Mass Incident in Weng'an

[Liquid Blue]

There have been recent "mass incidents" (read; riots) in China in which the rural country folk have rebelled and rioted to protest the corruption of the government. About 15 minutes ago I found out about the riot in Weng'an, which happened right before the Olympic games at the end of June.

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20080701_1.htm

Rioters torched a police building and vehicles in southwest China on Saturday, in unrest triggered by allegations of a cover-up over a girl's death, according to Chinese accounts on the Internet. The reports of the clash in Weng'an County, Guizhou province, could not be immediately verified and government and police did not answer phone calls in the early hours of Sunday. But the accounts spreading on the Internet, despite China's state censorship, depicted a violent outburst involving thousands of people and lasting several hours.

Residents were enraged by allegations that police had ignored a family's claim that their 15-year old daughter, whose body was found in a river a week ago, appeared to have been raped and possibly murdered, the accounts said. Blogs linked to the popular Sina.com Chinese website (www.sina.com.cn) showed pictures of thousands of people surrounding a police headquarters, riot police guarding the burning shell of the building, and burnt and overturned police vehicles.

Check out the pictures at the link too.

I'm still reading the article now, but so far I'm surprised I didn't hear about this before on any news website. China really didn't want any bad publicity before the games, I guess.

[Izor]

wtf is Weng'an? sounds like somethin off WoW

[Mantra-Slider]

alot of versions there. do we find out what happend after?

[Hakaku]

My guess would be that they did exactly what the Burmese did one year ago; send the army in, get rid of all media, disperse the crowds away, block and remove all Weng'an related internet words, posts, etc. Oh, and do a bit of reform in the local government by replacing some authorities. Especially considering that the games were approaching, and later the Sichuan earthquake took place, which became political milestones aimed at diverting attention from negative problems.

But the crowd was basically fueled by false information. The girl (Li) was never raped, doubtfully killed, and neither was her uncle ever killed. Autopsies and reports after the riot confirmed much of this, meaning that the government was for some part factually correct for once. But, it does point out a larger issue of problems related to the disconnection between Chinese citizens (especially from rural areas) and the government as a whole. Thus, the violence thereafter between the two entities was to be expected; as can also be observed in the battle over Tibet, and the protests which attracted hundreds of thousands in Burma led by ordinary monks.

[Capital Knockers]

My guess would be that they did exactly what the Burmese did one year ago; send the army in, get rid of all media, disperse the crowds away, block and remove all Weng'an related internet words, posts, etc. Oh, and do a bit of reform in the local government by replacing some authorities. Especially considering that the games were approaching, and later the Sichuan earthquake took place, which became political milestones aimed at diverting attention from negative problems.

But the crowd was basically fueled by false information. The girl (Li) was never raped, doubtfully killed, and neither was her uncle ever killed. Autopsies and reports after the riot confirmed much of this, meaning that the government was for some part factually correct for once. But, it does point out a larger issue of problems related to the disconnection between Chinese citizens (especially from rural areas) and the government as a whole. Thus, the violence thereafter between the two entities was to be expected; as can also be observed in the battle over Tibet, and the protests which attracted hundreds of thousands in Burma led by ordinary monks.

Who did the autopsy? If it was the Chinese government, do you think they'd say anything other than she wasn't raped, and perhaps not killed? I really doubt that there would be a trustworthy, neutral party, that could be trusted to examine the girl. The uncle may not be dead, but he looked pretty damn bad. Good for China, I hope to see alot more of this in general, the people using their numbers to force change in government.

[Hakaku]

Who did the autopsy? If it was the Chinese government, do you think they'd say anything other than she wasn't raped, and perhaps not killed? I really doubt that there would be a trustworthy, neutral party, that could be trusted to examine the girl. The uncle may not be dead, but he looked pretty damn bad. Good for China, I hope to see alot more of this in general, the people using their numbers to force change in government.

