DATE=8/29/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-FARMER PROTESTS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-265934
BYLINE=LETA HONG FINCHER
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A human rights group says that more than 20-
thousand farmers in eastern China have rioted over
heavy taxes. As Beijing Correspondent Leta Hong
Fincher reports, the rights group says that 2000 armed
police have been sent to quell the unrest.
TEXT: The Hong Kong-based rights group, Information
Center for Human Rights and Democracy, says the
protests began August 17th in the eastern Chinese
province, Jiangxi. Frank Lu, a researcher with the
center, says two-thousand farmers in Yuandu town
surrounded the local government offices and broke all
the windows.
///LU ACT, EST. IN CHINESE, THEN FADE///
Mr. Lu says the protests spread quickly to other
towns, until more than 20,000 farmers were
demonstrating. He says the provincial government sent
in about two-thousand members of the People's Armed
Police on August 23rd to quell the unrest. He says 550
police are still patrolling Yuandu town alone, but the
situation is still not under control. Mr. Lu says
police have so far
arrested 50 farmers.
He says the protests originally broke out because
farmers had to pay almost half of their income in
taxes, leaving them with a net income of about 12
dollars per acre per year. Just three weeks ago, some
30,000 farmers in China's central Shaanxi province
also protested heavy taxes.
Earlier this year, the Chinese governnment promised to
implement tax relief but there has been no concrete
action taken. And even if changes were made now by the
central government, such measures generally take years
to filter down to the local level. (signed)
NEB/HK/LHF/JO
29-Aug-2000 07:50 AM EDT (29-Aug-2000 1150 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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