Party enters second day of talks amid rising strife
Leaders speak of a harmonious society as villagers raze a Hainan police station
Beijing's top Communist Party members entered the second day of their annual gathering focused on plans to build a 'harmonious society', amid alarm at an increasing level of social discontent among the country's poor.
Just three days before the Central Committee's sixth plenum kicked off, about 30 angry villagers attacked a police station in the city of Shanzhou, Hainan province , protesting against the death of a young man in a nightclub fight allegedly caused by police negligence.
'They besieged the police station for almost three days and basically levelled it,' a police spokeswoman said yesterday. 'They overturned two cars, injured two officers, smashed all the computers, air conditioners and office furniture.'
The riot was only quelled after a 200-strong paramilitary group was sent in, according to the local newspaper Southern Metropolis News.
City leaders with their eyes on the leadership meeting in Beijing may have given the incident unprecedented attention. But in Beijing, where the riot went unreported, state media has devoted column inches to stories promoting harmony and easing social tensions.
The Hainan riot was the latest in a list of upheavals that party bosses fear could spin out of control and threaten their monopoly on power.
Earlier last month, thousands of residents in Wenzhou , southeastern Zhejiang province , clashed with local police as a street protest over the handling of a suicide case escalated into a riot. The violence ended with police using tear gas and arresting dozens of protesters.
In July alone, authorities dealt with at least three large-scale incidents of social unrest. Ten policemen were injured in a riot by more than 2,000 villagers over corruption in northeast Liaoning province .
In Guiyang , capital of the southwestern province of Guizhou - one of the poorest provinces in the country - hundreds of local people attacked police and smashed up squad cars after a migrant was allegedly beaten for refusing to pay for a resident's permit. Also in the southwest, in Sichuan province , about 2,000 people in the town of Bazhong attacked officials and destroyed offices and cars after a 14-year-old student was beaten by officials.
The increasing social strife is an indication of the widening gap between the mainland's rich and poor, pervasive corruption and official disregard for people's grievances. According to World Bank statistics, income disparity in the mainland is wider than that in India and nearing levels seen in Latin America.
Those caught up in the disputes represent a wide spectrum of disadvantaged groups. Unable to voice their discontent, they are often ready to resort to drastic action when they feel their rights have been trampled on.
