China sentences activist to 10 years over writings

By GILLIAN WONG | Associated Press – Jan. 18, 2012

BEIJING — A court has sentenced a democracy activist in central China
to 10 years' imprisonment for subversion, a family member said Thursday.
It's the third lengthy jail term handed down to a dissident in less than a
month.

Li Tie was sentenced by a court in Wuhan city to 10 years in jail on
Wednesday after being convicted of subversion based on articles that he
had written, said the relative, who did not want to be named due to fear
of official retaliation.

Li said in court he is innocent because the Chinese constitution protects
citizens' freedom of expression, the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights
Defenders group said in a statement. The group said Li was arrested in
September 2010 and his trial was held in April.

Wang Songlian, a researcher with the group, said Li's case is similar to
those of Chen Wei and Chen Xi, rights activists who were separately
sentenced late last month to nine and 10 years in prison, respectively,
for posting essays on the Internet that the government deemed subversive.

"They are all activists with a long track record of promoting democracy in
China, who have refused to bend despite severe persecution," Wang said.
"Their sentences are the Chinese government's response to the Arab Spring:
Freedom and democracy are dirty words, and anyone advocating for them will
be punished harshly."

Communist leaders launched a sweeping effort to crush dissent early last
year in response to anonymous online calls urging Chinese to imitate
protests that toppled governments in North Africa and the Middle East.

In Wednesday's case, the Wuhan Intermediate Court refused to allow Li to
be represented by an attorney of his choice and instead appointed a lawyer
to defend him, the relative said.

"From the beginning to the end, it has been all nonsense," said the family
member. "The question of subverting state power does not exist."

Li will appeal the sentence if the family is able to hire a lawyer, the
relative said.

A man at the Wuhan court office who answered the phone hung up as soon as
he heard the caller was from The Associated Press. Subsequent calls rang
unanswered.

According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, prosecutors said that because
Li wrote articles critical of the government and participated in
discussions on "reactionary" websites, it should be presumed that he would
engage in anti-government actions.


Chinese dissident to stand trial for poem

By Sui-Lee Wee | Reuters – Tue, Jan 17, 2012

BEIJING - Chinese authorities have indicted veteran dissident
Zhu Yufu on subversion charges for writing a poem urging people to gather
to defend their freedoms, his lawyer said on Tuesday, the latest activist
faced with such charges in a tightening clampdown.

The Foreign Ministry, however, stoutly defended China's human rights
record, rejecting an assessment by U.S. ambassador Gary Locke that the
human rights situation was deteriorating.

"Such statements are not true," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin
told a regular briefing. "The Chinese side attaches great importance to
promoting and protecting the fundamental rights and interests of people of
all ethnic groups, including the freedom of expression and of religion."

Locke made the statements at an interview with U.S. talk show host Charlie
Rose on Monday.

"As for some people who have dealt with the law, it's not because their
freedom of expression and freedom of religion have been suppressed," Liu
said. "It's because they have violated Chinese laws and regulations and so
should be punished by the law. It has nothing to do with so-called human
rights."

Zhu, 60, from the eastern city of Hangzhou, was arrested last April for
"inciting subversion of state power," a charge often used against critics
of the ruling Communist Party. No trial date has been set, the lawyer, Li
Dunyong, said by telephone.

"The main reason for the indictment was a poem he had written calling for
people to gather. He had written the poem around the same time there was
chaos (in the Middle East)," Li said. "He believes in the freedom of
expression."

Li collected the indictment on Monday from a Hangzhou court and met Zhu.
He described him as being "in a good condition."

Calls to the Hangzhou Intermediate Court were unanswered.

The authorities disclosed the decision to prosecute Zhu nearly a year
after he wrote the poem, entitled "It's time."

A verse reads: "It's time, Chinese people!/ The square belongs to
everyone/the feet are yours/it's time to use your feet and take to the
square to make a choice." Zhu's lawyer said the poem had been published on
the Internet.

But Li said that Zhu had nothing to do with online calls for "Jasmine
Revolution" rallies inspired by Middle East uprisings.

Police rounded up dozens of dissidents in response to the calls. The
attempted rallies were tiny, with participants quickly outnumbered by
hundreds of police and security guards.

Li said he would defend Zhu on the basis of freedom of expression, but
believed prospects for victory looked bleak.

"You can't be optimistic about anything in China," he said. "In this
country, he'll be punished harshly."

The Communist Party is preparing for a leadership handover late this year,
when its determination to fend off political challenges to its rule is
likely to intensify.

CLAMPDOWN

Chinese courts meted out lengthy sentences to two other dissidents in
December on subversion charges.

Like both dissidents, Zhu has been jailed twice before for pro-democracy
activism -- in 1999 for seven years and in 2007 for two years, according
to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

Activist artist Ai Weiwei, whose 81-day detention last year sparked an
international outcry, said he was interrogated for five hours on Sunday
for throwing stones at and making a rude gesture to surveillance cameras
outside his home.

Police told Ai that he had to be questioned because he was suspected of
"damaging public property," Ai said by telephone.

Ai said the stones did not hit the 10 cameras outside his house and he did
not think he would face charges.

"They said to me: 'This is a warning because you have to behave'," Ai
said. "I said: 'I'll behave. I take your warning seriously. But I'm human,
I have to show my attitude. It's just a gesture. You're so powerful, how
can I destroy you?'"

