AP: Hundreds Riot in China Over Beating

[Eugene]

Hundreds Riot in China Over Beating

By AUDRA ANG
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 13, 2006; 6:01 AM

BEIJING -- Hundreds of protesters overturned police vehicles and threw bricks
after a migrant worker was beaten up for refusing to pay for a resident's permit,
a newspaper said. It said several people were hospitalized with injuries.

The riot on Monday night in Guiyang, the capital of southern Guizhou province,
highlights tensions over China's tens of millions of migrant workers who have left
the countryside to look for work in cities, often settling in urban areas
in violation of strict household registration rules.

Witnesses said the migrant, identified only by his surname, Guo, was stopped in a
park by people hired by police to check identity papers, according to the state-run
Guizhou Metropolitan News. Such civilian forces who assist police are common
in Chinese cities.

Guo didn't have a permit to live in the city and refused to pay for one, the report
said Wednesday. It said he was found shortly afterward bleeding from a severe
head wound.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/13/AR2006071300217.html

Also: Hundreds riot in China, attack police, smash cars - Reuters

[annabanana]

1. Isn't it wonderful

that they own us? Isn't it just friggen great.

[sandnsea]

2. Freedom to earn money

I was talking to a Chinese immigrant a while back, she has only been here a few years. Freedom to her is freedom to work as many hours as you're able if you want to. She said in China they assign you a job, give you a poverty pittance, and apparently tell you where to live. And that's your life. Freedom doesn't have anything to do with voting and politics and speech to some of these new immgrants.

Something to think about.

[xchrom]

3. i think that's a big problem -- as well as the

epidemic of apathy in this country.

but to your point -- nixon changed our foreign policy dramatically by making ''trade'' one of the strongest legs of american foreign policy.

america = money -- not life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

is america the equivalent of a job or is america the equivalent of a set of intellectual ideas that have to constantly be made relevant by an educated and thoughtful and motivated electorate?

[Demeter]

4. Today? I'd Say Neither

America is economically and intellectually bankrupt. We and our children and their children have a lot of rebuilding to do.