The above is from: Thousands riot in China
some more from that article:
The Hunan official said the riot had been quelled and that scores of the rioters were arrested. The government was tracking down the organisers, she said.
Both police and rioters had been injured in the violence, and some of the rioters were sent to hospital, but none was seriously hurt, the official added.
A widening gap between rich and poor, corruption and official abuses of power have fuelled a growing number of demonstrations and riots around China, often sparked by seemingly minor issues.
This riot was triggered by corruption according to Boxun News
Started on March 9th, thousands of farmers in YongZhou, Hunan Province protested the price-raise of bus ticket. Boxun reporter Zhang Zilin said the price was raised to 14 from 6 RMB.
"Mass incidents" can include: Riots, protests, petitions and demonstrations.
Some more examples of Chinese citizens going to the street to protest against their corrupt government and the corrupt businesses that support that government.
from Jan 18, 2007: Thousands Riot, Burn Sichuan Hotel After Girl's Death
southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, setting fire to the building in protest at the death and alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl who worked there. Mobile phone footage taken outside the hotel in Dazhu township showed confused and raucous crowds in darkness in front of a burning building as crowds gathered outside. Witnesses said the crowd reached 20,000 at its peak late Wednesday.
some good news, though, the police did arrest the man that suspected rapist.
From nov 27, 2006: A riot in China over deteriorating public health care
Two thousand people mobbed and ransacked a hospital in the southwestern Chinese city of Guangan, in Sichuan province, on November 10 after it allegedly refused to treat a 3-year-old child before payment. The riot is another indication of widespread and growing frustration over worsening social conditions, in this case the result of Beijing’s "user-pays" medical reforms.
Details about the child and the communities reaction.
The hospital staff, however, did not treat the boy because his grandfather had only 123 yuan (about $US15), instead of the full fee of 639 yuan. Doctors asked him to go back home to raise more money, but the child died before the grandfather returned.
The family has demanded compensation but the public hospital agreed to pay only 500 yuan. When relatives tried to take their grievance to the municipal government, security guards beat them. A group of local students helped the family stage a protest, which rapidly attracted others angered by shoddy hospital practices and prohibitively expensive healthcare services.
The angry crowd smashed windows and equipment at the public hospital. Around 100 armed police were called in to break up the demonstration—10 people were injured, five were arrested and three police vans were burned.
The government reaction:
Both the municipal and national governments cleared the hospital of any responsibility. China’s state-run media claimed the hospital had provided emergency treatment to the young boy. An investigation by medical specialists associated with Sichuan University found the hospital had immediately pumped the boy’s stomach and put him on a drip, but he had died because he drank too much pesticide.
some stats from that article about China's health care system. 80% of China's public medical funding is used by .007% of the population of China. 90% of rural China has no insurance. 60% of the city population of China have no insurance.
Something to think about when you're comparing China to the US.
From: nov 9, 2006Thousands of Chinese villagers Riot Over China Land Seizure
Up to 10,000 blockaded the warehouse entrance in the village of Sanzhou, trapping 300 assembled dignitaries, including Guangdong officials and Hong Kong and foreign businessmen inside, the newspaper said.
Around 1,000 police and riot police arrived to defuse the standoff, but the villagers stood their ground, refusing to leave unless the corrupt officials were investigated, the paper said.
It was only when police began firing tear gas the following morning that the crowds dispersed, according to witnesses quoted by the paper.
Somebody sold 9,000 acres of nearby land. Some, probably most, illegally.
In that article China's spokesman admits to:
In January, China’s Ministry of Public Security said there had been 87,000 "public order disturbances, obstructions of justice, gathering of mobs and stirring up of trouble" last year, a 6.6 per cent increase from 2004.
from jun 21, 2006: Campus riot in China reflects fears on jobs
Students at Shengda, a privately run college with 13,000 students outside Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, say they were assured upon admission, and repeatedly thereafter, that they would get graduation certificates that appear identical to those issued by Zhengzhou University, the top university in Henan. Most Shengda students did not perform nearly well enough on college entrance exams to enroll at Zhengzhou University itself. So Shengda's promise persuaded students and their families to pay unusually steep tuition fees to gain an edge in the job market.
What many of them said they did not know is that the college had to begin using its own name on diplomas under a national regulation phased in beginning in 2003.
When this year's graduating seniors picked up their diplomas Friday and saw the revised language, the reaction was instantaneous - and incendiary. "We bought a Mercedes- Benz and they delivered a Santana," said one angry graduate, Wang Guangying, referring to a low- priced Volkswagen model made in China. "By that night, school officials had totally lost control."
From nov 22, 2004 an article from The Christian Science Monitor In China, stresses spill over into riots gives the stats for "local disturbances" as 58,000 during 2003.
Hmmm... I wonder about the 23,000 figure from 2006. I wonder how many China isn't counting.
Hmmm... I wonder which citizens are more pro-active against government corruption? China's citizens or the US citizens? (yes, I admit the daily circumstances in China are worse than in the US, so I'm comparing apples to oranges at best, but...)
thank you for reading
jeff
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