Henan riot: China anger after drunk police accident (kills 5)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: BBC

There have been violent protests in the central Chinese province of Henan after a policeman suspected of drunk driving crashed his car and killed five people.

According to China's official Xinhua news agency, the policeman was arrested after his car hit two lamp posts, which fell on top of people.

Witnesses and local reports said a crowd stopped the police taking away bodies, damaging and flipping hearses and a police van.

Protests are on the rise in China.


Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15512627

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Photos on Chinese blogs showed the aftermath of the incident

[Ghost Dog]

1. Protests are on the rise in China. Or at least 'Western' media reporting is.

There was this the other day:


28/10/2011 / CHINA - AFP

More than a thousand people took to the streets in eastern China Thursday night, in a second day of demonstrations over tax hikes for store owners. On their way to local government offices, protesters destroyed cars and clashed with riot police.

The unrest began on Wednesday when a children’s clothing store owner refused to pay taxes because the amount had raised sharply from last year. Local residents claim he was physically attacked by the tax collector for his refusal. State-run media have said the victim then rallied other shop owners in an attempt to retaliate - though our Observer says they just wanted to negotiate lower taxes – and then, the situation got out of hand.

Some people in the town of Zhili in Zheijiang province, where the protests are taking place, have said they are not only venting anger at the tax hike, but also against what they perceive as discrimination against migrant workers. Other reports have suggested that migrant business owners were required to pay higher taxes than locals, though this was not the case our Observer encountered.

In what has now become customary during periods of unrest in China, the government has blocked results for key search terms – in this case, “Zhili” – on Chinese search engines and social networking sites.

/... http://observers.france24.com/content/20111028-china-tax-dispute-protesters-destroy-cars-clash-police-eastern-zheijian-province-zhili-migrant-workers-stores

[Left Coast2020]

2. The cost of living there is increasing very quickly.

And people on the low end of the totum pole are getting pissed. Before returning in June, I remember seeing news stories of higher food prices. Housing is also going up in Liaoning Province (NE of Beijing) where I was living. Liaoning Province is the least important as it is way behind Beijing in terms of transporation and education. I was surprised that CCTV would air stories that would prompt people to get upset. People here in this country do not realize (because of the censorship) that China is also on the verge of a potential housing bubble as we have had. Any person with knowledge of the economic landscape will tell you China may not know how to contain such a bubble since the mantra there is to "get stronger, or be bigger" to make a bigger profit. And yes, there are some newly developed apartment buildings that are empty. No one is buying. I would really like to see this blow up in Beijings face for their stubborn attitude as per their economic policies. Its all about the money--much more than here.

It would be interesting to hear from someone else here who has lived there (I was an English teacher) who has insight of how people are feeling about the Chinese economy.

I also worked in Dalian which much cleaner than Shenyang which has a pollution problem.

[Blue_Tires]

3. If only the drunk cops had run over a toddler in an alleyway...

No one would have noticed...