A third dissident, Hu Jia, said he was taken in for questioning on
Tuesday, as has happened several times since police raided his home and
took two computers.

Hu said police investigators asked about his motives for urging citizens
to seek the freedom of detained rights advocates Chen Guangcheng and Gao
Zhisheng.

"I think they were exploring my views to see what I'm planning to do this
year," he said. "They told my wife I could be regularly questioned. I
think it's a kind of pressure to ensure my silence."

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills and Ron Popeski)

Inside Wukan: the Chinese village that fought back -- Village of 20,000 in Open Revolt

Dec. 15, 2011 The Telegraph

The local government brought the village's simmering anger to a boil by
admitting that Xue Jinbo, a 43-year-old butcher who had represented the
villagers in their negotiations with the government, had died in police
custody of 'cardiac failure'

For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all
control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village
now in open revolt.

The last of Wukan’s dozen party officials fled on Monday after thousands
of people blocked armed police from retaking the village, standing firm
against tear gas and water cannons.

Since then, the police have retreated to a roadblock, some three miles
away, in order to prevent food and water from entering, and villagers from
leaving. Wukan’s fishing fleet, its main source of income, has also been
stopped from leaving harbour.

The plan appears to be to lay siege to Wukan and choke a rebellion which
began three months ago when an angry mob, incensed at having the village’s
land sold off, rampaged through the streets and overturned cars.

Although China suffers an estimated 180,000 “mass incidents” a year, it is
unheard of for the Party to sound a retreat.

But on Tuesday The Daily Telegraph managed to gain access through a tight
security cordon and witnessed the new reality in this coastal village.

Thousands of Wukan’s residents, incensed at the death of one of their
leaders in police custody, gathered for a second day in front of a
triple-roofed pagoda that serves as the village hall.

For five hours they sat on long benches, chanting, punching the air in
unison and working themselves into a fury.

At the end of the day, a fifteen minute period of mourning for their
fallen villager saw the crowd convulsed in sobs and wailing for revenge
against the local government.

“Return the body! Return our brother! Return our farmland! Wukan has been
wronged! Blood debt must be paid! Where is justice?” the crowd screamed
out.

Wukan’s troubles began in September, when the villagers’ collective
patience snapped at an attempt to take away their land and sell it to
property developers.

“Almost all of our land has been taken away from us since the 1990s but we
were relaxed about it before because we made our money from fishing,” said
Yang Semao, one of the village elders. “Now, with inflation rising, we
realise we should grow more food and that the land has a high value.”

Thousands of villagers stormed the local government offices, chasing out
the party secretary who had governed Wukan for three decades. In response,
riot police flooded the village, beating men, women and children
indiscriminately, according to the villagers.

In the aftermath, the local government tried to soothe the bruised
villagers, asking them to appoint 13 of their own to mediate between the
two sides – a move which was praised. But after anger bubbled over again
local officials hatched another plan to bring the rebellious village back
under control. Last Friday, at 11.45 in the morning, four minibuses
without license plates drove into Wukan and a team of men in plain clothes
seized five of the village’s 13 representatives from a roadside
restaurant.

A second attack came at 4am on Sunday morning, when a thousand armed
police approached the entrance to the village.

“We had a team of 20 people watching out, and they saw the police
searchlights. We had blocked the road with fallen trees to buy us time,”
said Chen Xidong, a 23 year old. “They banged the warning drum and the
entire village ran to block the police.”

After a tense two-hour standoff, during which the villagers were hit with
tear gas and water cannons, the police retreated, instead setting up the
ring of steel around Wukan that is in force today. The village’s only
source of food, at present, are the baskets of rice, fruit and vegetables
carried across the fields on the shoulder poles of friendly neighbours.

Then, on Monday, came the news that Xue Jinbo, one of the snatched
representatives, had died in police custody, at the age of 43, from a
heart attack. His family believe he was murdered.

“There were cuts and bruises on the corners of his mouth and on his
forehead, and both his nostrils were full of blood,” said Xue Jianwan, his
21-year-old daughter. “His chest was grazed and his thumbs looked like
they had been broken backwards. Both his knees were black,” she added.
“They refused to release the body to us.”

Mr Xue’s death has galvanised his supporters and brought the explosive
situation in the village to the brink. “We are not sleeping. A hundred men
are keeping watch. We do not know what the government’s next move will be,
but we know we cannot trust them ever again,” said Mr Chen. “I think they
will try to prolong the situation, to sweat us out.”

From behind the roadblock, a propaganda war has broken out. Banners slung
by the side of the main road to Wukan urge drivers to “Safeguard stability
against anarchy – Support the government!” Nearby, someone has scrawled,
simply: “Give us back our land.”

The news of Wukan’s loss has been censored inside China. But a blue
screen, which interrupts television programmes every few minutes inside
the village, insists that the “incidents” are the work of a seditious
minority, and have now been calmed. “It is all lies,” said Ms Xue.

Her brother, meanwhile, said life had improved since the first officials
were driven out three months ago. “We found we were better at
administration. The old officials turned out not to have had any accounts
in their office, so they must have been swindling us. And we have a
nightwatch now, to keep the village safe. We have all bonded together,”
said Xue Jiandi, 19.

