Calm was restored to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen yesterday after hundreds of rioters attacked police to protest the death of a motorcyclist, police and witnesses said.
Anger flared when Li Guochao (李國超), 31, crashed into a lamppost after a local official threw a walkie-talkie at him as he sped away from a checkpoint, the city’s public security bureau said in a statement.
Protests, led by Li’s angry family, broke into anti-police violence on Friday afternoon and lasted until the early hours yesterday, with rioters burning a police car, the statement said.
The protest was the latest in a series of confrontations over social issues in China, where tens of thousands of riots erupt each year, many stemming from grievances over abuse of power, corruption or land grabs.
The street where the violence took place had returned to normal yesterday afternoon, with vendors working and shops open, a reporter at the scene said.
There was a beefed up police presence outside the station near where the riots took place.
“There were thousands of people trying to get close to the police station,” said one shop owner, who witnessed the riots.
“They tried to turn over the police car and people were smashing the windows with knives,” said the woman, who did not want to be named.
The police statement said the official who threw the walkie-talkie was not a police officer, and that the only police presence was a traffic officer 300m away from the checkpoint.
“However, the relatives of Li Guochao thought that the checkpoint was organized by the police,” the statement said.
Li had been stopped at the checkpoint in the city’s Bao’an district, the statement said. He was carrying a passenger, who got off before Li sped away. An official tried to block his path, but was ignored and then threw the walkie-talkie at Li, who lost control of his motorcycle and then crashed into the lamppost, the statement said.
He was taken to hospital where he died a few hours later, the statement said.
Li’s relatives called together a group of around 30 people and at around 2:30pm, they carried Li’s body to the police station, “smashed things” and started setting off firecrackers, the statement said.
By 5pm, more than 400 people had gathered at the police detachment with more than 2,000 others watching nearby. Some people threw stones and set fire to a police car, the statement said.
Police were only able to disperse the crowd at 2am. There were no other reports of injuries.
The official who threw the walkie-talkie has been detained by police, the statement said.
Shenzhen is a thriving city of more than 8 million people, lying just across the border from Hong Kong.
It has been transformed from a fishing village over the past 30 years after it was chosen by former leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) to be at the vanguard of economic reforms.
People living in the area said the checkpoints had been set up to enforce a ban on motorcycles, set up after a spate of muggings by riders who snatched handbags.
One taxi driver in Shenzhen said it was widely believed that some of the police in the area were corrupt.
“The police say they are working for the people, but what actually happens is they just work for money,” said the driver, who only gave his surname as Ma.
In June, tens of thousands of people rioted in southwest Guizhou Province over claims police had covered up the alleged rape and murder of a teenage girl.
And last month a Shanghai court rejected an appeal from an unemployed man who became an unlikely cult hero after murdering six policemen in what he said was revenge for a wrongful arrest.
His case became a lightning rod for controversy by raising questions about police harassment, with some regarding him as a victim who stood up to abuse commonly suffered by marginalized people in Chinese society.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS