Weng'an uprising in 2008

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The Weng'an riot in 2008 in which tens of thousands of residents from the circle Weng'an and Autonomous Prefecture Qinnan Buyei and Miao in the province of Guizhou in southern China were involved, took place on June 28 of 2008. Insurgents stormed government houses and set police cars on fire to protest police allegedly covering up the death of a girl.

incident

Alleged rape and murder

The girl Li Shufen (李树芬) was found dead in a river on June 22, 2008 at the age of 17. Li had previously been seen with two younger men who allegedly had family connections with the local public security bureau. The girl's family and friends said that Li was raped and murdered by the son of a senior Weng'an officer and another boy. Subsequently, the two are said to have thrown the girl's body into a river. The family's statements were contested in the media, claiming that those involved, the two young men and one young woman, were members of local farming families.

Guarding the coffin

The parents guarded the girl's coffin around the clock, fearing that the police might try to manipulate evidence. The parents reported that there had already been two attempts to steal the body. More than 100 local residents helped guard the coffin as the parents said they would "not enter into any malicious agreements."

Allegations

police

The girl's body was pulled from the river on June 22, 2008. According to initial reports by the police, the girl was either drowned or jumped into the river to commit suicide. According to a document from the local administration, the girl was said to have been unhappy with her life because her parents preferred her older brother.

Family and relatives of the girl

Relatives of the girl reprimanded the local police for their poor investigation and accused them of corruption . One parent said that a police officer threatened her and said, “Don't even try to bring the case to court; there is no justice in this world. "

Three murder suspects

On July 4th, 2008, Guizhou media published an interview with three of the girl's friends. These people were the last to see the girl alive and believed to be the murder suspects.

  • Chen Guangquan (陈光 权), 21 years old, was the victim's friend. He denied raping the girl.
  • Liu Yanchao (刘 言 超), 18, allegedly did push-ups on the bridge and had trouble after trying to save the girl.
  • Wang Jiao (王 娇), 16 years old, the girl's friend, was also at the scene.

Protests

The girl's uncle complained to the police, was knocked out and died in hospital. About 500 of his students protested at the Public Security Bureau, and they were also turned away and beaten. This caused thousands of angry people to overturn cars and burn down government buildings, including the headquarters of the local Communist Party . The Associated Press published an article entitled, "30,000 Angry Citizens Flocked to the Streets". The insurrection lasted seven hours and 150 people were injured. About 160 office buildings and 40 cars were set on fire.

Role of the Chinese blogger

Zhou Shuguang , a self-proclaimed citizen journalistalso known as "Zola" byChinese bloggers , went to Weng'an to interview Li Shufen's family in person. He then used various Internet communications such as MSN and Twitter , as well as his own cell phone, and posted unofficial reports with photos and requests from Li Shufen's family on his personal website. It is believed that Twitter was first used to report a Chinese mass protest.

Like other like-minded netizens , Zhou publishes information about such events in order to give a voice to ordinary Chinese, whose experiences are ignored or censored , because all media in China are under the control of the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China .

Tianya.cn is a social network owned by Hainan Tianya Online Networking Technology Co. It provides various chat rooms for bloggers to discuss social topics. Tianya.cn played a crucial role in supporting student actions during the uprising. On July 2, 2008, Jonathan Ansfield reported on newsweek.com:

“All night and all morning I clicked on posts that talked about it. It was there first. Then it was gone. Then it was back. Then away. It was erased every few minutes, sometimes every few seconds. The site operator had instructions to block it. It was obvious. But they couldn't keep up. Every time they did it, we netizens got angrier and angrier. "

Roland Soong of EastSouthWestNorth , a well-known website that translates from Chinese to English, wrote:

For example, the first article says that overseas media pay close attention to the lives of people in the plateau of the Yunnan-Guizhou area. The second article says that the people of X'an (Guizhou) light an extra large sacred flame to celebrate the Beijing Olympics. […] The fourth article says, 'When the army arrives in southwest China, something big is going to happen, I think! I believe our troops (人民 子弟兵) have a conscience. ' The fifth article says that the anti-American (反美) posts by the anti-American warriors (反美 鬥士) are all gone - the revolution has not yet been successful and our comrades have to stay tuned (革命 尚未 成功, 同志 尚須 努力, a well-known quote from Sun Yat-sen ). What was the last The term 'American' is used for 'Chinese government'! "

Xinhua , the government's official central news agency, played an unusual role during the incident. She just kept a chat room open where bloggers could show the incompetent officers their anger. As of June 29, there had been more than 200,000 views of the 2,000 comments left in the chat room on the only uncensored Xinhua website. Mostly these were convictions for the way the corrupt police officers treated the girl's death and used excessive force against the protesters.

