Read the background in this post here. Here’s the blog of the guy who did it. Photo courtesy of this blogger, thanks to Chinese blog equivalent of the Superfriends, Memedia.
Goddammit, why do I always run into this stuff just when I’m leaving town for a couple of days???
Dave, have you had a text about a march on June 1st? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a big environmental march like this in China, pretty exciting stuff!
My calendar was, in fact, already marked.
See you there?
I guess so. My text was pretty vague, just said head towards the municipal government. I’m coming from the Huli direction. If you hear any more, drop me a line: 13859989037
Oh, just for your amusement: Xiamen Daily has shut down all debate about this. Journos from the Daily or its sister papers will not be covering the march, and I hear the online forums were shut down to prevent discussion. Despite how sad it is, it’s still funny.
See you there.
Xiamen anti-PX rally
The rally this morning opposite the City Government building in Xiamen started somewhat inauspiciously at about five past eight when a man holding a yellow cloth marched across the road to the gate to confront the police. Someone shouted thief, and that gave the police an excuse to bundle him into a van, with much pushing and shoving.
After that things remained quiet for a while. The number of people gradually increased, mostly quiet spectators sitting along the pavement. The police seemed slightly bemused by the whole thing, and busied themselves with keeping people on the other side of the road to the government building. At about 8.30 the crowd had started to get more concentrated and noisier. At this point, the police were attempting to prevent more people arriving, blocking the pavements and the road, but people were cutting across the lawns of the People’s Conference Hall, which is opposite the government building, and the crowd kept growing. I was asked to move on by a courteous young man, who said the sight of a demonstration was “not suitable” for foreigners, and I obliged. Staying on the fringes of the action, I couldn’t see very clearly, but I estimate that there may have been over 500 people there as the shouting began.
At 8.40 shouts of “Protect Xiamen” and “Stop PX” were orchestrated, but I couldn’t see who by. Banners were unfolded and hands raised, though the yellow ribbons that the announcements had called for were all but absent. The police may have been confiscating them – I saw one guy stopped because he was carrying a yellow handkerchief. He stood and talked and joked with the police for a while, but I didn’t see what happened in the end.
The knot of people waving banners and shouting spread across the road. A man who lived in Haicang wandered over and talked to me, saying he had told them not to make for the gates of the government building, but they wouldn’t listen. We’re here to shout and get heard, he said. The point is that the international media report on this, the Party won’t take any notice otherwise.
He also suggested that the idea for a the rally had been planted by the mass rallies in Taiwan, given lavish coverage on Xiamen TV because they were anti-Chen Shui-bian. Given the strong colour-coding urged by the organisers, he might just be right.
The banners eventually started to move, and for a moment it seemed as though they would be marching passively along the pavement, as the police appeared to be urging. At the last moment, though, they turned out into the road, and the crowd marched down the middle of Hubin Bei Road to Dongdu (a distance of a few hundred metres) and back. The police were still arresting individuals throughout this, and the numbers seemed to be reducing. By the time they turned around there were only a couple of hundred people. I didn’t follow them any further, so I don’t know what happened when they got back to the City Government building.
NOW WE FINALLY SEE THE FACE UNDER THE MASK…THE DEVIL-LIKE OFFICIALS WHO EARN DIRTY MONEY ON THE COST OF RESIDENTS’ LIVES.
THE LAST STRAW IS DOWN. GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS STUB PX-KNIFE INTO RESIDENTS’ CHEST, RIP OUT THE HEARTS, AND TRAMPLE THE HEARTS.