The strife that engulfed the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region with irate
residents attacking government workers and police across seven
towns has come to an end. The protests were sparked by anger at
government family planning law enforcement measures, said officials
on Tuesday.
Twenty-eight people have been detained by police, suspected with
starting the violence.?
On Thursday last week, around 300 residents converged on the
town of Dungu in Bobai County and attacked government workers and
police, revealed the county government. The violence spread to six
other towns in Bobai County over the next two days with some
government offices and documents by protestors, while vehicles were
set alight.
Residents complained that local government workers had been rude
and had collected illegal fees when dealing with family planning
policy violators. Bobai County’s population now stands at 1.6
million, a population explosion from the 490,000 seen in 1949.
"The population has grown too fast, which has caused a sharp
reduction in the per capita available land of the county," said a
local official.
China brought in a national family planning policy in the late
1970s which encouraged young couples to only have one child. This
was accompanied in 2002 by a further population and family planning
law.
Bobai residents regularly flout these laws due to a persistent
belief that a larger family will result in a happier life. As a
result, the county's family planning workers have led large-scale
campaigns to ensure compliance and curb the population boom.
?
"There may be problems with the family planning work of the
government, which has prompted complaints from residents," said
Huang Shaoming, head of the Bobai county government.
Huang Wei, a deputy head of the Bobai county government, also
speculated that other individuals may also have fueled the
residents’ anger and pushed them to attack the authorities,
Yulin City, which administers Bobai County, has sent around
4,200 government officials to 28 townships for face-to-face
meetings with the residents to address their complaints.
(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2007)