, politics

19/07/2013

Probe over China fruit-seller ‘beaten by enforcers’

BBC: “Police are investigating the death of a fruit seller in China, state media say, amid reports he was beaten by “chengguan” urban security personnel.

Deng Zhengjia, in his 50s, died on Wednesday in Chenzhou City, Hunan.

He was hit with a weight from a set of scales after a row erupted with chengguan officials, Xinhua news agency said, citing Mr Deng’s niece.

Chengguan are unpopular with the Chinese public after a series of high-profile violent incidents.

The chengguan, or Urban Management Law Enforcement force, support the police in tackling low-level crime in cities.

But the force’s ”thuggish” behaviour had led to public anger and undermined stability, a report by Human Rights Watch said last year.

“They are now synonymous for many Chinese citizens with physical violence, illegal detention and theft,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), when the report was released in May 2012.

via BBC News – Probe over China fruit-seller ‘beaten by enforcers’.

Posted in China alert, Human rights, Illegal practices, Justice, Politics, public protest, Rule of law, social media | 1 Comment »

Tags: China, Human Rights Watch, Hunan, State media

13/07/2013

China cancels $6 billion uranium project after protest

Reuters: “China has canceled plans to build a uranium processing plant in a southern Chinese city a day after hundreds of protesters took to the streets demanding the project be scrapped, a local government website said on Saturday.

The proposed 230-hectare complex in the heart of China’s Pearl River delta industrial heartland in Guangdong province had also sparked unease in neighboring Hong Kong and Macau.

Authorities in the gambling enclave had formally raised the issue with their Guangdong counterparts, the South China Morning Post reported.

A one-line statement published on the Heshan city government’s website said that “to respect people’s desire, the Heshan government will not propose the CNNC project”. State-run China National Nuclear Corporation had planned to build the 37 billion yuan ($6 billion) project.

CNNC officials could not be reached for comment.”

via China cancels $6 billion uranium project after protest | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Politics, public protest | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, China National Nuclear Corporation, Guangdong, Pearl River Delta

27/05/2013

* Henan residents on rampage over Honda driver’s sense of entitlement

SCMP: “When the side rearview mirror of a black Honda bumped a 10-year-old girl on her way home from school, the driver – instead of helping the child – insulted and hit the mother. “I come from an influential family,” the driver said.

screen_shot_2013-05-27_at_4.02.24_pm.png

The incident on Friday evening in Henan province soon attracted an angry crowd of people who smashed and overturned the 26-year-old woman’s car. A man surnamed Zhang tried to set it on fire, according to a police report.

It took police until midnight to pacify the crowd as photos and video footage of the scene circulated online. Many of the comments represented outrage against the sense of entitlement of the privileged few.

As the gap between rich and poor is increasing, examples of nepotism and favouritism are striking a nerve. Such distaste from the public has been characterised by the phrase “My dad is Li Gang” – the words of a police official’s drunken son when he tried to avoid arrest after a student died in a car crash in 2010.

The phrase has become synonymous with fuerdai and guanerdai, second-generation rich and cadres, and has turned the 22-year-old son, now in jail after a public outcry, into the archetype of abuse of power.”

via Pictured: Henan residents on rampage over Honda driver’s sense of entitlement | South China Morning Post.

Posted in China alert, Politics, power & privilege, public protest | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Henan

18/05/2013

* China’s protesters: winning battles?

FT: “Even in China, David sometimes beats Goliath – though it’s sometimes hard to be sure.

This week, residents of Songjiang – a suburb of Shanghai which has gained fame around the world for having over 10,000 dead pigs floating in its water supply – found that though they could not vanquish the porcine invader, they had scared away an intruder from the corporate world. Shanghai Guoxuan High-Tech Power Energy company said it was abandoning plans for a battery factory in Songjiang, after residents protested on the streets and on the internet against it.

In a statement broadcast on local TV, the company said it would return the land allocated by local government and “will not seek any compensation”. It said it was halting its existing operations and pulling out of the area completely.

Residents staged street protests against the plant regularly since late April and more than 10,000 signed a petition against the project with many others voicing their opposition to it on the internet. At least one protester was reported to have been injured by police.

But Chinese citizens know that plants vanquished in one location in China, by “not in my backyard” or “nimby” protests, often pop up in someone else’s backyard. Residents of neighbouring Jinshan, another industrial area on the outskirts of Shanghai, now fear that the plant will end up on their doorstep.

“We already have so many chemical plants. We really cannot tolerate one more battery plant. Shall we protest together?” asks one user on a Jinshan property owner’s online forum.

Ordinary Chinese are less and less ready to pay the environmental price for economic development – or rather, more and more ready to see someone else pay it. This week, up to a thousand people protested in Kunming, in southwest China, the second large demonstration this month against plans to produce paraxylene (PX), a chemical used in making fabrics and plastic bottles, at a plant in the town.

Protestors complained that the environmental impact assessment for the project was suspect, because it was done by one subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp, the country’s largest oil and gas producer and supplier, while the plant would be operated by another. That is the equivalent of “grandson assessing Grandpa,” said one Weibo user.

Last November, the eastern city of Ningbo suspended a petrochemical project after days of street protests. The year before, big protests against a PX plant in the northeastern city of Dalian forced the city government to suspend it.”

via China’s protesters: winning battles? | beyondbrics.

China battery plant protested, anger over pollution (worldbulletin.net)

Posted in China alert, Economics, Petition, Politics, public protest | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, China National Petroleum Corporation, chinese citizens, dead pigs, environmental price, Shanghai, Songjiang, Songjiang District, street protests

08/05/2013

* Detention of petitioners denounced

China Daily: “Anti-graft officials vow protection of whistle-blowers from retaliation

Officials with China’s top anti-graft authority expressed firm opposition on Tuesday to the detention of petitioners.

