China’s Anti-Japanese Protests Are, Quite Simply, Getting Out Of Hand

SCMP reporter Felix Wong
We’ve gone way beyond civil disobedience. Who are the Chinese attacking? Chinese-owned Japanese restaurants, and Japanese people who may call China home, and now journalists. It is, as the proverb goes, shitting on your carpet to spite the neighbor. We’ve seen this line of indiscriminate violence in this country before — it was called the... Read more »

Foreigner Allegedly Slaps And Spits On Local Woman In Henan, Nearly Starts Riot

Foreigner in Zhengzhou
A foreigner nearly incited a riot in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province on Friday evening after he got into a physical confrontation with a Chinese woman on the road. The foreigner, riding a BYD, apparently thought the female had hit his car with her electric bike, so he got out and slapped her twice across the... Read more »

Shifang Government Cancels Plans For Copper Factory

Shifang victory?
Wow. So protests in China work? At 5:58 pm today, the official Weibo page of the Shifang, Sichuan municipal government posted a message stating that plans for a proposed molybdenum copper plant, which caused protests that began Saturday and escalated yesterday, have been permanently shelved. Perhaps local leaders read the writing on the wall when the term... Read more »

Riot Police And Protestors Clash In Shifang, Sichuan Province [UPDATE]

Shifang
In Shifang, Sichuan province, hundreds, possibly thousands of people have taken to the street to protest a molybdenum cooper project (run by HTC?) that people fear will be harmful to their environment and health. Netizens on Weibo are currently discussing the incident as it relates to riot police skirmishing with residents and setting off tear gas in the middle of a huge crowd, which they say was unnecessary. Also, several pictures have emerged, which appear after the jump.

Another Riot In Guangdong, Caused By Teens Fighting, Reportedly With Casualties [Video]

Shaxi riot 1
Less than an hour after posting about the upheaval in Zuotan, Foshan, Guangdong province, I realized there was a bigger, concurrent riot in the province, in Zhongshan City. According to NetEase via the website Democracy and Law Network, the fight started Monday around 6 pm when, in front of a primary school, a 13-year-old got beat up... Read more »

Upheaval Over Land Dispute In Guangdong

Guangdong upheaval 2
China Digital Times curates a news story from Caijing reporting that yesterday before dawn, thousands of residents clashed with hundreds of riot police in Zuotan, part of the city of Foshan, Guangdong province. According to Caijing: “Zuotan officials secretly arranged for the sale of land in three neighborhoods to developers. The officials thought they could claim... Read more »

Video Of The Near-Riot In Guangzhou After Foreigner Died In Police Custody

Video Of The Near-Riot In Guangzhou After Foreigner Died In Police Custody
Celestine Elebechi is the Nigerian who died in police custody on Monday, sparking a big protest the next day involving more than 100 Africans. BJC contributor Alicia found this video recently (more are beginning to appear on Youku). I'm particularly surprised by how brazen the protestors are, appearing to throw objects at the approaching police brigade. By all indications, the protest/mini-riot ended after only a few hours without many injuries, which is a blessing. Because judging by this snippet here, it could have been worse.