With enough food to keep going in the short-term and a pharmacy to tend to
the sick, the leaders of Wukan are confident about their situation.

But it is difficult to imagine that it will be long before the Communist
Party returns, and there are still four villagers in police custody.

“I have just been to see my 25-year-old son,” Shen Shaorong, the mother of
Zhang Jianding, one of the four, said as she cried on her knees. “He has
been beaten to a pulp and his clothes were ripped. Please tell the
government in Beijing to help us before they kill us all."

The corporate propagandist and author of the above article, Malcolom
Moore, writes publicly on his Google+ about his personal experience in
Wukan:

We got lucky getting into Wukan. The first stroke of luck was renting a
car in Shenzhen with blacked-out windows so no one could see me inside.
The second stroke of luck was that, as we approached the police roadblock
some three miles outside the village, we fell in behind a car with
government plates.

The police, their machine guns hanging at their waists, waved us through.
Our photographer, travelling a few hours behind us in a taxi, was not so
lucky. He was stopped and escorted the three hours back to Shenzhen.

After we passed through the police roadblock we came to a second barrier,
of trees piled across the road. Around a dozen young men were mulling
around, and we were not sure, from a distance, whether they might be plain
clothes policemen. We parked about a hundred feet from them, took a deep
breath, and stepped out of the car to have a chat.

As we got closer though, it was clear they were villagers. They told us
they had erected their own barrier in case the government tried to sneak
into the village at night. Three of them heaved aside some trees at the
side and let us through.

In any other country it would be hard to describe Wukan (pop 20,000) as a
village. It is a sprawling, built-up mass of three storey houses, with
schools and government buildings lining the main street.

Inside there are now no police, or government officials. It is the first
time I've been anywhere without police in the almost four years I've been
in China and it didn't just feel liberating to me - the villagers are
exuberant. There's a constant buzz of excitement in the air, as young men
run around, using walkie talkies to organise the resistance. Unlike many
villages in the countryside, Wukan is also full of children, who seem to
be enjoying the upheaval and sudden distraction of their parents.

Of course, it cannot last. When I asked how long they expected to hold out
for, and what would happen next, eyes dropped to the ground and the
standard Chinese response of "it's not clear", came back.

But the government will not find it easy to reestablish control. For the
past two days, huge crowds have gather outside the village hall, chanting
together for hours, willing themselves into ever greater displays of
collective emotion.

To my eyes a lot of the wailing and sobbing seemed theatric, but I guess
it must be a filial and social obligation for the mourners to display as
much emotion as they can summon. And there is no doubt it has a strong
unifying effect on the villagers, who feel that they are all in their
predicament together.

It is worth noting that the Shanwei area, where Wukan lies, has some form
when it comes to rebellion. Very poor, and on the coast, smugglers have
operated in Shanwei since Chinese history began. The area is notorious for
being controlled by triads and for its high rate of heroin addiction.

On the motorway, taxis are sometimes hijacked by motorcycle gangs, my
driver said, who is from the neighbouring town of Haifeng. And in the days
before Deng Xiaoping ordered a clean-up, it was said that the smugglers of
Shanwei had a better collection of guns than the army, weapons they have
used in the past to attack the police.

But I've seen little sinister in Wukan since I got here yesterday
afternoon. While the resistance is organised, there is no sign of any
criminal element. Children swarm through the town during the day, and
families retreat to their courtyard homes at night.

Now it is just a question of waiting to see what happens next.

Charlie Custer at Chinese Geek has curated images and accounts of the
Wukan uprising from Chinese social networking site Weibo before they were
censored: The Siege of Wukan
Further context via the bourgeois capitalist blog Shanghiist: Updates from
Wukan, the fishing village staging open rebellion

Video of rally of mourning for Xue Jinbo on Tuesday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeVwnhMkhwc&feature=player_embedded

Farmers in China’s South Riot Over Seizure of Land

By ANDREW JACOBS The New York Times
September 23, 2011

BEIJING — Rioters in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have
besieged government buildings, attacked police officers and overturned
SWAT team vehicles during protests this week against the seizure of
farmland, said officials in Shanwei, a city that skirts the South China
Sea not far from Hong Kong.

Lufeng residents have long engaged in a battle over land.

According to a government Web site, hundreds of people on Wednesday
blocked an important highway while others mobbed the local headquarters of
the Communist Party and a police station in the city of Lufeng, injuring a
dozen officers. Some witnesses, posting anonymous accounts online, put the
number of rioters at more than 1,000.

The protests continued Friday, with farmers gathered in front of a
government building banging gongs and holding aloft signs that said “Give
us back our farmland” and “Let us continue farming,” Reuters reported.

The authorities say the violence escalated Thursday after rumors spread
that the police had killed a girl. At least four people were arrested,
including a man officials accused of instigating the crowd.

The violence was the latest outbreak of civil unrest in China fueled by
popular discontent over industrial pollution, police misconduct or illegal
land grabs that leave peasants with little or no compensation. Such “mass
incidents,” as the government calls them, have been steadily increasing in
recent years, providing party leaders with worrisome proof that official
malfeasance combined with a dysfunctional judiciary often has combustible
results.

Last week, hundreds of residents protesting environmental contamination by
a solar panel factory in Zhejiang Province stormed the factory and
destroyed office equipment and vehicles. Weeks earlier, 12,000 people
peacefully gathered in the city of Dalian to demand the closure of a
chemical factory.

In Lufeng, the protests were just the most dramatic manifestation of a
long-running battle over land that residents say their ancestors reclaimed
from the sea. According to a local Web site, the Lufeng city government
has already sold off more than 800 acres of the property for industrial
parks and high-priced housing. The proffered compensation per acre,
villagers said, has been barely enough to buy a new bed.

“Wake up, my neighbors, if we don’t unite now, the land of our ancestors
will be sold off to the last square meter! If we don’t unite now, our
children will be homeless!” read one posting on the site.

“We will have no where to bury our parents or raise our children!”

Municipal governments, which own all land in China, largely depend on
sales of long-term property leases to fill their operating budgets. In
many cases, private real estate companies collude with officials to clear
and develop the land as quickly as possible.

The latest seized plots were sold to a developer for about $156 million,
according to The South China Morning Post, which first reported the sale
and seizure. According to the company’s Web site, the complex is to be
called “Country Garden” after the name of the developer.

“To shape a prosperous future through our conscience and social
responsibility,” is one of the company’s mottoes.

News of the demonstrations and photos and videos were quickly deleted from
the Web by censors, but a few images persisted Friday. In one,
demonstrators carried a banner that read “Give back my ancestors’
farmland.” A video lingered on overturned police vehicles, including one
with graffiti that read “running dogs,” an insult once directed at
perceived enemies of the people.

The continuing unrest could pose a threat to the political aspirations of
Wang Yang, the provincial party secretary who has partly staked his
reputation on promoting the well-being of Guangdong’s 104 million
residents and by trying to gauge the level of their happiness.

“Happiness for the people is like flowers,” Mr. Wang wrote this year. “The
party and the government shall create the proper environment for the
flowers to grow.”

The province is China’s most populous and a manufacturing powerhouse that
produces roughly one third of the country’s exports.

Mia Li contributed research.

China solar panel factory shut after protests

19 September 2011 BBC

A solar panel factory in eastern China has been shut down after
protests by local residents over pollution fears.

Some 500 villagers staged a three-day protest following the death of
large numbers of fish in a local river.

Some demonstrators broke into the plant in Zhejiang province,
destroying offices and overturning company cars before being dispersed
by riot police.

Tests on water samples showed high levels of fluoride, which can be
toxic in high doses, officials said.

The BBC's Juliana Liu in Shanghai says the Chinese villagers see the
plant's closure as a victory.

They accuse Jinko Solar, a Chinese company making solar panels for
sale overseas, of dumping hazardous chemicals into the water supply,
our correspondent says.

"We feel that it is socially responsible to close the factory first
and to take corrective measures," company spokesman Thomas Jing told
the BBC.

He said there had been accidental discharge into the surrounding area
during a rainstorm at the end of August.

He said chemicals used at the factory had been stored in an open area
rather than a warehouse, and that the covering had been ripped off
during the unexpectedly harsh weather.

Mr Jing said the firm was investigating whether the fluoride was
responsible for the death of the fish. A clean-up was also under way,
he said.
Map

The firm in Haining city is a subsidiary of a New York Exchange-listed
Chinese solar company, JinkoSolar Holding Company.

Meanwhile, local government officials said there would be an overhaul
of the production procedures at the plant involving the emission of
waste gas and waste water.

"[We will] go all out to maintain stability and seriously deal with
those who are suspected of violating laws in the incident in
accordance with the law," Haining's city government said in a statement.

It also reported police had arrested a man for spreading "rumours" on
the internet about cases of leukaemia and other cancers in local
residents.

Chen Hongming, a deputy head of Haining's environmental protection
bureau, was quoted by Chinese media as saying that the factory's waste
disposal had failed pollution tests since April.

The environmental watchdog has warned the factory, but it had not
effectively controlled the pollution, he added.

Government officials have been sent to the area to hear local
residents' grievances, the China Daily reported.

This is the latest example of Chinese citizens being spurred to action
over environmental worries. Last week, Shanghai halted production at
two factories over worries about lead poisoning.

Last month, a chemical factory in the north-eastern city of Dalian was
ordered to move after 12,000 residents took to the streets over
pollution fears.


Chinese Protesters Accuse Solar Panel Plant of Pollution

By SHARON LaFRANIERE The New York Times
September 18, 2011

BEIJING ? In a fresh indication of growing public anger over
pollution, hundreds of demonstrators in the eastern Chinese province
of Zhejiang on Sunday were camped outside a solar panel manufacturing
plant that stands accused of contaminating a nearby river.

The factory in Haining is owned by a Chinese company, JinkoSolar
Holding Company.

The demonstration was the latest move in a four-day protest that has
sometimes turned violent.

The unrest began Thursday, when about 500 residents gathered outside
the plant, in Haining, roughly 80 miles southwest of Shanghai. Some
protesters stormed the five-year-old factory compound, overturning
eight company vehicles, smashing windows and destroying offices. The
next day, four police cars were damaged.

The factory is owned by JinkoSolar Holding Company, a Chinese firm
with more than 10,000 employees that is listed on the New York Stock
Exchange and reported total revenue in the second quarter of 2.3
billion renminbi, or about $360 million. Some investment analysts
described the company last year as a promising upstart in the
solar-energy products business.

