A not-in-my-backyard-type protest took place yesterday in our fair city, featuring about 300 demonstrators in Chaoyang District who didn’t like that a proposed high-speed rail connecting Beijing and Shenyang would run so close to their homes. People’s Daily reports that Shenyang officials have been eagerly anticipating the start of construction since the plan was publicized on... Read more »
According to AFP, more than 20 people in Hanoi have been arrested today for anti-China protests. About 200 protesters waved banners and chanted, “Down with China’s aggression!” A similar demonstration was broken up in Ho Chi Minh City. AFP: Vietnam, which has begun exploring for oil in what it claims as its territorial waters, last week... Read more »
The students who protested on Tiananmen Square in June 1989 have gone on to lead lives as writers, teachers, businessmen, doctors, artists. Some have continued being activists. Some have spent most of their time in prison, before dying.
Chen Weiming became a gun-toting member of the Mujahideen army in Syria.
Sources are saying that scattered protests involving “more than 1,000 villagers” (SCMP, via Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy) in Wenzhou, Zheijang province have resulted in either “hundreds” (SCMP), “200” (Want China Times) or “more than 10” injuries (Radio Free Asia). It began in Longgang township on Tuesday, where villagers were unhappy about... Read more »
Zhai Xiaobing, the financial worker who was arrested on November 7 for tweeting under his @stariver Twitter account that the National Congress would be beset by calamity a la Final Destination the movie, is still in jail. To recap: a man — not even an activist — is in jail for tweeting — that’s behind the... Read more »
Advisory: highway signs are being covered up in Ningbo because of some reason. That reason does not concern you. The highway signs are covered up in a city somewhere for no reason. There is no reason. The signs in a place are on the highway. No highway, actually. Not a city. @jaytao says the highway... Read more »
Another widespread protest against a factory in China has yielded, at least on paper, another victory, following the one in Shifang, Sichuan province in July. Does it matter that no one believes the city government’s statement saying it’ll halt its construction plans? First the background: In Ningbo, Zhejiang province, thousands of locals have clashed with... Read more »
Reuters reports that more than a thousand people gathered in Ningbo, Zhejiang province yesterday to protest plans for a petrochemical plant that is a subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation. And according to the BBC, witnesses said authorities used tear gas and have arrested some people. Searches on Youku for “Ningbo” turn up nothing. Sina... Read more »
People rioted in Luzhou, Sichuan province on Wednesday evening after they heard that police had beaten a truck driver to death in broad daylight. Tea Leaf Nation relayed several messages from incensed netizens who never doubted it, notably from a Sina Weibo user, @Aluo阿罗, who declared, “Luzhou police have beaten someone to death, causing tens of thousands... Read more »
They’re rioting again in Sichuan province. Tea Leaf Nation reports that yesterday evening, an anti-police protest turned violent after three police officers beat a driver to death in broad daylight in front of several witnesses. (Someone at the scene began filming after the driver was killed; the video is embedded here — no matter who you... Read more »
