How much do you want high speed rail? Enough to riot when you don't have it?
Tens of Thousands of residents of the southwestern county of Linshui gathered in the morning and marched about 3km. Photos posted by the protesters on social media also showed violent attacks by a police tactical team(SWAT)and the resistance that followed lasted all day and well into the night...
...The residents want (need) to have a proposed railway linking Dazhou to Chongqing pass through their county in the centre of Sichuan. The county currently has no railway, waterway, or airport.
Rage built up last week after residents found out that the authorities favor another plan – that the railway stretching more than 200km will instead by-pass Linshui and be routed through the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s hometown Guangan , to the west of Linshui.
And it all ended in a colossal riot, which as of a few hours ago was still going on.
Areas with 'revolutionary' ancestry use their prestige in various ways as economic leverage, much to the frustration of neighbouring communities. I'm reaching a bit here but i wonder if the Linshui demonstrations are not entirely unconnected to elements in the local power structure trying to use popular anger to improve the local government's negotiating position. If so, it still seems to have got a bit out of hand.
Article by Adam Cathcart and Li Wankun on this subject now up over here:
http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/chinapolicyinstitute/2015/05/21/unrest-in-the-southwest-the-struggle-to-join-the-high-speed-rail-network/
Posted by: Malcs | May 24, 2015 at 07:00 PM