?Return our lives to us, stay away from Jinko,? read one protest
banner that was photographed by a news agency. Company officials could
not be reached for comment on the unrest.

According to Chinese news reports, residents claimed runoff from solid
waste laced with fluoride and improperly stored at the plant had been
swept into the nearby river after heavy rainfall on Aug. 26. They said
that a sea of dead fish rose to the surface, covering hundreds of
square yards of water. Pigs whose sties had been washed with river
water also were reported to have died. The state-run China News Agency
reported that government inspectors later found that the water
contained 10 times the acceptable amount of fluoride.

The Haining demonstrations follow a mass demonstration last month in
Dalian, in northeast China, in which 12,000 people protested a new
chemical plant that produces paraxylene, a toxic chemical used to make
polyester products. Government officials promised to relocate the
plant after the protest, one of China?s largest in nearly three years.

Ma Jun, the director of the nonprofit Institute of Public and
Environmental Affairs in Beijing, said in an interview last month that
protests over pollution are on the rise.

?People have a growing awareness of the damage caused by environmental
pollution and a growing sense of rights,? he said. ?There are an
increasing number of cases that can be characterized as ?not in my
backyard.? ?

According to Chinese news reports, the Zhejiang solar-panel plant had
been faulted for improper waste disposal in April, and the government
had ordered the company to suspend production until it constructed a
facility to store solid waste safely.

The factory sits just more than 100 yards from an elementary school,
and about 300 yards from a kindergarten, reported National Business
Daily, a newspaper based in Beijing. A few protesters were reported to
have been arrested on charges of theft or vandalism.

In one sign of the government's growing concern over the potential of
Twitter-like microblogs in China to stir unrest, a 33-year-old
resident was arrested on charges of posting false rumors that 31
people had developed cancer and that six were stricken with leukemia
in the nearby village of Hongxiao, which is close to the plant and has
a population of 3,300.

The authorities said only six villagers had been given a diagnosis of
cancer since the start of last year.

Mia Li contributed research.


China closes solar-panel plant after protests

The solar-panel plant in the Chinese city of Haining was the target of
four days of demonstrations by villagers who said it was causing air
and water pollution. Its operator, JinkoSolar, apologizes.

By Jonathan Kaiman, Los Angeles Times
September 20, 2011

Reporting from Beijing?
Authorities ordered a solar-panel manufacturing plant in eastern China
to close after four days of protests by hundreds of villagers who have
accused the facility of causing air and water pollution, Chinese media
reported Monday.

The decision is an indication of the growing power of environmental
protesters to sway government policy in China. As many as 500
villagers participated in the protests near Haining, an industrial
city of 640,000 in coastal Zhejiang province.

The plant's operator, JinkoSolar, a New York Stock Exchange-listed
company, issued a public apology Monday.

"We cannot shirk responsibility for the legal consequences which have
come from management slips," Jing Zhaohui, a company representative,
said at a news conference. Calls to JinkoSolar Holding Co. went
unanswered.

Since the beginning of the protests, 20 people have been arrested on
charges of destruction of property, robbery and disturbing public
order, the Haining government said in a news release Monday.
Protesters damaged eight company cars and four police cars Friday
after police attempted to forcibly disperse the crowd, according to
the release.

Protesters had demanded an explanation for a large number of dead fish
found last month in a nearby river. Tests by the local environmental
protection bureau found that the plant was emitting high amounts of
fluoride, which can be toxic if it exceeds certain levels. According
to state media, the factory had been failing pollution tests since
April.

"Since they set up their operations here, there has definitely been an
impact on the villagers here.... This pollution is definitely harmful
to us," a local man told Reuters news service. State media also quoted
villagers as complaining of harmful emissions from the factory's dozen
smokestacks.

In addition to the order to halt production lines emitting potentially
harmful waste, the government has fined the plant about $74,000.

Chinese media have shown a surprising degree of boldness in reporting
the incident. Reporters from a Zhejiang television station alleged
that factory security guards attacked their production crew and
destroyed a video camera. In response, the factory issued an on-air
apology to the reporters and promised to fire the security guards, who
it said were temporary employees.

The government has taken a characteristically firm stance on the use
of Twitter-like microblogging services, which it fears as a potential
engine of social unrest. Haining authorities detained one man on
charges of "spreading false information" after he posted to his
microblog that 31 people in Hengxiao, a village of 3,300 near the
plant, have developed cancer within the last three years. City
authorities say the number is exaggerated.

Other protests have prompted the government to take action in recent
years. Last month, an estimated 12,000 people demonstrated outside a
chemical plant in the northeastern coastal city of Dalian, expressing
fears that typhoon weather would lead to dangerous chemical runoff.
The protest led the city government to promise that it would close the
plant.

In 2007, a similar incident in Xiamen, a southern coastal city, led
authorities to relocate a chemical plant.

Scholars estimate that there are as many as 100,000 mass protests in
China every year, many in rural areas. Most go unreported.

Kaiman is an intern in The Times' Beijing bureau.


