Eva Cheng
In the last two years, protests in China have been on the rise and they have become increasingly violent. From 8700 in 1993, the number of "mass incidents" jumped to 32,000 in 1999, 50,000 in 2002, 58,000 in 2003 and 74,000 last year.
The Ministry of Public Security, which released the figures, also revealed that the number of participants grew from 730,000 in 1994 to 3 million in 2003 and 3.76 million in 2004.
The 10,000-strong riot on June 26 in Chizhou, Anhui province, was the latest in a long line of similar incidents in recent years, whereby mass social revolt was triggered by what appeared to be a minor clash between individuals. A critical common characteristic, however, is that these tend to be clashes between a rich and powerful figure and a member of the battling majority. The events were also fuelled when the dominant side was aided — sometimes subtly — by the authorities.
On June 26, 22-year-old Liu Liang was thrown off his bicycle when a sedan collided with it in a street-side market. Argument ensued, and the sedan owner's two bodyguards decided to settle the battle by giving Liu a bashing, leaving him bleeding.
The police came, but their VIP treatment of the smirking aggressors caused the gathering crowd to fume. The crowd quickly swelled to some 10,000 people, who then tipped over the sedan and set it ablaze. Despite rising car ownership in China, it remains a powerful indicator of wealth.
Supermarket owner Zhou Qingrao, also head of Chizhou's business chamber, was seen delivering drinks to the police handling the case, triggering the crowd to ransack his shops.
On October 18 last year, 30,000-40,000 people rioted, burned police vehicles and set the city hall alight in Wanzhou district in Chongqing municipality after a roadside brush between a porter and a couple. Public anger soared when the husband, a proclaimed government official, bashed the porter up and threatened publicly to take his life.
In mid-December, up to 50,000 workers of rural origin rioted in Guangdong province when police bashed a 15-year-old rural youth to death after accusing him of stealing a bicycle.
When reporting the October 2004 Wanzhou upheaval, the December 24 New York Times characterised it as "one of nearly a dozen such incidents in the past three months". Many similar incidents have happened since.
Reporting on the June Chizhou riot, the August 1 Washington Post interviewed a participant who pointed out a critical trigger of mass anger: "They are rich people, and they always bully us poor people."
Yet these mass reactions reflected more than a raw sense of justice.
Even though income disparity has been on the rise since Beijing embarked on its pro-capitalist "reforms" in the early 1990s, the officially promoted illusion that wealth will eventually trickle down had helped cap discontent. Since 1996-97, however, many more people were pushed to the brink when privatisation escalated. Working conditions were eroded, pensions and wages went unpaid and more decent jobs were replaced by degrading Dickensian scraping around for survival.
Many were coming to the conclusion that the communist officials were increasingly geared to serve first and foremost the fledgling capitalist class and, to a large extent, had become an integral part of it, as communist cadres became capitalists while remaining well connected to the state apparatus.
Even though socialist values have worn very thin in China today, the legacy of the 1949 revolution and the subsequent socialist education of an earlier period seems to have inoculated the average Chinese citizen against readily accepting an unrestrained rampage of the rich and powerful.
The people's declining trust in the state — though still proclaimed a "people's government" — is also expressed in the resistance to land acquisitions. All such acquisitions are done in the name of public good, but the displaced communities
can't help noticing they have their lives devastated while others — some capitalists and their backers in the state apparatus — have lined their own pockets. One of the latest examples of such revolt took place on July 21 in Inner Mongolia, involving 2000 disgruntled farmers. Dozens were injured.
A similar situation has resulted from the ostensibly environmental friendly projects, like hydro-electric schemes. The affected population has often had their lives and living environment bulldozed while being short-changed on compensation, driving them into collective action.
The November 2004 riot in the Hanyuan county of Sichuan province is a typical example. Some 100,000 people had to be relocated to make way for the Pubugou hydroelectric power station on Dadu River, but compensation was grossly inadequate to rebuild their lives. After months of petitions yielding nothing, up to 60,000 farmers and students rose up to stop the project, clashing with 10,000 armed police, resulting in at least one death.
In June 2005, six people in the Shengyou village, Hebei province, were killed and many injured when farmers protesting against inadequate compensation for forcibly taken land were met with violent attacks.
A rising number of revolts involved communities seeking to defend their living environment. The residents of Wangkantou village near Dongyang city of Zhejiang province have put up with years of devastation from a nearby "industrial park" that housed 13 mainly chemical and pesticide factories. The residents persistently protested against it, even to Beijing, but this was in vain. Chemical waste was poured untreated into a nearby river and harmful emissions were released unchecked. Crops failed and there have been a rising number of stillborn babies and birth defects.
Residents blockaded the park but the authorities repeatedly destroyed their blockade tents. An early morning raid on April 10 by 3000 police and the rumour that two elderly blockaders were killed became the last straw, triggering 20,000-30,000 villagers to revolt. They pulled down a stone wall in order to get to the retreating police, reportedly smashing more than 60 government vehicles, leaving 140 people injured.
One-hundred-and-thirty kilometres away in Xinchang, also in Zheijing province, 15,000 people waged a battle with the authorities on July 7 after their campaign to pressure the relocation of a pharmaceutical plant that had polluted their water supply was roughly received, with their representatives being beaten. Tensions escalated after a fatal explosion in the plant. Protesters smashed the plant's property in a subsequent battle.
Up until two years ago, protests in China were peaceful. Many subsequent revolts seem linked to the protesters having had their grievances or demands long ignored. For industrial polluters and property developers alike, profits loom much larger than public wellbeing, a position consistently shared by their government backers.
In response to the rising revolts, Beijing embarked on a "harmonious society" campaign at the end of last year. It clearly failed. On July 28 this year, Beijing's mouthpiece the People's Daily issued a front-page warning that was also broadcast on TV: "Unity and stability are the overarching themes for the country and the people's wishes ... resolving any [problems that cause social unrest] must be done in line with the laws ... Any illegal [protest] activities are not to be allowed and will be punished in accordance with laws."
From Green Left Weekly, August 24, 2005.
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