Authorities are not allowed to detain petitioners at any level of petition offices and at public venues, said Zhang Shaolong, deputy director of the office of letters and calls of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

It is a legal channel for petitioners to submit whistle-blowing materials face to face to the anti-graft authorities, and the petitioners should receive a warm welcome from anti-corruption agencies, he said.

Zhang made the remarks on Tuesday during an online interview with two other anti-graft officials from the commission.

Under the administrative mechanism in most places, the leading officials will not get promoted if too many petitioners appeal to higher authorities.

Many corrupt officials were exposed by online posts, Zhang said, adding that some inaccurate online information has also made the investigations of corrupt officials difficult.

Among all the cases investigated by the commission last year, about 41.8 percent of the clues were collected from the public whistle-blowers through online reports, letters and calls, Zhang said.

Guo Hongliang, Zhang’s colleague who also attended the online interview, said that the commission has received 301,000 online whistle-blowing reports from 2008 to 2012.

The commission established 12388.gov.cn, its online whistle-blowing website, in October 2009, and the Internet has become one of the most important channels for the commission to collect information, he said.

Deng Jixun, another colleague of Zhang who attended the interview, said that real-name whistle-blowing activities should be encouraged to promote the efficiency of anti-corruption work.

The anti-graft authorities should protect real-name whistle-blowers from being victims of retaliation, he said.

Zhang acknowledged that some officials try to prevent people from petitioning to higher levels of government, and these officials’ behavior should be firmly opposed.

A report in People’s Daily revealed that many petitioners had been detained by the government of Hai’an county in Jiangsu province since March when they tried to visit the anti-graft officials from an inspection team sent by the provincial government.”

via Detention of petitioners denounced |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn.

Shanghai Petitioners Stage Protest Over Illegal Detentions (theepochtimes.com)
Petitioners Unite Against Illegal Detention Centers (theepochtimes.com)
Wronged Chinese Policemen Join Petitioners in Beijing (theepochtimes.com)

Posted in Censorship, China alert, Freedom, Good news, Human rights, Illegal practices, Internal politics, Justice, Petition, Politics, public protest, Reform, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, China, communist party of china, Jiangsu, Petitioner, politics, whistle blowers, whistle blowing, Whistleblower

05/05/2013

* Protest in China at chemical plant plans for Kunming

BBC: “Hundreds of people have rallied in the Chinese city of Kunming to protest at plans for a factory producing a toxic chemical for the textile industry.

A child holds up protest posters in Kunming, China, 4 May

Some demonstrators wore symbolic masks and brandished posters warning against the dangers of a paraxylene (PX) spill.

“We want to survive, we want health, get PX out of Kunming”, a banner read.

Two years ago, protests against a PX factory in the city of Dalian forced the city government to close the plant, though it reportedly re-opened later.

Saturday’s protest in Kunming, in the south-west of the country, attracted at least 200 people, according to state media.

Chinese bloggers, however, put the number at up to 2,000.

The China National Petroleum Corporation plans to build a chemical plant in the nearby town of Anning to produce 500,000 tonnes of PX annually.

PX is is used to create raw materials for the production of polyester film and fabrics.

Correspondents say urban Chinese are becoming increasingly confident about protesting at potential threats to their environment.”

via BBC News – Protest in China at chemical plant plans for Kunming.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Manufacturing, Politics, Pollution, public protest | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Chemical plant, China, China National Petroleum Corporation, environment, Kunming, politics

03/03/2013

* China village Shangpu defies officials to demand democracy

SCMP: “Villagers in southern China were locked in a standoff with authorities on Sunday and were demanding democratic polls after a violent clash with thugs linked to a local official over a land transfer.

Just over a week ago, residents of Shangpu in Guangdong province fought with scores of attackers whom they claimed were sent by the village Communist Party chief and a business tycoon after they protested against a land deal.

Now police are blockading the settlement to outsiders while residents refuse to let officials inside, days before the annual meeting of the country’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC).

The situation recalls a similar episode in Wukan, also in Guangdong and around 100 kilometres from Shangpu, which made headlines worldwide 15 months ago.

At the main entrance of the village of 3,000 people, 40 police and officials stood guard, barring outside vehicles from entering. Not far away, a cloth banner read: “Strongly request legal, democratic elections.”

Shangpu’s two-storey houses, typical of the region, and low-slung family-run workshops are surrounded by fields awaiting spring planting. But the main street is lined with the wrecks of cars damaged in the clash, with glass and metal littering the ground.”

via China village Shangpu defies officials to demand democracy | South China Morning Post.

Wukan Villagers’ Land Not Returned One Year On (theepochtimes.com)

Posted in China alert, Democracy, Human rights, Illegal practices, land transfer, Politics, public protest | Leave a Comment »

Tags: communist party chief

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

Categories

Blogs I Follow

Archive for ‘public protest’

China summons Japanese ambassador over shrine visit

China cancels $6 billion uranium project after protest

* Henan residents on rampage over Honda driver’s sense of entitlement

* China’s protesters: winning battles?

* Detention of petitioners denounced

* Protest in China at chemical plant plans for Kunming

* China village Shangpu defies officials to demand democracy

Tags

Creative Commons

Archives

Meta

Blog Stats

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

Categories

Blogs I Follow

Archive for ‘public protest’

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Tags

Creative Commons

Archives

Meta

Blog Stats