September 25, 2005
China's Rising Tide Of Protest
Edward Cody for The Washington Post, offers rare insight into workers' unrest in China, where villagers and peasants are standing up to the government, deaf to their pleas on polutting mines, and organizing their tearing down, thanks to cell phones.
..." Hua Ruiqi, 55, (picture left) elected leader of Aimen village, is defying the party. He has recruited more than 30 other village leaders into an association, prohibited because it has not received approval from the Communist Party. They have named it the "Leading Group of 100,000 People Living Along the Qingshui River Protecting Our People's River".
Using cell phones, he said, the leaders have kept in touch across county and provincial lines in this area — called the Golden Triangle because of its precious metals — where Guizhou, Sichuan and Hunan provinces come together.
.. Eruptions of peasant violence in the hills near here offer a glimpse of a much larger wave of popular unrest. Thousands of protests break out every year in China's cities and villages, even though such demonstrations are prohibited.
The protests have become a major concern for President Hu Jintao's government, which is anxious to prevent them from spreading and undermining stability and, ultimately, the Communist Party's hold on power."
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/09/010030.htm