Thousands of workers in Dongguan, Guangdong Province staged a massive strike against new regulations imposed by their factory management on Thursday. Thousands of workers besieged their factory in Dongguan's Huangjiang Township and blockaded the town's main road. At one point, protesters were said to have numbered over 10,000. Conflicts broke out between riot police and protesting workers as the police tried to prevent workers from approaching the government building. Dozens of workers reportedly suffered head wounds after they were beaten by riot police. more ›

(Warning: Video shows images of the deceased) Beaten to death at the hands of the universally-despised chengguan (城管), news of a street vendor's unjust demise in Anshun (安顺), Guizhou has gone viral and sparked rioting throughout the city. more ›

On the morning of July 23, in reaction to a dispute over the ownership of a local fish pond, villagers near Foshan, Guangdong arrived at the local fish market carrying weapons, planning to "teach a lesson" to the head of the fish market. When police arrived to investigate, the villagers attacked and overturned the police vehicle. They then tied the officers to the overturned vehicle, and began pouring gasoline around them! more ›

Calm appears to have been restored to Zengcheng in Guangdong province, after thousands of riot police armed with tear gas and shotguns were moved into the city. Massive rioting began in the town's Xintang district after a few chengguan pushed a pregnant street vendor Sichuan as they tried to move her food stall off the street. As Li Yinhe mused just a few days ago, the Chinese government's increasingly outmoded method of the use of force may have once again successfully restored calm on the surface, but it will have done nothing to address the simmering discontent. Here's some raw footage from AFP of what it looks like in Zengcheng now. more ›

The past week has seen an unnerving amount of violence and unrest in China. Here's a roundup of what's happening: more ›

Hundreds of angry truck drivers blockaded Shanghai's Baoshan port yesterday as part of a three day strike against rising fuel prices and higher handling fees charged by the port. more ›

Hopefully none of you were planning a trip to Tibet in the next few weeks, because China says you can't go. Next week marks the third anniversary of anti-government riots, and travel agents confirmed Monday that they are not allowed to bring foreign tourists to Tibet during March. No word yet whether they will open it back up in April. According to Chinese authorities, the restrictions are to prevent overcrowding during religious festivals, and because Tibet is probably far, far too cold for tourists at the moment. In their standard, bumbling PR, Xinhua insists "Local authorities do not hope there is something wrong with foreign tourists..." more ›

On the heels of nine executions last month, five more have been sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi for crimes committed during the July riots. They were found guilty of killing a police officer and kicking bystanders to death. Two others were sentenced to life in prison; the names of all accused indicate that they are ethnically Uyghur. Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the exiled World Uyghur Congress (and all around Uyghur-rights activist) further iterated her earlier criticisms of the Xinjiang trials in an e-mail statement, claiming that the government has "brazenly ignored all standards of due process." more ›

Nine people were executed yesterday for their involvement in the Xinjiang riots earlier this summer. Among the nine, two were ethnically Han, and the other seven were of Uighur descent. The exiled World Uighur Congress denounced the executions as unfair and unjust, claiming that the government had denied the prisoners a final visit from their families. In addition, twenty more people were indicted in relation to eighteen deaths during the riots. more ›

If you've never seen Far West China, it's a pretty fantastic blog written by an American expat living in Xinjiang. Since the unrest in Xinjiang this summer, the blog has become a platform for airing the Kafkaesque circumstances that have been imposed on the region. From posts on the psychological effects of the complete internet blackout to the numerous new security checks at mosques and on buses, as well as the increases in tourism to Dunhuang for web access, the blog chronicles the very human issues involved. Personally, we can't even imagine what months without internet would be like, and we're sure that's the least of their concerns. Photo byRemko Tanis @ flickr more ›

Six more people have been sentenced to death over murders committed during the Xinjiang riots, bringing the total number of people facing execution up to twelve. Three of the six were given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, which usually means that they will be commuted to life in prison. The new verdicts come after a Han Chinese man was put on death row for murdering two Uyghurs over rape rumors in Shaoguan, Guangdong - the act which triggered protests in Xinjiang in the first place. more ›

A Han Chinese man was sentenced to death months after the murder of two Uighyrs suspected of raping two Han Chinese factory workers in Shaoguan. In addition, nine other Han Chinese were sentenced to between five and eight years in prison for the murders. Since the attacks were the spark that erupted the racial riots in Xinijang this summer, we guess this is the government's attempt to smooth over ethnic tension in the new frontier. But in light of the many, many other ethnically charged rules and regulations in effect since the riots, we have our doubts that this is the right path for closure on the issue. more ›

