China Reform Monitor: No. 903

[Editor’s Note: Over the last three weeks explosions at police stations, attacks on government buildings and large-scale clashes with security forces have occurred in more than half a dozen provinces including Henan, Hunan, Hubei, Guangzhou, Jiangxi, Tianjin, and Inner Mongolia. Last year China spent more on domestic security than it did on national defense, yet so-called mass incidents, which include all protests, riots and strikes, keep growing. Last year there were 180,000, according to Sun Liping, a professor at Tsinghua University. These bombings and worker riots reflect the scale and the complexity of the social problems China faces as well as the Chinese people’s Newtonian response to authorities’ recently expanding crackdown on dissent (see CRM No. 888).]

June 8:

Several hundred Sichuanese migrant workers have knocked down the gate of the government building in Chaozhou, Guangdong after one of their comrades was brutally attacked after demanding back wages from his boss at a local ceramics factory. The escalating violence, which highlighted conflict between the migrant workers and locals, left vehicles burnt, dozens injured, and at least nine under arrest. In response, an official from Deyang, Sichuan, where many of the migrants hail from, has called for an open and thorough investigation into the violence. “We are doing what we can to protect the rights of migrant workers from Sichuan,” he said in comments carried by the official China Daily.

June 10:

In Huangshi, Hunan a massive explosion killed one police officer, razed a four-story police station, and damaged surrounding government offices, homes and shops. Officials said the blast was caused when explosives confiscated during a crackdown on illegal firearms and bomb-making materials detonated in the police station, the Associated Press reports, but speculation is rife that it was a deliberate attack on police.

An explosion at the Public Security Bureau in Zhengzhou, Henan took place before dawn on June 9, the official Shanghai Daily reports. Authorities claimed the blast happened spontaneously from nitrophosphate fertilizer being stored in the stairwell at high temperatures. A Security Bureau official rejected widespread rumors that the explosion was an attack. “It's impossible for strangers to enter the building because we have guards and a security system,” he said. “Besides, when the explosion occurred no one was in the building.”

June 11:

The official China Daily reports that an explosion at a government building in Tianjin has injured two people. Liu Changhai, a Tianjin resident, has been detained for having planned and detonated the explosion as “revenge against society” and Tianjin city officials. (See video and Chinese account of the explosion available at Wenxue City)

June 13:

At least five officials from Lichuan, Hubei were detained following the June 4 death in police custody of Ran Jianxin, a former head of the city’s anti-corruption bureau who was being questioned over accusations of bribery. Photographs of Ran’s beaten body circulated on the Internet and his family claimed he had been arrested after accusing senior officials of corruption over a land deal. Ran’s death sparked violent protests on June 9 with people throwing bottles, eggs and other projectiles as they clashed with police who eventually put them down using armored cars, Bloomberg reported, citing local witnesses.

June 14:

Thousands of migrant workers in Xintang, Guangdong went on a rampage, sacking the local government offices and burning police vehicles before 7,500 military personnel from Guangdong Military Base entered the city to put them down, Apple Daily reports. From late June 12 to early June 13, tens of thousands of Xintang’s roughly 800,000 Sichuanese residents took to the streets to vent anger over abuse and extortion by local police. After an overnight meeting, the central government ordered the local government to suppress the protesters, according to the Oriental Daily. To disperse them, New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV) reports that security used tear gas, batons and warning shots. Local police claimed that 150 people were arrested, but Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that thousands have been detained. The riots were triggered on June 10 after word spread that security officers trying to prevent a pregnant migrant worker from selling jeans on the street without a permit, kicked her to the ground. NTDTV reported in 2009 that local security officers regularly extort the 20 million migrant workers in Guangdong Province in the name of checking for residency permits.