Riots have broken out in Guizhou after the death of a 17-year old girl, Li Shufen. As far as I understand, Li’s body was found in a river. Police said it was a case of drowning, but her family believes she was raped and killed by relatives of local officials. When police insisted that a preliminary investigation had found no evidence of murder, riots broke out involving up to thirty thousand people. Police cleared the crowds with tear gas, and are now patrolling the streets.
State-run media has started broadcasting news identifying rioters as hooligans, which has only enraged people further. Claims and counter-claims have been posted on the internet, many of them taking their arguments beyond the specifics of this case, and complaining of official corruption in general. The authorities are deleting these posts as fast as they appear. Some netizens are posting via sites which re-format their posts so that the lines run vertically rather than horizontally. This is the classic style for writing Chinese, so it's a very elegant way of getting around censors.
This is one of the largest incidents of mass unrest in recent years, and will unsettle the already unsettled Communist Party before the Olympics, likely making them clamp down further on anyone they see as a ‘trouble-maker’.
Every time I ask anyone Chinese why the Communist Party is so obsessed by security at the Olympics they reply, ‘Because they are afraid.’ Incidents like this – and according to official figures there are thousands of smaller riots or demonstrations every year – explain why.
I have written, for the Comment is Free section of the Guardian Online, about the massacre of 1989, and the fact that in my opinion, it is not forgotten. If you are interested, you can read my post here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/30/china