A lot has changed since we last reported on the recent syringe stabbings in Xinjiang. First, remember how we said that only a handful of people had been stabbed? Well, it turns out that the actual number is around 470, according to a recent post from AGI News in Beijing. What's worse, CCTV reported that the needles are now presumed to have been filled with AIDS contaminated blood. As a result, government officials have claimed the attacks were carried out by members of the Uyghur minority, which triggered a spat of protests by Han Chinese for more forceful persecution of Uyghur separatists related to the original protests in July. more ›

In the most recent tiff over pollution, villagers in Fujian attacked police and took local officials hostage to protest a sewage treatment plant (next to a tannery and oil refinery) that they said was polluting the environment - evidenced by foul smells coming form the building. While the protests had occured over several days - ever snce the plant sent a major stench through the area on August 19 - on Monday, things boiled over. 10,000 people confronted 2,000 riot police and at least 10 people were injured with the demonstrations turned violent, according to South China Morning Post. more ›

Although the violence in Xinjiang has calmed down, tensions are still high as the Chinese government ordered mosques in Urumqi not to open for Jumu’ah, Friday prayers. According to the BBC, an unnamed government official told the AFP news agency that the order not to open for prayers’ on Friday, the holiest day of the week in Islam, was because of fears of further unrest, saying “For the sake of public safety, all of the mosques have told people that there will be no Friday prayers and that people should stay at home today and pray,” But the government’s imposition may do more harm than good. One Uighur man told Reuters, “Jumu'ah (Friday) is the time of the week when we must pray. For us, it would be an insult to shut it down… If we're not allowed to hold normal religious activities, there will be a lot of anger." more ›

• West miscasts Tiananmen protesters [Financial Times] "To say the demonstrations were to “demand democracy” is an oversimplification. The truth is that the students in the square had only the haziest understanding of western-style democracy."

Due to the ongoing riots in Thailand, the Chinese government has issued a warning suggesting that tourists postpone their trips into the country. According to the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok, all Chinese travelers in the country are currently believed to be fine, but that the unstable political situation should be taken into account. Many tourism companies insisted they had modified their tours to stay away from places near the riots and could guarantee the safety of Chinese tourists, however they would refund delayed or canceled trips. Last week, the riots, carried out by supporters of ousted ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, forced the shutdown of the ASEAN convention and the quick evacuation of some of Asia's top leaders from the country. Yesterday, they escalated into violent confrontations with troops, leaving scores wounded and two dead. more ›

AP: Job outlook in China 'grim' more ›

After Xinhua reported that county officials in Weng’an—including its Communist Party secretary, Wang Qin, and head of the county government, Wang Haiping—were fired on Friday following the June 28 riots, Western media has hailed Weng’an as a turning point for China. Both WSJ and TIME remark that Xinhua’s handling of the Weng’an incident is remarkable in itself; not only did state media report the riots almost immediately, but quickly produced "unusually long investigative stories." Adding to this assemblage of information are the voices of Chinese bloggers, who are doing their part to increase transparency in China. "Aggressive Chinese bloggers make an art of challenging Chinese government propaganda. This week, they can claim a victory," writes Geoffrey Fowler and Juliet Ye for the Wall Street Journal. "The Weng'an incident and its seemingly more open coverage are signs of the greater latitude enjoyed by the state media in the wake of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake," adds Simon Elegant of TIME. more ›

While yet more versions of the Weng'an, Guizhou riot have surfaced on the internet, the Guizhou provincial government has also finally given its version — which, believe it or not, has sparked off a new pop phrase on the Chinese internet — "I'm here to do push-ups" (我来做俯卧撑的). Netizens are now suddenly flooding the forums with pictures of TV host Ou Zhihang (区志航) doing push-ups in his birthday suit by famous Chinese landmarks such as the Tiananmen in Beijing, Lujiazui in Shanghai and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou. more ›

As usual, Roland Soong of EastSouthWestNorth is on top of the incident, busy piecing together all the information he can find. He informs us that Weng'an is now a sensitive word, the uncle of the female student is still alive, and the body of the student is still resting in a refrigerated coffin awaiting autopsy despite this popularly-believed story. Soong also observes that the Xinhua story (which all Chinese media are made to carry) opens more questions than it answers, paving the way for all sorts of unsubstantiated rumours to dominate public opinion. more ›

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] more ›

Reuters: Visitors recount Tibet violence, tell of troops more ›

What would you do if you paid a shitload of money to study at some college, thinking it would legit and all, only to be told that your diploma would not be recognised after all? We don't know about you, but we would definitely riot. Well, that's what some civilian students at the Hefei PLA Artillery Academy did a few days back. And it turned out to be a very bloody incident. Iron doors were... more ›