Massive Riot Outside Shanghai Causes China To Shut Down Solar Plant

Sep. 19, 2011 Business insider

A solar-panel manufacturing plant in the eastern Chinese city of
Haining has been forced to close after hundreds of residents attacked
the facility in a 4-day protest over accusations the factory
contaminated a nearby river, according to the BBC.

The riots began on Thursday and lasted until Sunday, at times turning violent.

About 500 villagers unleashed their anger by overturning eight
vehicles, damaging four police cars, and destroying offices, reports
The New York Times. At least 20 people have been arrested on charges
of destruction of property, robbery and disturbing public order,
according to The Los Angeles Times.

The plant, which is owned by New York Stock Exchange-listed company
JinkoSolar, is accused by demonstrators of dumping toxic levels of
flouride into local waters, killing large numbers of fish and some pigs.

In addition to ordering the plant closed, the city's environmental
protection bureau fined the facility 470,000 yuan ($73,600).

"[We will] go all out to maintain stability and seriously deal with
those who are suspected of violating laws in the incident in
accordance with the law," a city government official said in a
statement.

This isn't the fist time local uprisings over fears of pollution have
spurred Chinese authorities to take action, as the country struggles
to maintain its image as a pioneer in green energy.

Last month, 12,000 demonstrators took to the streets to protest a
chemical plant in Dalian in northeast China, before authorities
promised to relocate the facility.

More recently, The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau ordered
the temporary closure of two factories amid fears of lead poisoning.

?People have a growing awareness of the damage caused by environmental
pollution and a growing sense of rights,? Ma Jun, the director of the
nonprofit Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing,
said in an interview last month, according to The New York Times.

Chinese political prisoners sue tech giant Cisco

Aug. 16, 2011 Global Post

Chinese political prisoners are suing one of the world's largest technology companies, Cisco, for allegedly helping the Chinese Communist Party to monitor, censor and suppress the Chinese people.

Daniel Ward, of U.S. law firm Ward & Ward, has brought the case on behalf of Du Daobin, Zhou Yuanzhi, Liu Xianbin and 10 unnamed other people, claiming that Cisco provided the technology and expertise that the ruling party used to suppress its people.

He compared Cisco's actions to "IBM's behavior in Nazi Germany", Australia's Fairfax Media reports.

Cisco denies the allegations.

"Cisco has, for years now, knowingly aided and abetted the Chinese Communist Party's ongoing efforts to stifle the free speech and discourse of its citizenry," Mr Ward told Fairfax Media journalist Asher Moses.

"Dating back to the early 2000s, Cisco competed for contracts with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to help design, develop and implement the 'Golden Shield Project' - a rather Orwellian euphemism for the Chinese Communist Party's ongoing effort to monitor, track and censor all internet traffic into and out of China," The Sydney Morning Herald website, published by Fairfax, reports.

Du spent three years in jail, Zhou is a prisoner in his own home and Liu has served two months of a 10-year sentence, court documents say.

All three claim to have been tortured and abused over articles they published online.

Cisco helped the CCP build its Golden Shield - also known as the Great Firewall of China - and Policenet systems.

Cisco is accused of training Chinese engineers in how to use its technology to carry out surveillance of online activity and suppress dissident activity, SMH reports.

"With the assistance of Cisco, the CCP is now capable of detecting, identifying and tracking perceived threats to the CCP's power, and blocking 'harmful' websites," the complaint reads.

The case is being funded by the Laogai Research Foundation, whose executive director, Harry Wu, spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps but now lives in America.

"Cisco is a company that would do business with any partner so long as it turns a profit, even at the expense of our people's rights and freedoms," Wu said recently.

SMH reports:

In a leaked internal Cisco presentation from 2002, seen by Fairfax Media, the company reveals how its products can address China's goals of "maintaining stability", "stop the network-related crimes" and "combat 'Falun Gong' evil religion and other hostiles".

The document also has a page discussing "Networked prisons and jails", describing how information about a suspect travels through Cisco's system from the time a suspect is first jailed to when they are released. The system links jails and police departments and Mr Wu argues it "directly aided in tracking down dissidents and keeping them under oppressive surveillance".

"They aren't just selling routers to a corrupt regime. They are selling the technology, training and software specifically designed to monitor, censor and suppress the Chinese people," said Ward.

"And they are doing so knowing full well how the CCP treats dissenters."

Cisco said it did not operate networks in China or elsewhere - it just provided the equipment - and denied it customized its products in any way that would facilitate censorship or repression, it reports.

"There is no basis for these allegations against Cisco, and we intend to vigorously defend against them," the company said in a statement.

Riot in south China after death of fruit vendor

July 27, 2011 Reuters

Angry residents in a southern Chinese city went on the rampage after
officials apparently beat to death a disabled fruit vendor, a state media
said on Wednesday, in the latest incident of social unrest in the world's
second-largest economy.

The China Daily said that thousands of people gathered on the streets of
Anshun in Guizhou province on Tuesday afternoon, throwing stones at police
and overturning a government vehicle.

The riot was sparked after urban management officers -- a quasi-police
force that enforces laws against begging and other petty offences -- were
suspected of beating the vendor to death, the newspaper said.

"The unidentified vendor died in front of the gate of a market ... which
led to the gathering of the local people," it cited a government statement
as saying.

"Before the incident occurred, urban management officers were working in
the area," it added, saying the statement gave no other details.

