LOCAL ISSUES DRIVE DISTURBANCES IN SOUTHWEST CHINA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000152 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM NSC FOR CHRISTINA COLLINS E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/15/2017 TAGS: PGOV ECON SOCI CH SUBJECT: LOCAL ISSUES DRIVE DISTURBANCES IN SOUTHWEST CHINA REF: BEIJING 3831 CHENGDU 00000152 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: James Boughner, Acting Consul General, Chengdu, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Early summer has seen the occurrence of several public disturbances in southwest China. Efforts by authorities to crack down on illegal vendors brought many people onto the streets in Chongqing, and a similar case in Chengdu resulted in the severe beating of a bystander. Although still unconfirmed, several ethnic Tibetans may have died in a protest in western Sichuan over mining in an area regarded as sacred by locals. Most anger appears directed at local officials and not the Central Government - but discussions with locals revealed memories of the 1989 democracy movement are still alive among older residents. End summary. -------------- FLASHPOINT: FLOWER VENDORS IN CHONGQING -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Although local media were apparently banned from reporting on the incident, Hong Kong and international media carried stories about a "riot" involving as many as 10,000 people in the Nan'an district of Chongqing on June 9. According to those reports (including one in the June 10 edition of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post),municipal enforcement authorities attempted a crackdown on unlicensed flower vendors, and may have used excessive force resulting in the death of at least one man. As locals heard about the crackdown, they poured into the streets to protest, only to face "hundreds" of rapidly mustered police. ¶3. (C) Despite the local news blackout on the disturbance, several blogs ran descriptions of the incident. Most of those blogs appear to have been shut down soon afterwards, but as of June 13 one was still functioning, and included photos of angry crowds, as well as people apparently lying unconscious in the street after an alleged beating. See . ¶4. (C) Local officials issued no statement, but one employee of the Nan'an District City Management Team Office contacted by phone by Consulate staff confirmed the riot had indeed occurred. However, the employee (who did not give her name) characterized the event as "not as serious as reported online." She said that several illegal flower sellers had indeed been temporarily hospitalized as the result of injuries, but claimed no one had died. She also alleged that five city inspectors had been injured in the fray, one seriously. She blamed the incident on the failure of the flower sellers to obey the law, despite repeated warnings. ¶5. (SBU) Background note: The Nan'an District is part of the downtown Chongqing Municipality, with a population of approximately 450,000. The disturbance occurred on Danzhishi Street, which is located in an industrial and commercial area. As is the case in Chongqing generally, the area is home to many displaced farmers and migrant workers, and street vending is a source of income for many of these relatively uneducated individuals. -------------- FLASHPOINT: VEGETABLE SELLERS IN CHENGDU -------------- ¶6. (SBU) An unusually pointed article in the June 12 edition of the "Chengdu Today" newspaper carried a photograph of a young man lying unconscious on the ground, with the apparently ironic caption "City Enforcement Officials: One Man Attacked Seven of Us." The text of the accompanying article said that enforcement officials had swept through a vegetable market in Chengdu, only to encounter heckling from a crowd, including the 20 year-old man who was the subject of the photograph. Seven of the officers then allegedly beat the young man severely, afterwards claiming that he had attacked them. Meanwhile, other bystanders called the police emergency number to complain about the excessive use of force, and another photo showed a large group of horrified-looking onlookers with the caption, "A Crowd Points Out the Enforcement Officials." The overall tone of the article was highly critical of the enforcement officials and of their attempts to justify their actions. The article did not specify the total number of people involved in the disturbance. ¶7. Background note: The unlicensed sale of local produce has apparently become a source of friction between urban and rural residents in Chengdu. Farmers seeking higher prices for their CHENGDU 00000152 002.2 OF 002 produce often enter the city and attempt to sell from unlicensed stalls. At the same time, the city's neighborhood associations earn money from renting space in established produce markets, and complain to authorities of the loss of income due to unlicensed sellers. -------------- --- FLASHPOINT: MINING DEVELOPMENT IN A TIBETAN AREA -------------- --- ¶7. (SBU) Interrnational wire services carried an article on June 11 claiming that more than 400 ethnic Tibetans in western Sichuan's Daofu County (Ganzi Prefecture) had clashed with police and local government officials on May 27. The action was characterized as a protest against mining development on a mountain (Yalashan) regarded as sacred. According to the article, local residents alleged that several ethnic Tibetans were killed and others arrested, although official sources denied this. The Consulate has to date been unable to obtain independent confirmation of this incident. -------------- -------------- CENTRAL GOVERNMENT SEEN FAVORABLY, BUT 1989 NOT FORGOTTEN -------------- -------------- ¶8. (C) Following these events, and following the recent publication in the Chengdu Evening News of a small classified ad expressing sympathy for those involved in the 1989 crackdown against democracy protesters (reftel),Congenoff interviewed a number of local residents on their attitude toward their government, and on their knowledge of history. ¶9. (C) Most subjects born after 1980 had little or no knowledge of the Tiananmen protests, or of the associated events in Chengdu. Most expressed little or no interest in national politics generally, and when asked about governmental shortcomings, most pointed to corruption among local officials. A common complaint was increased housing prices, which many blamed on improper real estate deals by the rich and powerful. One young woman, a doctoral student in philosophy, told of a recent discussion with her peers on the problems of China's government, in which the general consensus was, "the Central Government is doing a good job, but local governments are obstructing the implementation of its policies." She also said that most students expressed the belief that corruption was far more commonplace among local officials. ¶10. (C) When prompted, older residents recalled the events of ¶1989. A 55 year-old taxi driver became quite serious when asked about the meaning of "6-4," saying "blood ran like a river in the streets then." He added, "That was in the past, a long time ago." Another interviewee, an artist in her 30s, said she understood that the crackdown in Chengdu was China's second bloodiest after Beijing, and she remembered that many students from her middle school had gone to participate in the protests. A member of Consulate's LES staff told of a professor at Sichuan Normal University who maintained such indignation over the crackdown that he had managed to buy license plates for his car with the numbers "6489" on them. -------------- COMMENT: IT'S LOCAL, MOSTLY -------------- ¶11. (C) At this point, most of Southwest China's recent social disturbances appear to be limited in their focus, arising out of perceptions of abusive or illegal actions by local officials, perhaps exacerbated by rich-poor and urban-rural tensions (of course, the Daofu County incident may involve more complicated ethnic issues as well). Although older residents often remember the 1989 crackdown vividly, their memories do not seem to translate into anger against China's Central Government - and those memories may be fading quickly. Even though the sources of anger may be local, though, they may also indicate a deeper shift in attitudes: heightened expectations of the fair administration of government, and an increased willingness to express anger when those expectations are not met. BOUGHNER