MCLC: standoff with official at Changbai Mt.

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: standoff with official at Changbai Mt.
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Source: NYT (7/17/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/world/asia/in-china-long-wait-leads-to-st
andoff-with-officials.html

In China, Wait Leads to Standoff With Official
By ANDREW JACOBS 

BEIJING — The Chinese sometimes display a remarkable tolerance for those
who cut in line, but such forbearance apparently has its limits when they
are government officials.

Thousands of people threw water bottles and blocked traffic at a popular
nature preserve in northeastern China on Sunday after word spread that the
arrival of top Communist Party leaders was causing an hours-long wait to
visit a scenic lake. It was one of a string of brash confrontations in
recent months between the authorities and Chinese citizens.

The infuriated crowd surrounded the vehicles carrying the government
entourage and refused to let them pass, according to scores of microblog
posts sent out by those waiting to ascend Changbai Mountain in Jilin
Province. The three-hour standoff drew police officers and soldiers, some
of whom reportedly beat recalcitrant protesters.

According to one witness, thousands of people chanted for a refund of the
$20 entry tickets and later demanded that the officials leave their
besieged vehicles and apologize. “Fight privilege!” the witness wrote.

The accounts, posted on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service, were later
deleted by the company’s in-house censors, but many postings were saved
and reposted on overseas Web sites like Ministry of Tofu
<http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/07/thousands-demand-apology-from-top-of
ficial-who-disrupts-traffic-at-tourist-attraction/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_m
edium=twitter> and China Digital Times whose servers cannot be reached by
Chinese censors.

Even if a contretemps was defused, the specter of middle-class citizens
fearlessly standing up to their otherwise omnipotent leaders is a scenario
that fills Communist Party officials with dread. Xiao Qiang, director of
the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley, said
the incident reveals the accumulated anger that many ordinary Chinese feel
toward their government. “There was no serious injustice here, yet it did
not take much for them to stand up and protest,” he said. “It’s the kind
of thing that is very worrying to Chinese leaders because it could happen
anywhere, at any time.”

In several recent clashes with the government, protesters have appeared to
win. This month, thousands took to the streets of Shifang, a city in
Sichuan Province, to oppose the construction of a $1.7 billion copper and
molybdenum plant. Local authorities announced the suspension of the
project after protesters attacked government offices and overturned police
vehicles.

In August, more than 10,000 middle-class residents of Dalian, a port city
in northeastern China, staged a peaceful street rally to demand the
closing of a petrochemical plant that they said threatened public health.
Officials pledged to move the factory, which makes paraxylene, a chemical
used to manufacture plastic bottles and polyester clothing, but it remains
in operation.

On Monday, dozens of people staged an impromptu sit-in
<http://www.timeoutbeijing.com/features/Blogs/16101/Laowai-and-locals-prote
st-together.html> on an upscale residential street in Beijing after their
building’s management building cut water and power in a bid to extract
more money from the tenants. The protest, which included a mix of Chinese
and foreigners, worked. Utilities were restored by Monday evening.

The face-off at Changbai, a vast nature preserve that straddles the border
between China and North Korea, began Sunday morning when park workers
halted the trams that carry tourists up and down the winding mountain road
to a hallowed volcanic lake. Hundreds of others at the peak were also
reportedly stranded for hours.

Officials attributed the delay to the closing of one lane of the two-lane
roadway for repairs. But the crowd grew suspicious when a caravan of
military vehicles appeared with the police escort that often accompanies
top party leaders.

The throng formed a human blockade, and rumors quickly spread that one of
the cars held Liu Qi, a Politburo member who recently resigned as party
chief of Beijing. During the confrontation, a man in military fatigues was
photographed removing license plates on one vehicle.

Dong Yanming, a clerk in the Changbai Mountain resort’s party affairs
department, acknowledged that several important officials were visiting
the park that day but insisted Mr. Liu was not one of them. “Those
officials were not to blame for the traffic problem,” he said. “Our staff
explained the situation to the tourists and helped clarify the wild rumors
that Liu Qi’s presence disrupted traffic.”

Park officials gave refunds to those who asked, he said.

Shi Da contributed research.