H
HagiaSophia
Guest
Armed with pipes and shovels and wearing hard hats, the Chinese toughs shouted “charge” and waded into a throng of squatting farmers fighting to retain their land.
The skirmish lasts a few minutes and leaves at least one man down, an attacker flailing at his limp body with a pole, according to video footage obtained by the Washington Post of the clash in China’s northern province of Hebei surrounding the capital, Beijing.
Moments later a bright explosion and what appear to be gunshots mark the start of a second charge. Screams and shouts of “Run!” and the villagers’ stand crumbles.
The last shot ends frozen, the camera tilted to one side.
The footage, which the Post said was given to it by farmers, highlights one of a growing number of disputes over land rights in China, where protests take place daily and the top leadership places an overriding emphasis on the need for social stability.
About 58,000 protests took place across the country in 2003, according to a report in the Communist Party-backed magazine Outlook. The state-controlled media are barred from freely reporting on many protests, and details are often hard to come by. Video footage of a violent protest is rarer still.
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=3&u=/nm/20050616/wl_nm/china_riot_dc
The skirmish lasts a few minutes and leaves at least one man down, an attacker flailing at his limp body with a pole, according to video footage obtained by the Washington Post of the clash in China’s northern province of Hebei surrounding the capital, Beijing.
Moments later a bright explosion and what appear to be gunshots mark the start of a second charge. Screams and shouts of “Run!” and the villagers’ stand crumbles.
The last shot ends frozen, the camera tilted to one side.
The footage, which the Post said was given to it by farmers, highlights one of a growing number of disputes over land rights in China, where protests take place daily and the top leadership places an overriding emphasis on the need for social stability.
About 58,000 protests took place across the country in 2003, according to a report in the Communist Party-backed magazine Outlook. The state-controlled media are barred from freely reporting on many protests, and details are often hard to come by. Video footage of a violent protest is rarer still.
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=3&u=/nm/20050616/wl_nm/china_riot_dc