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China seeks to curb unrest amid finance crisis
Wed Nov 19, 2008 2:26am EST
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By Ian Ransom
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has told police to ensure stability amid the global financial crisis after thousands rioted in a northwestern city, beating up police and looting offices in the latest of a series of demonstrations nationwide.
After decades of solid economic growth, China is battling an unknown as falling demand for its products triggers factory closures, sparks protests and raises fears of popular unrest, seen by many analysts as the biggest threat to one-Party rule.
IMA Asia, a business intelligence provider, said it had raised its political risk rating for China from low to medium.
"We are concerned about the potential for unrest within a massive pool of migrant workers who face lay-offs in the construction and export manufacturing sectors," it said.
Thousands of people mobbed a government office in Longnan city, Gansu province, on Monday, torching cars and looting office equipment in a riot sparked by a government scheme to resettle residents, state media reported.
Youtube footage (http:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLxS5buXD0M) showed riot police struggling to restore order while being pelted with stones. Pictures on Chinese web portals showed columns of armed riot police sheltering beneath shields.
Unrest flared again on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency said, prompting authorities to order an evening curfew and close major streets and local businesses.
Local residents contacted by Reuters said calm had returned to the city on Wednesday and blamed heavy-handed police for inflaming the riots, which they said had involved more than 10,000 people.
"Actually, there were only a few thousand petitioners, but police fired tear gas which made women and children sick. This made the others angry," a local hotel worker, who declined to give his name, told Reuters by telephone.
"No one's rioting today, the streets are all closed ... People will be snatched if they go out after 10 p.m. at night, so no-one dares to go out."
The Longnan local government on Tuesday said the riots were caused by "criminal elements" who used a complaint from a few dozen petitioners as a pretext to create wider havoc.
Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu said police "should be fully aware of the challenge brought by the global financial crisis and try their best to maintain social stability," the China Daily quoted him as saying.
Gansu provincial authorities had dispatched an emergency security force to maintain order in Longnan and ordered main streets to close and television stations to let "the masses understand the true situation."
The Longnan rioting follows a number of strikes by taxi drivers and labor protests in the country's major export regions, where thousands of factories have closed in recent months.
Taxi drivers went on strike in three Chinese cities in recent weeks, complaining of high rental fees and competition from unlicensed taxis. Drivers in Sanya, a resort city on the southern province of Hainan, blockaded government offices. Continued...
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