Posted on 06/16/2005 6:46:49 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Although rural unrest has been growing in China, this was one of the deadliest incidents seen in years and one of the first to be captured on video.
It left at least six dead and a hundred wounded. The farmers, who were occupying disputed land, tried to defend themselves but were beaten back by volleys from hunting rifles and flare guns.
It happened last weekend, about a hundred miles southwest of Beijing, where farmers had been resisting plans by the local authorities to build a storage facility for a state-owned power plant.
They suspect the assailants were hired by corrupt local officials to drive them off the land, many wore hard hats and military fatigues, lashing out with long pipes fitted with sharp hooks on the end.
The police ignored calls for help from the farmers, one of whom shot this video with a digital camera, handing the tape to a reporter from the Washington Post.
Much of rural China has missed out on the country's economic boom. There is a massive wealth gap between the countryside and the booming coastal regions and the simmering rural discontent is one of the biggest challenges facing the government.
Recent mining accidents have sparked riots and corruption, pollution and land seizures have also provoked anger. The protests are growing in number and intensity. According to Beijing's own figures, there were 58,000 protests involving 3m people in 2003, the last year for which figures are available.
Ping!
Geez. Rural people in China are poor and many. China will never become a dominant force with so many poor people.
Pat Buchanan should go run for office over there. He does well with the pitchforker crowd. And I think they already have the economic policies he advocates.
That my friend is so true. To presume that a nation with a repressive gov't, a command economy for 90% of it's people and a people mired in poverty will ultimately threaten the economic power of the US is preposterous. If anything I see a China collapsing on it's own contradiction.
Yeah, I am sure that Chinese showed only not-so-backward part of China when he went there. Many useful idiots get fooled. Unfortunately, they seem to be born to play this role on Earth.
Interesting how thier situation seems to parellel that of North Korea. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Perhaps not on the same scale as in North Korea, but there are similarities. Kinda answers the question why China is not putting more pressure on the North to return to the 6 party talks. Birds of a feather...
Hopefully the poor chinese who outnumber the ruling class by a factor of a few hundred will take a clue and overthrow those bastards.
What does the narration in that video say, roughly?
This is much more common there than we know. There's a reason for the CCP clampdown on info.
The write-up by the local news station regarding this is inane.
Do you just try to waste space and time with silly pointless drivel?
But, but, but... Communism -- good. Democracy -- bad.
At least, that's what our RAT/lib/socialist/Marxist/Leninist friends in congress want us to believe. Right, Hitlery, Durbin, Kennedy, Boxer, Kerry, Schumer, et al., ad nauseum????
Roughly, it says that Beijing News reported that thugs armed with sticks and guns attacked farmers who were having land dispute with a power company. Reportedly, the original video obtained by Washington Post contains the segments, in which thugs hit people with sticks and sounds of gunshot are heard.
<< Geez. Rural people in China are poor and many. >>
Many, indeed.
More than one billion living on less than Thirty US Dollars per month.
<< China will never become a dominant force with so many poor people. >>
True.
China will never become a dominant force.
Don't believe what everyone says. You DO have a sense of humor. You ARE a fun guy. Nevermind what everyone else says!
Yes. I do. Unlike, apparently, you :) :)
C'mon. It's funny! Rampaging farmers? I think PJB missed his calling. He should have been born in China, in the countryside.
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