Rioting farmers detained in China
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, May 23, 2007
BEIJING – Authorities detained 28 people after farmers rioted to protest fines levied on those who had more children than allowed under China’s family planning policy, state media said Wednesday.
Between 300 and 3,000 people were involved in the demonstrations outside government offices last weekend across six towns in Bobai, a county in southern Guangxi region, the Xinhua News Agency said in the first official account of the violence.
“They verbally abused and attacked government workers and civil police,” Xinhua said. “In some cases, the county government office’s main gate, its walls, office equipment, documents and archives were damaged. A few people burned and damaged cars and some motorcycles.”
Some 28 people have been detained on suspicion of passing on details of the demonstration, as well as provoking and participating in the violence, Xinhua said.
The Xinhua report said the protest was triggered by unhappiness over fines that villagers said were imposed “arbitrarily and brutally” as a way to control population growth in the area. It did not give any details.
China’s family planning policy – implemented in the late 1970s – limits most urban couples to one child and families in some rural areas to two to control population growth and conserve natural resources.
Villagers said local regulations allow families to have two children if the first is a girl. Families are limited to one child if the first is a boy. No one can have more than two children.
Critics say China’s family planning policy has led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio due to a traditional preference for male heirs, which has prompted countless families to abort female fetuses in hopes of getting boys.
Reports earlier this week said that all public servants had been ordered to collect fines from people who violated the family planning policy. If violators failed to pay within three days, their homes would be demolished and their belongings seized.
One villager said some fees were as high as $1,300 – an unmanageable amount for an area where most annual incomes were only $130.