On other forum and chat sites, including Kdnet (猫眼 看人), Maopu (猫 撲), Strong Nation (强國), Sina.com, Netese (网易) and QQ, most users showed their support for the weng'an Protesters. They all provided their own different versions of information (text, photos, and sometimes video files) or sometimes published a version opposite to that of the Guizhou Police Department.

Arrests

Authorities arrested 300 protesters. Other sources say only 200 were arrested. Over 1,500 paramilitary groups and riot police were deployed to the county. The police arrested 59 people for their alleged roles.

Government response

Photos and comments in chat rooms and forums about the Guizhou protest were quickly deleted by mainland internet censors. The government launched a campaign to defeat the Beijing Olympics protest and to maintain social harmony and stability. After the incident, a "stability campaign for the Olympic Games" was announced. State security officials in Guizhou offered the teenage girl's parents 9,000 yuan, of which 3,000 were paid by each perpetrator. However, the father said, "We will never make such a bad deal, we must see justice for our daughter."

Communist Party leader Guizhou Shi Zongyuan (石宗源) believed that the violence used by the officials contributed to widespread dissatisfaction. He also said the deeper reasons for the protest were "outrageous and rough solutions" by local authorities to resolve disputes over mines, demolition of houses for public projects, forced resettlement of residents for reservoirs and many other problems. Some officers were fired on July 3 and 4, 2008 for breaking the rules.

detection

The Guizhou Daily said the family was too mentally unstable to accept the investigation. The Human Rights and Democracy Information Center said three men were interviewed but allowed to go. Xinhua News Agency reported on July 1, 2008 that the investigation would be restarted. The provincial government dispatched ten criminal investigators and forensic experts to re-examine the cause of death. Five experts from the Guizhou Public Security Ministry and the Higher People's Court performed three autopsies . According to their results, there was no evidence of sexual assault, according to state officials. Li Xiuzhong, the girl's father, did not accept the results of the autopsies and said, “I can't do anything; they sent ten policemen to my house that made me day and night observierten . The police told me what to reply to reporters during interviews. They threatened me that [if I said something wrong] another riot could happen, and I must remember that it is a national security issue. ”Li Shufen was taken to her hometown (about 20 km from Weng'an ) to bury. The provincial authority said that 600 to 800 crimes are committed annually in the district, but half of them remain unsolved.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Weng'an riot press conference at the Guizhou Provincial Government Information Center. In: Xinhua , July 2, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  2. ↑ a b c International Herald Tribute. In: The New York Times ; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  3. ↑ Chris Buckley: Mass Incident in Weng'an. In: EastSouthWestNorth , June 29, 2008; accessed on March 27, 2017
  4. ↑ The Weng'an model: China's fix-it governance In: opendemocracy.net , July 30, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  5. ↑ 瓮安 6.28: 官员 回应 元凶 是 当地 干部 亲属 之 说. ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: 21cn.com , July 1, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / news.21cn.com
  6. ↑ a b c d e Unrest in Guizhou as public security tries to buy the silence of the victim's parents. In: Asianews.it , July 1, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  7. ↑ a b c Guizhou official: Third finding on rape claim to be made known. In: Sina.com , July 3, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  8. ↑ Girl's Death Sparks Rioting In China. In: China Digital Times , June 28, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  9. ^ Hundreds arrested in China for rioting over death of student. In: Welt Online , June 30, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  10. ↑ a b "We didn't do it", male friends of dead girl say. In: Sina.com , July 5, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  11. ↑ Officials admit existence of grievances before violent protest in SW China. In: Sina.com , July 3, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  12. ^ Chinese Bloggers Score a Victory Against the Government Firings Indicate Growing Power; Exploits of 'Zola'. In: The Wall Street Journal ; Retrieved April 2, 2017
  13. ↑ China's Net Nannies in full force after riot in Southern China. In: OpenNet Initiative , July 2, 2008; Retrieved April 3, 2017
  14. ↑ Jonathan Ansfield: Guizhou Riots: How much steam can the machine filter? In: Newsweek , July 2, 2008; Retrieved April 3, 2017
  15. ↑ Lessons from the Weng'an riots. In: Asia Inc , September 4, 2008; Retrieved April 3, 2017
  16. ↑ a b Weng'an's secretary and administrator dismissed. In: Sina.com , July 4, 2008; Retrieved April 3, 2017
  17. ↑ Two more officials sacked after violent protest over teens' death. In: chinaview.cn , July 4, 2008; Retrieved April 3, 2017