The newspaper showed a picture of an urban management vehicle which had
been overturned, along with smashed windows and doors that had been torn
off.

Xinhua news agency said around 30 protesters and 10 police officers were
injured in the unrest.

The elder brother of the dead man has "consented to (an)autopsy and asked
police to seek justice", it added. "Police are questioning six city
management staff members involved in the case."

Footage on China's popular Youku.com website, the country's answer to
YouTube, showed a large crowed gathered in the street, and what seemed to
be a body on the ground shaded by umbrellas.

An overturned vehicle could be seen in the distance, along with many
police officers and a black armored car used by China's riot police.

Reuters could not authenticate the footage, nor when it was taken. Calls
to the Anshun government seeking comment went unanswered.

"It was a total mess," one onlooker surnamed Jiang told the China Daily.
"The people threw stones at the police officers and my feet were hit by
flying rocks."

Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper said that the police used water cannons to
disperse the protesters, who finally left the scene late in the evening.

In 2008, crowds stormed police and government headquarters in another part
of Guizhou after allegations spread that police had covered up the rape
and murder of a local teenage girl, seeking to protect the son of a local
official.

China's stability-obsessed rulers get nervous about any sort of protest or
unrest.

Earlier this month, a court in the southern export hub of Guangdong
province jailed 11 people for their roles in riots that hit a city there
in June.

In 2007, China had more than 80,000 "mass incidents", up from more than
60,000 in 2006, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Many
involved no more than dozens protesting against local officials over
complaints about corruption, abuse of power, pollution or poor wages.

No authoritative estimates of the number of protests, riots and mass
petitions since then have been released.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson)

China blames "terrorists" for attack in Xinjiang

By Sabrina Mao and Sui-Lee Wee | Reuters – July 19, 2011

BEIJING (Reuters) - A clash at a police station that left at least four
people dead in western China's restive Xinjiang region was "a terrorist
attack," a government official said on Tuesday, but an exile Uighur group
accused police of firing on peaceful protesters.

Police in the desert city of Hotan "gunned down" several rioters who
attacked a police station, Xinhua said on Tuesday, the worst violence
Xinjiang has experienced in about a year.

But a Germany-based exile group, World Uyghur Congress, disputed the
official account. It said 20 Uighurs were killed -- 14 were beaten to
death and 6 shot dead -- and 70 arrested when police opened fire on a
peaceful protest, leading to fighting between the two sides.

The two accounts could not be independently resolved on Tuesday.

Beijing, wary of instability and the threat to the Communist Party's grip
on power, often blames what it calls violent separatist groups in Xinjiang
for attacks on police or other government targets, saying they work with
al Qaeda or Central Asian militants to bring about an independent state
called East Turkestan.

"It is certain that it was a terrorist attack," Hou Hanmin, chief of the
regional information office, told Reuters by telephone. "But as for which
organization is behind this, we are still investigating. The number of
people killed and casualties will be announced soon."

Many Uighurs -- a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to the region --
chafe under rule from Beijing and restrictions on their language, culture
and religion. They make up less than half of Xinjiang's population after
decades of immigration by the majority Han from other parts of China.

The Global Times, a popular tabloid owned by the Chinese Communist Party's
mouthpiece, the People's Daily, quoted Hou as saying that the rioters
"carried explosive devices and grenades."

"They first broke into the offices of the local administration of industry
and commerce and the taxation bureau that are close to the police
station," the report cited Hou as saying. "They injured two persons there.

"When they realized the targets were wrong, they started to attack the
police station from the ground floor to the second floor where they showed
a flag with separatist messages," Hou was quoted as saying.

The attackers set the police station on fire before killing hostages
during a stand-off with armed police, she was quoted as saying.

State television said the latest incident took place when a mob attacked a
police station, taking hostages and setting it on fire.

Two hostages, a paramilitary policeman and a guard died in the violence,
as well as several of the attackers, it reported. Six hostages were freed.

The Global Times said the national counter-terrorism office had dispatched
a team to Xinjiang.

Calls to the governments of Xinjiang and Hotan and the ministry of public
security went unanswered.

SYSTEMATIC REPRESSION

Dilxat Raxit of the World Uyghur Congress said he believes the death toll
and the number of injured are likely to escalate.

"In order to avoid a further destabilization of the situation, the Chinese
authorities should immediately stop the systematic repression," he said in
a statement.

Hotan, also known as Khotan, is a Uighur-majority town that stretches
along the ancient Silk Route and lies on the edge of Xinjiang's forbidding
desert.

Many residents in Khotan, a largely devout city of some 300,000 people,
have expressed a desire to make the pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of
Mecca, and unhappiness with restrictions on the number of pilgrims
permitted to do so.

In March 2008, hundreds marched through the weekly bazaar in a protest the
city government blamed on ethnic separatists.

Chinese censors blocked searches on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like
microblogging services, on the attack. Search results for the Chinese
renderings of "Xinjiang unrest" and "Hotan" showed a page that said,
"according to relevant laws, regulations and policies, search results are
not displayed".

A vast swath of territory, accounting for one-sixth of China's land mass,
Xinjiang holds oil, gas and coal deposits and borders Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India and Central Asia.

In July 2009, Xinjiang's capital Urumqi was rocked by violence between
majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people.

