-Caveat Lector- Rising social discontent in China as the economy sharply falls. The coming China political upheaval. flw Electronic Telegraph ISSUE 1348 Tuesday 2 February 1999 Bomb blasts in China linked to rural revolt By David Rennie in Beijing Aggrieved Farmers Pose Threat to Communist Party in China [1 Feb '99] - New York Times News - Inside China Today Beijing spring turns to winter [21 Jan '99] - Human Rights Watch China: AI publications and press releases - Amnesty International Search & destroy: Hunting down free trade unions in China [April '97] - International Conference of Free Trade Unions Latest China news - South China Morning Post [requires registration] Press room - Radio Free Asia CHINA has been hit by a wave of mysterious bomb blasts killing 31 people and injuring more than 100. Police have been quick to blame the explosions on individual criminals or would-be suicides. But although there is no sign that the blasts are connected, human-rights activists have linked them to growing discontent among China's laid-off workers, migrant labourers and hard-pressed peasant farmers. Violent protests are common in rural China as farmers demonstrate against local abuses of power, including illegal taxes and levies, confiscation of property and the issuing of IOUs instead of cash for crops bought by the state. Two of the blasts occurred in the southern Hunan province, scene of several large demonstrations this year reported to have involving thousands of angry farmers and hundreds of troops. Last week a blast tore through a market yards from Hunan's Yizhang county government offices, killing nine and wounding 65. Hospital sources said nails had been found in the victims. On Jan 17, an explosion injured 37 on a bus in Hunan's capital, Changsha. Police said they were looking for a farmer seen running from the scene, but could not say if the bombing had been deliberately timed. Four days earlier an explosion in a litter bin near a bus stop in Zhuhai, just across the border from the Portuguese enclave of Macao, injured four. In the bloodiest incident, on Jan 6, a bomb killed 19 passengers on a bus in the north-eastern province of Liaoning. Police said a man was planning to rob passengers after stunning them with the explosion. Last Friday police held a youth in Shenzen, on the border with Hong Kong, after a tip that he was planning to blow up a bus. The local state newspaper, the Special Zone Daily, said a bomb was found on him, and safely detonated nearby. The man was trying to commit suicide, the paper said. Information about rural protests is tightly controlled by the Chinese authorities. However, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, has claimed that the blasts are linked to rising tension and social unrest DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
