I am adding a new category to AsiaPundit; "Riot watch."
Reports of rioting in China are not new and I would have a hard time arguing that they are increasing - given that such events were more likely to go unreported in the past. However, anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that the reasons for the riots are becoming more diverse.
A couple of weeks ago, there was a riot reportedly caused by an attempt by traffic police to do their jobs. On Saturday there was news of rioting college students protesting high tuition fees and bad cafeteria food. This is on top of the continuing reports of riots by farmers and rural residents.
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July 4th, 2005 at 4:23 pm
Add one reason: racial tension.
Zibo incident (June 27, 2005)
http://www4.chinesenewsnet.com/gb/MainNews/Forums/BackStage/2005_7_1_19_4_53_792.html
http://spaces.msn.com/members/theareastudy/Blog/cns!1pytDj0jaCUXdJsxas8vSwJA!201.entry
http://www.chinaeforum.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=24608
The Zibo riot from Chinese perspective (warning: could be biased):
The incident was started from a scuffle on basketball field when Xinjiang (uighurs) played against PE department students. On Monday (27th) 30+ Xinjiang students with arms stormed into Dorm No.22 for retaliation, but they didn’t find the ones they saught, so they beat up everyone, a number of Chinese students were injured, one of them the Student Union chairman.
Soon after that, several hundred Chinese students of PE department retaliated. Dorm No 8 where Xinjiang students live was besieged. Chinese students chanting “Xinjiang Pig, go home!” and threw rocks, all windows broken. Then they attacked upstairs and beat 5 Uighur students remaining there, who were severely injured. Chinese students then smashed and threw out Uighurs’ tables, beds, PCs and TV sets.
The riot was only supressed after 5 hours, not until the authority brought in People’s Armed Police.
July 4th, 2005 at 5:40 pm
Asiapundit puts China on “Riot Watch”
Asiapundit puts China on riot watch. Sort of like Standard Poors putting a company on credit watch. Frankly, if China were a company stock, you could be persuaded that its share price has peaked, earnings growth is slowing and there