Since then, China has executed nine people it blamed for instigating the
riots, detained and prosecuted hundreds and ramped up spending on
security, according to state media and overseas rights groups.

China has earmarked billions of dollars for the relatively poorer southern
part of Xinjiang, where Hotan is located, to try to soothe income
disparities that have contributed to ethnic violence.

(Editing by Ken Wills)

Protests break calm in China's Inner Mongolia area

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press May 31, 2011  BEIJING – Calls for justice by Mongols in the resource-rich, prosperous borderland of northern China have shattered the calm there to which Chinese leaders have grown accustomed.  Clashes that left two Mongols dead in mid-May triggered protests in several cities and towns last week that have become the largest demonstrations in the Inner Mongolia region in 20 years. The government has responded with a broad clampdown, pouring police into the streets, disrupting Internet service and confining high school and university students to campus.  The strategy appears to thwarted major demonstrations in the regional capital of Hohhot, though a witness and monitoring group said one group attempted to march on government offices on Monday but were turned back by police. Several dozen protesters were detained, the U.S.-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center said.  There were no reports of protests on Tuesday and people reached by telephone at travel agencies, hotels, fast food restaurants and shops in Hohhot said they know of no demonstrations.  Staff at government offices, three local universities, and government-controlled Muslim and Buddhist religious institutions refused to comment in a likely sign that a media blackout has been ordered.  Hohhot's main downtown square has been cordoned off with crime scene tape and paramilitary policemen stationed along its outer edge, according to photos taken Sunday and posted on the Website of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center. Riot police vehicles were parked along side streets, while officers also guarded the gates of local universities to prevent students from leaving or outsiders from entering.  Prevented from marching, students have instead staged small demonstrations and acts of defiance on campus, including throwing Chinese-language textbooks out of dormitory windows, the center said. Teachers were also being confined to campuses, it said.  Official Communist Party newspapers on Tuesday also carried front page reports emphasizing government support for herders and Mongolian culture — an apparent bid to address protesters' major concerns.  The People's Daily said 13 billion yuan ($2 billion) was paid to herders each year to compensate them for not raising livestock as part of efforts to preserve fragile pasturelands. Such payments could raise a herding family's annual income to 70,000 yuan ($10,7000), considerably more than the 40,000 yuan ($6,170) they would have earned from selling their livestock, the paper said.  The Guangming Daily said 2 billion yuan ($308 million) has been set aside for cultural projects over the coming five years.  Local officials have also vowed further measures to regulate the heavily polluting mining industry that has spurred deep resentment among Mongols.  While most Chinese media outlets have avoided direct mention of the protests, the party's outspoken Global Times tabloid said they must be viewed "rationally" and accused foreign media of exaggerating their size and seriousness.  The protests mark a rattling turn of events for Chinese leaders, who have long battled ethnic unrest by Tibetans and Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang but who have seen Inner Mongolia as a model, its economy booming and its Mongols integrated into the mainstream. On Monday, President Hu Jintao gathered the Communist Party's powerful Politburo to discuss what it said is the urgent need to reduce social tensions and promote fairness.  The stress on economic success that made Chinese leaders complacent and many Mongols satisfied — and a lack of interest in pushing minority rights — is fueling the strains that have burst into the open.  A mining boom has enriched some but pushed further to the margins an already dwindling number of herders — whose roaming the grasslands with their herds of cattle, goats and sheep lies at the core of Mongol identity. Meanwhile a new generation of Mongol students is coming of age wired to the Internet in a time of relative affluence and are questioning what it means to be Mongol.  Inner Mongolia, with its grasslands and deserts, runs across northern China, separating it from the independent country of Mongolia. For centuries, Chinese rulers have long cast a wary eye north, fearing the nomadic tribes that periodically swept south and toppled dynasties.  Members of China's Han majority trickled into Inner Mongolia, often fleeing famine and poverty. But the flow increased after the founding of the communist state in 1949, and has turned into a flood in recent years on the back of the boom in mining, especially of coal.  Coal production has soared threefold over the past five years, reaching 782 million tons last year, making it the leading producer of China's main energy source, according to government statistics. Mongols today make up less than 20 percent of the region's population of 24 million and many speak little or no Mongolian as a result of being educated in Chinese — a fate Tibetans and Xinjiang's native Turkic Muslim Uighurs fear befalling them.  Government policies in some cases meant to help have further alienated many Mongolians. Limits on the size of herds intended to preserve grazing land are deeply unpopular because they reduce rural incomes, meanwhile mining concessions are given out to Chinese.  Moves to fence in pastures and relocate herders to more remote areas have backfired by causing overgrazing and making it more difficult to move animal products to market.  The flashpoints for the latest unrest came from the mining boom. On May 10, herders angry at coal haulers for driving over their grazing lands blocked a road and one truck driver struck and killed a herder. A few days later, a group of Mongols went to a coal mine to complain and got into a fight in which a Chinese miner rammed a forklift into one of the Mongols, killing him.  Authorities have arrested two Chinese in the first death and said Monday that a Chinese miner would be put on trial for murder in the second case. The swiftness of the response highlights how worried Chinese leaders are.  At Monday's meeting, the Politburo said easing social tensions and promoting fairness is critical. "Solving these problems is both urgent and demands long-term effort," it said.