Shanghai (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Riots broke out in Zengcheng, central Guangdong, where only heavy police presence stopped thousands of demonstrators, mostly migrant workers from Sichuan, from attacking public facilities and residents’ cars. Meanwhile, in Lichuan, Hubei, at least five officials have arrested or suspended in connection with the death of Ran Jianxin.
At around 9 pm last night, more than a thousand migrant workers marched along the main road in Xintang town. Police stopped then from reaching Phoenix City, an upmarket residential complex.
Online postings reported seeing demonstrators smashing cars and public facilities as they advanced. Armed police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas but the demonstrators were quick to regroup and continue the violence.
The rioting started late on Friday after a 20-year-old pregnant woman, Wang Lianmei, from Sichuan was allegedly manhandled by security staff in front of a supermarket in Dadun village, Xintang. The security guards, hired by the local government, were said to have tried to stop the woman peddling goods.
The incident led to a protest by Sichuan migrants, tens of thousands of whom work in Xintang and Guangzhou. Many of them took to the streets in their hundreds, perhaps thousands, attacking police vehicles and public buildings. On Saturday, they also attacked parked cars, setting some on fire, and smashed store windows.
On Sunday, massive police presence did not prevent demonstrations. Residents shut down their stores and got away. At least 25 people were arrested.
Significantly, migrant protest was not only directed at the authorities and the police, but also at local residents, especially in upmarket neighbourhoods, indicating the level of frustrations migrants feel since they are not allowed to take up residence in the city where they work, and have been denied basic rights (education, health care, housing) for decades amid the indifference of local residents.
In the meantime, a tense calm prevails in Lichuan (Hubei), following days of protest for the death of Ran, a local government official who had tried to protect people from expropriations.
Ran died under suspicious circumstances whilst in police custody after he was arrested on corruption charges. Photos of his dead body have been posted online, showing signs of torture. Ran’s family is convinced that he was punished for accusing one of his bosses of corruption over land seizure.
“People are getting frustrated” at the “systemic exploitation of the have-nots, people at the bottom of the barrel,” said Willy Wo-lap Lam, an adjunct professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. However, the “formidable state control mechanism is still viable. I don’t think the regime is susceptible to being overcome by a Chinese-style Jasmine revolution,” he said.
Still, last year China spent more on domestic security than it did on national defence, Finance Ministry data indicate. The increase in police spending comes as mass incidents, which include protests, riots and strikes, topped 180,000 last year, this according to Sun Liping, a professor of sociology at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.
Protests are often caused by economic grievances like low compensation for land expropriations. Angered by corrupt officials, beaten by police, without any channel to exercise their rights, people take to the streets or carry out sensational acts of violence. For example, a man called Qian Mingqi died in one of the three blasts he triggered in protest over unfair compensation he had been offered in a resettlement scheme.