Read and conclude yourself. At any rate, the family was convinced it was a murder + cop rape, and is still convinced, and will probably always be convinced of so; thus the case will always remain unsettled for those who believe it is so. Any further autopsies from the ones done afterwards can't be made because the parents have long burried the girl, and it would be highly unlikely that rural Chinese tradition would allow unearthing the body after having laid it to rest. From the site LB linked:

(Xinhua) Final autopsy shows girl in southwest China protest drowned. July 11, 2008.

The girl whose death sparked violent protest in southwest China's Guizhou province was drowned, confirmed authorities after the final eight-day autopsy on Wednesday.

Qu Jianping, the doctor in charge of the third and final autopsy, went to Weng'an County Wednesday to convey the results to the family of Li Shufen.

An examination on the vagina of 17-year-old Li Shufen shows that she was still a virgin at her death, dispelling rumors that she was raped before her death.

A team composed of four doctors failed to find sperms inside and her maidenhead was still complete.

The examination was done last Wednesday witnessed by Li's father, aunt, and two others.

Apart from scratches on her right cheek and legs, experts who anatomized her head and body didn't find deadly injuries, said Qu.

The doctors concluded that the scratches were not a result of assaults but was caused when Li struggled in the water or when her body was salvaged.

No toxin was found in her stomach, Qu added.

Experts also found blood spots on her conjunctiva and pericardiac velum and said the girl had swollen lungs, signs that she died after falling into water.

The dead girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng'an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22.

This was the third postmortem and previous reports concluded she had drowned, but her relatives contended that she was murdered. Some suspected that Li was raped and killed by people who had connections with local government officials.

Some people said they found blood on the spot. The autopsy report, however, said the blood was not of human being, but that of an animal yet to be decided.

And again posted on China.org.cn, and referenced on Wikipedia.

[genocidal]

if thred is about azns thne:

do not care-_- :shock1: :cowboy:

[Salubrious]

15 or 17?

[DankNuggets]

kinda old for middle school isn't it?

i guess i'm overlooking the obvious here, but couldn't someone have caused her to drown? i mean it wouldn't take a lot of physical effort to push someone in a river if they couldn't swim, they'd drown without a lot of marks unless they put up a good fight.

[Salubrious]

Middle school is 3 years and high school is 3 years in China.

And then the river water washed all the semen out of her vagina, and the river's current pushed her hymen back into place, correct?

[PH]

do not care-_- :shock1: :cowboy:

:*)

[DankNuggets]

Middle school is 3 years and high school is 3 years in China.

And then the river water washed all the semen out of her vagina, and the river's current pushed her hymen back into place, correct?

so they graduate when they're 20? (or is it 15 + 3 =18? conflicting ages)

i never said she was raped, the 'evidence' (assuming you can believe it) suggests she wasn't. It doesn't however rule her drowning as accidental. Either way i think the whole point of this (somewhat amorally) is that they suppressed news of the riots, not that the girl died.

[Hakaku]

15 or 17?

Neither, she was 16 years old at the time (born in 1991), and would have been a 3rd year student in Middle School. Unlike the West, in Asia, both Middle school and High School are 3 years each. As so, they graduate at roughly the same age as us; the only exception being that the school year usually starts in April and ends in March. (Although China might follow the Western academic year)

[DankNuggets]

Neither, she was 16 years old at the time (born in 1991), and would have been a 3rd year student in Middle School. Unlike the West, in Asia, both Middle school and High School are 3 years each. As so, they graduate at roughly the same age as us; the only exception being that the school year usually starts in April and ends in March. (Although China might follow the Western academic year)

what age do they start elementary (primary) school? do they have K-5 there?

because we have 3 yrs for middle and 4 for high school here, which means if she was 16 she'd be in her second year of high school. It would imply that in asian schools you don't enter high school untill you're 17.. and graduate when you're 20. It would be the same # of years i guess if they started school at 7-8 instead 5-6.

this seems backward because the only person i really know who went to highschool in an asian country was a senior at 16 in S. Korea, moved here at 17, and was placed in the 2nd to last grade (junior or 11th) at my HS. He said if he didn't move here, he would've graduated at the end of that year, at 17/18 like we do here.