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Since late June there has been an upsurge in reported incidents of violent conflict around the country. Most have involved group violence against police in cases of perceived injustice. Many citizens have shown sympathy toward those who incited violence, viewing these incidents as the outcome of an imbalanced society where power is unreasonably centralized and justice is beyond the reach of ordinary people.
At least seven major incidents have been reported within the past month.
The June 28 riot in Wengan county in the southwestern province of Guizhou got the most attention from both domestic and international media. The incident began with the death of a teenage girl, widely believed to have been murdered. When the authorities pronounced her death a suicide, riots ensued.
Thousands of citizens destroyed police vehicles, besieged government buildings and set the local police station on fire. Armed police from surrounding areas were dispatched to control the situation.
Local authorities tried to cover up the incident, but it was picked up from posts on the Internet and spread like wildfire. Reports and rumors of official misconduct in handling the situation drew angry responses from the public.
The authorities pronounced the case a “simple criminal matter” incited by local gangsters, but the facts of the case continued to arouse public suspicion. Chinese-language media reported that even President Hu Jintao had questioned how such a “simple criminal matter” could develop into such a riot.
Some of the participants in the Wengan riots revealed that they were driven at least in part by accumulated resentment over the authorities’ siding with local vested interests, at the expense of the common people, for years.
After higher-level authorities investigated the situation, a few Wengan officials were removed from their posts because of their poor handling of local conflicts – not because of wrongdoings in the dispute over the girl’s death. The “truth” of her death is still under investigation.
Another violent incident occurred on July 1, when a 28-year-old man named Yang Jia rushed into a police station in Shanghai and attacked police officers with a knife, killing six and seriously injuring four.
Yang’s behavior was reportedly calm, well-planned and cruel. He later told police he had no choice but to take revenge for the unjust treatment he had received at the hands of the police. Apparently Yang had been accused of stealing a bicycle last October by some policemen from that office.
An “inside story” spread online said that Yang had been severely beaten while in the custody of the Shanghai police. Although the person who wrote this was later arrested, many continued to believe that Yang had been physically mistreated.
Suspicions also surround this case, especially as Yang’s mother, who lived in Beijing, disappeared on July 1 after going with some Shanghai policemen to a Beijing police station to “assist” the investigation. The Shanghai police said she had agreed to have a certain lawyer appointed to defend her son, but refused to comment on her disappearance. The Beijing police said they had no idea where she was, either.
The odd twist to this story is that many Chinese, including scholars and critics writing online, praised or sympathized with Yang. They viewed him as a hero wielding the sword of justice against evildoers – even though the policemen he killed were not the ones who had accused or beaten him.
At least 400,000 people visited Yang’s blog – on which his only post was a story with photos about hiking with friends – to wish him well. The site was later blocked.
At least five other events this month have sparked angry mobs to attack police in different parts of the country.
On July 3, a farmer died while being pursued by police for driving without a license in northwestern Shanxi province. The incident led to an angry confrontation between local people and police.
On July 10, a migrant worker was injured during a conflict with police over his temporary residence certificate in southeastern Zhejiang province. A mob later rose against the police over the matter.
On July 17, a migrant was beaten to death by police for illegally carrying customers on his motorcycle in southern Guangdong province. This resulted in an angry mob attacking the police.
On July 19, hundreds of people from the Dai ethnic group in southwestern Yunnan province went to a police station to request fair treatment over a dispute related to a local enterprise. The armed police shot two of them to death in “self defense,” which caused a violent attack on the police.
On July 21, two bombs were set off on buses in Kunming city in Yunnan province, killing two and injuring more than ten passengers.
In commenting on violent responses to police behavior, Gao Feng, an expert in public safety, advised the authorities to demand higher standards of conduct from law enforcement officers. He said the way to decrease public battles with the police was to avoid arousing the people’s ill will.
Professor Shao Jian, a critic on social affairs, commented that the misuse of police force by higher powers was the cause of the increasing bloody incidents.
Liu Xiaobao, a well-known writer and critic, pointed out that people do not fight the government because they are unruly and enjoy violence. Rather, the despotic system drives them to put up resistance as best they can.
Other critics have suggested that the authorities make an effort to listen to public opinion and resolve conflicts before they burst into violent confrontation.
It is clear that something must be done to ease the tensions between people and police. Unless the police have been instructed to behave with greater restraint, deploying thousands of extra police officers to keep public order ahead of the Olympics may not be the most effective plan.
