Chinese village anger erupts against police

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) – Protests against Chinese police erupted
in the home village of a detained rights activist in Shandong
province on Sunday, a week after Premier Wen Jiabao visited the
province to promote “harmony” in the countryside.

Chen Guangcheng has been under unofficial house arrest
since September when local officials sought to silence his
campaign against family planning policies, which he says
include forced late-pregnancy abortions.

His house is usually surrounded by guards at all times and
his phone cut off.

On Sunday, farmers in Chen’s Dongshigu Village protested
the beating and detention of Chen Hua, a cousin and neighbor of
the activist, attacking police vehicles, according to several
villagers in Shandong province in coastal eastern China about
300 km (185 miles) southeast of Beijing.

Chen Guangcheng told Reuters late on Sunday he was able to
briefly leave his house during the disturbances, guarded by a
dozen or so sympathisers.

“The villagers are angry, because they suffer abuse from
these people, as well,” he said by telephone. “It’s bad enough
how they’re treating me, but it’s too much when my neighbor
also suffers just because of me.”

Chen Hua was taken away by police on Sunday, after
venturing close to Cheng Guangcheng’s house four days earlier
and being beaten by guards after an argument, said Chen Hua’s
sister-in-law, Chen Xie.

Chen Hua was close to his activist cousin and has been
detained before for supporting him, she told Reuters. Relatives
and other residents occupied village offices late on Sunday
night demanding Chen Hua’s release, she said.

Another villager estimated about 200 villagers were
involved in the protests on Sunday, and said some broke a
window in a police van. Dozens of officers were brought in to
quell the unrest, he added. He asked his name not be used.

“Villagers had a big reaction,” said Chen Xie, the
relative. “They say we have rights, but where are they now?”
She said the family had no information or official notification
of Chen Hua’s whereabouts.

She said several villagers were injured, but was not sure
how badly. Reuters’ calls to the village office and local
Shuanghou Town Police Station late on Sunday night were not
answered.

Chen Guangcheng, in his mid-30s, is blind and first studied
law textbooks, helped by his wife, to press his rights as a
disabled citizen. He later used his expertise to advise farmers
complaining about corruption and official abuses, including
coercive family planning practices.

Chen’s whistleblowing prompted the government to sack and
detain several officials in Shandong, state media have said.

But officials from Yinan county, which runs Dongshigu,
forcibly brought Chen back from Beijing last September, saying
he was sharing “state secrets” with foreign journalists.

This latest incident is one of the tens of thousands of
protests that Chinese police admit happen every year across the
country, especially the countryside.

Premier Wen toured rural Shandong last week, highlighting
his promise to improve farmers’ healthcare, schools and incomes
in the country’s next five-year development plan.