Rioting in Taizhou China

There was reportedly rioting in Taizhou, China on Tuesday. At issue were allegations of ‘illegal land grabs’. In China a land grab is where the locals who have a right to occupy the land are sometimes forcibly removed from that land without adequate compensation. In the past such behaviors have lead locals to set themselves on fire and or fight with the local authorities.

In this case, the riot allegedly broke out when a local governmental official , allegedly got into a physical confrontation with a local blue collar worker and struck him. The people from a surrounding village, upon hearing that a man had been struck, rushed to the area and surrounded the offending official. The reason for the anger is that these people feel powerless and abused and are no longer willing to suffer at the hands of the monied.

The result was that riot police were called in to calm the nerves of the locals.

photo from here http://critic.chariweb.com/2011/06/security-clampdown-in-taizhou.html