Several senior officials in eastern China were sacked over an environmental dispute that escalated into village riots that allegedly left one elderly protester dead, state media said yesterday.
In April, police armed with clubs and shields used tear gas to break up a rally staged by farmers against the construction of a chemical factory in Huashui township, Dongyang city in Zhejiang Province.
The protests turned into riots after an elderly protester was allegedly run over and killed by a police car. Up to 80 police and other officials were injured in the incident, according to witnesses at the time.
Xinhua news agency said yesterday that local communist party secretary Tang Yong and mayor Chen Fengwei had been sacked, and that an unspecified number of officials responsible for the incident were also punished.
"The provincial government set up a special team to investigate the accusations of pollution, and shut down those chemical plants thought responsible," it said.
An industrial estate was built in Huashui in 2001 and local people were against the construction of another chemical factory on the site.
They claim factories operating there spew toxic waste and emissions into the water supply, which had resulted in ruined crops and deformities among new-born babies.
China has witnessed a slew of violent demonstrations over the past twelve months, often the result of large-scale construction that is part of the country's economic boom.
Although land and environmental disputes are common, moves by authorities to sack officials for their failure to address problems are still relatively rare.
The move in Dongyang is seen as a concession to placate villagers' anger in the light of the central government's repeated calls for harmony and its rising fear of social instability.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion