20,000 farmers riot over taxes
More than 20,000 farmers have clashed with paramilitary police in Jiangxi province, ransacking buildings and destroying schools and homes, witnesses said yesterday. Unconfirmed reports claimed at least three people had been killed and 50 arrested in the protests against taxation and corrupt officials.
The week-long violence was one of the worst incidents in a series of protests and demonstrations by sacked workers or angry farmers across the country in recent years. The trouble began when farmers from one of four towns near Fengcheng City, angry at taxes they claim ate almost two-thirds of their income, surrounded a government building on August 17, smashing windows, doors, and ransacking the office. Others looted the houses of village cadres, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reported.
The protests spread from Yuandu to Baitu, Duantang and Xiaotang towns, resulting in most government offices and some officials' homes being destroyed. Protests swelled to involve 20,000 farmers. More than 2,000 police reinforcements were sent from Yichun and Fuzhou regions to the scene last Wednesday, the centre said.
About 550 militia enforced a curfew in Yuandu, a peasant said. 'You can see militiamen everywhere in the town; the atmosphere is still very tense.'
Farmers in Yuandu said protesters demolished the homes of a dozen town officials and local cadres. Even schools were destroyed. They said police fired shots in the air and used clubs during the protests, which carried on for more than a week.
'The battle is really fierce. Many villagers were beaten badly in clashes with police,' said a migrant worker who returned to the town to witness the battle. 'I've heard three villagers died in the Yuandu clashes. It's not clear if there are casualties in other towns,' he said.
'Farmers do not have enough to eat while even a junior Yuandu township official will be able to own at least a car and a house. We are feeling very bad about this,' a farmer said, adding that they had been forced to fight.
A report in the Jiangxi Daily last Thursday quoted a local government circular as saying several local officials would be punished. Leaders, worried about growing unrest in rural regions, have repeatedly warned grassroots cadres to curb taxes.
Fengcheng City, about 50km south of Nanchang city, the Jiangxi provincial capital, is one of the sites where the Communist Party nurtured its revolution more than 50 years ago. It is still one of the most impoverished regions of China.
