Inside China Today

More mass demonstrations in Beijing with over 1000 gathered before a government building

The people of China whose rights have been trampled on are becoming increasingly aware of their rights. On Wednesday, over 1000 people gathered in front of the Beijing City Government Building fighting for their personal rights. In the mean time, hundreds were demonstrating before the Ministry of Justice. During the protests, no government officials appeared to hear the plight of the protestors which saw the main roads of the city blocked. A number of arrests were also made.
The protestors were protesting against the government for prolonged ignorance of the people’s rights. The protestors included investors who have lost money in phony plantation schemes, displaced residents who have not received adequate compensation who have on many occasions reported their plights to the government with no success.

Over 100 police arrived at the scene, and traffic was blocked off on Zhenyi Road where the city government building is. At around 11am, police put up red alert tapes around the building, and arrested a number of protestors.

Rights advocate Zhou Li who was at the scene says the thousand-plus protestors demonstrated by singing international songs, and that they would be immediately arrested if they chanted any slogans.

Nearly half of the protestors were elderly people, protesting against the State run CCTV and unscrupulous businesses colluding to cheat them off their pension, encouraging the retirees to purchase forests. In the first half of the year, Chinese State run media ran advertising for Yiling Enterprises to source funds to develop forest plantation, but those who bought into the plans got nothing more than baron land. Investors lost hundreds of thousands of Yuan on average.

One protestor said that the government should step up and take responsibility for the State controlled TV station which has received huge amounts of advertising revenue.

In addition, the crowd protested against the son of former premier Li Peng who’s Xing-Guo company incited the public to purchase business premises in Beijing city, causing over $10million Yuan in losses.

Meanwhile, in front of the Ministry of Justice south of China’s Foreign Ministry, traffic was stopped by another demonstration. Large numbers of police arrived, dispersing the crowds. Witnesses say that when the police left, traffic was still unable to move on the two main inner circle roads.

The above news is hosted by Chris Thomas for Inside China Today on the SOH Radio Network