June 29, 2008
Riot in Weng'an County, Guizhou Province
Several thousand rioters have gathered in Guizhou's Weng'an County, torched a police station, ransacked government buildings and overturned police cars, after allegations of a cover-up over a 15 year old girl's death blew up. Ming Pao reports the son of the county's vice-deputy mayor had raped and murdered the girl along with another youth and tossed her body into the Ximen River. Police only detained the suspects for five hours and released them without charge. EastSouthWestNorth says unconfirmed, conflicting reports are now swirling around the Internet but has several telling pictures which indicate a large proportion of the population was out on the streets. [Xinhua] [Reuters] [AP] [AFP] [Youtube videos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
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The readiness of people to believe such a story, that a party cadre protects his relative from punishment for a hideous crime, shows the sorry state of affairs in china, the low regard of the people for anything related to the political establishment.
The call for an impartial, fair and independent judiciary in china is loud and clear.
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This story, along with similar ones recounting public denouncements of officials and official rhetoric seems to show a growing cease of the general populace to be indifferent or passive any longer. It is as if the Chinese people, when confronted with so much corruption, are finally saying, "Enough!". While the violence is never warranted, perhaps a positive result can be obtained over time.