China: Clashes with the chengguan in two cities

RFA/Mandarin — Monday, Feb. 25, 2008. From Hong Kong-based reporter Qiao Long:

Last week in southern China’s Nanning city, a vegetable peddler was beaten up by urban management officers, triggering confrontation between angry bystanders and the officers for about two hours.

According to China’s Nanguo Zaobao newspaper, on the afternoon of Feb. 23, urban management officers, also known as the chengguan, from the Liangqing District confiscated the vegetables belonging to a peddler. The thing happened at the Qianjin Road in the Dashatian area. The middle-aged peddler then picked up a brick to hit the officers’ car. The officers jumped out of the car, trying to pull the peddler into their car. In the process, a witness said, four or five urban management officers beat up the peddler with sugar cane, or kicked him. Angry bystanders encircled the two cars of the officers, blocking their exit.

About 5:30 p.m., at the intersection between Qianjin Road and Bailing Road, there were about several hundreds of watchers with two police cars at the scene. Many police were trying to disperse the crowd but the mob got more and more emotional. The confrontation lasted until 7 p.m. and people gradually left the scene.

An anonymous female peddler who was at the scene told Qiao Long Monday: “I saw the urban management officers beat up that vegetable peddler and it attracted many people to see.”

The Chinese authorities have clear rules for the urban management officers to follow while enforcing the law, with regulations that prohibit officers from abusing their power or beating peddlers. But they usually fine peddlers randomly.

They have also beaten several people to death in well-publicized cases across China.

The woman said “They fine (us). Usually one or two hundred yuan. Otherwise they will confiscate your vegetables. ”

When asked about the image of the chengguan, she answered: “It is of course not good. Peddling or keeping a stall is business; not robbery or theft. Furthermore, the government should not fine us for keeping a stall in front of our home. ”

Nanning City requires that all street vending stalls have to be kept within a house, not on the street. The man who was beaten had moved his stand onto the street.

RFA reporter tried to call the urban management officers’ headquarters in Liangqing District but was told by the operator at the Nanning Telephone Company that their phone number is listed as non-public.

Monday, Feb 25, 2008, from RFA/Mandarin Hong Kong reporter Xin Yu:

More than 100 urban management officers clashed with residents while forcefully demolishing houses in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi last Friday.

According to the rights Web site 64Tianwang.com in China, the officers from Beitang District of the city surrounded the house of local resident Xu Zhenxing. Several officers climbed up to the roof and broke into their home. Xu Miao, son of Xu Zhenxing, rushed to the second floor roof with a knife in his hand to fight the officers.

Xu Miao told RFA on Monday: “I was holding a knife and watching them on the roof when they attempted to get into our house from the neighbor’s roof. My parents said to them ‘if you dare to get in, we will die.’ But they ignored my parents and stormed in. My parents then tried to light the propane cylinder.”

Xu Miao said he was thrown by seven or eight urban management officers from the roof on the ground, and injured. Then the officers detained Xu’s family and those residents who showed sympathy to them, and used bulldozer to demolish their house. “The officers detained several neighbors who took pictures, and confiscated their cameras. They forced me into their vehicle, beating me and another neighbor once we were inside. We were detained over 24 hours and this violated the Chinese law.” Xu said he will sue the officers.

Phone calls to the Beitang District went unanswered. Local resident Zhang Panchang told RFA that the officers demolished six houses including Xu’s. “They don’t have permission for demolition and they are illegal. We tried to sue them in court but our lawsuit was turned down.” Zhang Panchang said that the compensation the authorities offered was 353 yuan per square meter, but the market price was 7,000 to 8,000 yuan per square meter.

Zhang Jianping of 64Tianwang said: “The demolished houses were not illegal structures. Their demolition shows that some officers are in cahoots with developers for illegal profit.”