The three day riot in Guangzhou, China appears to have ended with a deadly military crackdown. At the end, 5 people were killed, over 100 were injured, and hundreds were arrested. Dozens of police cars and 2 police buses were burnt, some of the government buildings were set on fire, and many shops were ransacked. The riot lasted 3 days and was said to have involved over 100,000 people at its peak. Soldiers were shipped in with APC's to put down the riot.
There are also other riots in China recently. The Chinese government may be sitting on a live volcano waiting to erupt.
I'm writing from Beijing right now. The internet is severely censored and I have no access to flickr, youtube, facebook, or twitter. Usual techniques for getting around the GFW such as tor or freegate have mostly stopped working. So the information I can gather is rather sketchy.
Here is the BBC report at the beginning of the riot. Reuters had one picture. Guardian had a much more complete report.
A chronological account of the events is given in this Chinese blog (which may be removed at any moment since it is inside China).
Here is a brief outline of what happened:
June 10
IN the evening a woman who was 8 months pregnant was selling clothes on the street. The Chengguan (people who are in charge of street order) came to collect fees but the woman did not have enough money to pay. They then started to beat the woman. They pushed her to the ground and kicked her in the stomach. What really happened is not clear now. At the time the rumor was that the baby was killed. There was also a rumor that her husband or her father was also killed. A third rumor was that a 16 year old boy who tried to stop the beating was killed. All of the rumors have been denied by the government, and a man who claims to be the husband of the woman who was beaten had come out during a press conference to declare that his wife and baby are both fine and taken good care of by the government.
Whatever happened at that moment, a crowd gathered in reaction and started to attack the local office of the Chengguan. They beat up a few officers who were there and smashed the office.
June 11
A crowd of several thousands gathered and blocked the state highway 107. Chengguan were said to have used dynamite in their effort to disperse the crowd, and someone lost his legs from the explosion. The crowd then surrounded the local police station and demanded that they hand over the perpetrators. When that didn't happen, the crowd set fire to the police station and the local government office.
June 12
A call went out on the internet for migrant workers from Sichuan to come to Guangzhou to help their fellow Sichuanese (the woman who was beaten was from Sichuan). The riot spreaded.
June 13
More than 2000 soldiers from the PLA were shipped in by armored personel carriers and military trucks. Martial law declared in Xintang town, and police fired tear gas. There were reports of gun shots being heard.
Certain leader of Guangzhou city went to the hospital and visited the woman. A press conference was called and her husband was reported to say that the woman and her baby were fine. The central government has banned all report of the incident in the Chinese media.
Here is an analysis of the event on the Propagandist.
And here is a longer Reuters report that I missed earlier.