Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – In Shabi, Bobai County (Guangxi), police yesterday arrested 12 people accused of having organised May protests against the one child policy. Now thousands of demonstrators live in fear of being arrested. Yet even the State news agency Xinhua has raised its voice in criticism of the public authority’s use of violence.
On the night of June 3rd the police surrounded the small town of Shabi, taking photographic and video evidence. At dawn they then raided the homes of 12 people accused of “having instigated, organised and participated in public protests”.
The one child policy consents one child per couple (in rural areas two, if the first is female). In recent months local authorities have imposed heavy fines on families who had violated the one-child policy and police had requisitioned the homes of those unable to pay. Local sources also speak of forced abortions. In May numerous towns across Bobai and Rongxian thousands of people took to the streets damaging public offices and setting cars on fire. At the time 28 arrests were made, but no further action was taken against the local population. Now people live in fear of police vindication, to prohibit any future protests and blocking investigations into abuse. Many speak of fleeing. The situation is calm but tense and risks exploding into renewed protest.
This rigid crackdown on births has even been criticised by the state news agency Xinhua and by the weekly review Outlook Weekly, which it publishes Xinhua, who have invited the local authorities to resolve the dispute through dialogue rather than force. It said Guangdong authorities had learned from the experience of a bloody riot in Dongzhou in 2005, when police and troops fired on residents who were protesting against the building of a power project. The number of protests and riots in the province had since fallen by 37 per cent, according to official statistics.
Yet Beijing refuses to renounce violence, even if it uses it with greater caution: He Guifu , a department head in the Guangdong Public Security Bureau, said police were being taught to "think twice" when using force or detaining people.
