Inside China Today

Inside China Today – Sunday 20th June

- Official assaults student, 10,000 clash in Anhui

- Government silence spurs on epidemic

- Internet restored in Xinjiang, albeit with restrictions

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Official assaults student, 10,000 clash in Anhui

Over 10,000 Chinese citizens clashed with local forces in China’s eastern Anhui province last week. What started as an ordinary Friday night quickly turned ugly when the local deputy chief of tourism assaulted a 13-year-old girl in the parking lot of a local market in Maanshan City.

Witnesses immediately surrounded the car of the official and prevented him from leaving the scene. They angrily demanded he apologise. The small crowd quickly grew to over 10,000, with the crowd becoming increasingly agitated.

Wang Guoqing is the deputy Chief of Tourism for Huashan district in Ma’anshan City.

One local told SOH that after bumping the high school student with his car, his wife then encouraged him to slap her. Wang Guoqing then boasted he knew the Mayor and made sinister threats alluding to underworld connections. Angry bystanders demanded he make amends and apologise.

The local described the scene, saying (recording):

“That night, Wang Guoqing hit a 13 year old girl. This little girl does not have a father. After she was hit, he struck her, causing a bloody nose and swelling to her face. After the attack, he angrily said the Mayor has people in the underworld and who were legitimate. His wife in the car also said something rude, and this aroused public anger. After the incident, so many people surrounded his car.”

Wang Guoqing wanted rush away from the scene in his car but the crowd blocked the road. Wang immediately called for help and soon ten police came to escort him from the scene. However the crowd formed a human wall, blocking the police car. Both sides were deadlocked for two hours.

The bystander told SOH that Wang was fortunate the police had arrived to protect him.

The bystander said, (Recording):

“The traffic police protected him or else he’d be beaten to death. With so many people over there, they would beat him up for sure. It wasn’t until 10pm that an official of the municipal committee heard of the news and hurried here. He stood on top of the police car and started to shout out to the people.”

The bystander continued (recording):

“After gathering, he said he is the leader. By now the people were in revolt, and the crowd soon grew to over ten thousand people. Then, the Mayor came and shouted into the loudspeaker that this person (Wang) will be sacked on the spot and the issue will be dealt with if we return home. However this didn’t work, so many armed police came. People threw rocks and other objects at the armed police; it was chaos.”

The scene was so loud that many people could not hear what he said. Some rioters expressed disbelief at the Mayor’s words, believing it to be an empty promise. He still refused to leave, due to the large crowd.

At about 11pm, authorities sent firefighters and men to take Wang Guoqing away from the scene. However, the police cars remained out of reach among the crowd. The firefighters and men had no alternative but to withdraw. Shortly, the authorities then deployed riot squad and armed police. The squad, armed with police truncheons and shields, rushed to the police cars, separating the crowd into two and cleared the way for the police cars.

The city residents still tried to stop them by risking their lives. Many people were injured in their attempts. However the police car was eventually able to escort the chief from the chaotic scene.

A bystander told SOH (recording):

“The armed police did not come with many people; they released a type of toxic gas – tear gas, and this was very difficult for people to bear, so they dispersed.”

According to a local citizen, the young girl who had been assaulted was already very deprived and did not deserve the harsh treatment by anyone, let an a district official.

The citizen told reporters (recording):

“Beating children causes anger to people and so they refuse to comply. You’re an official who’s slapping people’s kids. This infuriates people. The ordinary citizens called on the Mayor and asked the Mayor to sack him. This little kid is a student, and this student is very pitiful; her parents are divorced.”

Tian Xi of the SOH Radio Network.

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Government silence spurs on epidemic

The Chinese government’s failure to expose the severity of hand, foot and mouth disease has resulted in an epidemic surge. The Chinese Ministry of Health says over 350,000 cases of the disease were reported in May with 186 cases of death. Many peasant families are unable to afford the hefty medical expenses resulting in a higher death toll than official statistics say.

Mr Gao of Shan County, Hezhe in Shandong Province said the disease is widespread in his village, his three year old son was infected by hand-foot and mouth disease. There are several accounts of death in just one small village, possibly more than 100 cases of death in just one county.

Mr Gao told SOH (recording):

“Hand-foot-mouth disease is spreading in numerous villages, including in western and south-western parts of Shandong Province. With no preventive measure put in place by the authorities, the outcome is quite severe. Some families don’t pay attention when a child is mildly sick; when the illness becomes serious they go to hospital and find out its hand-foot-mouth disease, finding they are unable to afford the hospital costs.”

Ms Tan from the Dragon and Tiger Village of Yongqing County in Hebei Province, whose nephew of 11 months and niece of one month both contracted the disease, claims the local government didn’t publicly announce the breakout and believes hand, foot and mouth disease is due to the poor standards of hygiene by health clinics in the countryside.

Ms Tan told reporters (recording):

“There are not enough beds in the hospitals and no isolation for treatment. I saw so many children in the hallways; hygiene is a worry. The protein shot costs 665 Yuan, which is way too high for a peasant family. My sister had to pay a 5000 Yuan deposit on June 7th, until her daughter was transferred to an intensive care unit from the 8th to the 10th. This came to in 15,000 Yuan of medical treatment costs, a huge pressure for her.”

15,000 Yuan is equivalent to about 2000 US dollars.

Mr Xie of Luohe, Henan Province lost his child to the disease. He said the hospital is full of hand-foot-mouth disease patients. His child became sick on May 30th, and died one and half days after being taken to the hospital.

Mr Xie told SOH (recording):

“There are many hand-foot-mouth disease patients, and not enough hospital beds. We were left in the hallway. At 11 pm that night, my child went into a coma, and was taken to the intensive care unit. He could only breathe via a machine; he did not have much hope. In the morning hours of June 1st, we were asked to pay for the expenses. We don’t have a fixed income, so we had to take out a loan. Those one and a half days cost 6500 Yuan.”

So far this year, the death toll for hand, foot and mouth has surpassed 260 with 420,000 known cases. The disease is mostly found in the five provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Henan, Zhejiang, and Anhui.

Lin Li and Wan Qing of the SOH Radio Network

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Internet restored in Xinjiang, albeit with restrictions

Internet access has been restored in Xinjiang, albeit with greater censorship. After last year’s July 5th Urumqi riots in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region, internet access was blocked for nearly a year. Shortly before the Human Rights Dialogue between China and the US, China officially announced an all-round restoration of internet business. Internet users however have revealed online that personal communication in Xinjiang is still heavily restricted.

According to human rights activist Hu Jun, Chinese authorities blocked internet access for 302 days in order to cover the extent of the Urumqi riots, which caused severe damage to local businesses and people’s lives.

On July 5th last year, ethnic Uyghur’s in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi held a protest against the improper handling of a rape case involving Uyghur suspects. The Uyghur are one of the 56 ethnic minorities in China.

Chinese authorities dispatched military police to suppress the protest. Many people died or were injured during the conflict. Chinese state-run media reported 140 deaths, and over 800 injuries. According to civilian accounts however, over 1,000 people died during the suppression.

Recently, online users in Xinjiang took to the internet complain, saying although internet usage was restored, messaging services such as QQ, remained blocked. Companies which developed this software have ignored user complaints, implying a degree of cooperation with the Chinese authorities. In addition, some email functions have been disabled. College students and internet café business owners complained the Internet blocks and restrictions have inconvenienced personal life and severely harmed their business.

A college student said (recording):

“The internet shut down was most likely caused by the incident on July 5th. The shut-down was intended to block the flow of information.”

An internet café owner in Urumqi said (recording):

“To handle the July 5th Incident, the government demanded the shutdown of the internet. The repercussions are huge.”

Hu Jun, a human rights activist in Xinjiang said (recording):

“The damage is severe, really severe. Almost all internet cafés are shut down; many business activities, such as domestic and international online trading, online banking, couldn’t be conducted. For many factories, the capital flow, sale of products, and contract signings are done over the internet. When the internet is shut down, the damage is immeasurable. Now the U.S. wants to conduct human rights dialogue with China, Chinese authorities re-opened the internet the day before the dialogue. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right. If people do not have the right to communicate, the right to speech, are they still human beings? Aren’t they treated like animals? It was because of the July 5th incident.”

Hu continued (recording):

“The details have not been made public. Chinese civilians do not know the truth. The authorities have done things that they do not want others to know about. Therefore they blocked the internet to prevent the flow of information. It is just like the June 4th massacre on Tiananmen Square. The authorities want to cover it up. We have seen some e-photos sent to us by witnesses. We have seen soldiers beating people. When the police and civilians confronted each other, there were women, children, there were both Han nationalities and Uyghur. Both Uyghur and Han people were extremely angry with the government. They were protesting the government and venting their anger.”

Lu Fang of SOH Radio Network

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