Beijing: Chinese authorities have agreed to
investigate government land sales that sparked days of violent
unrest in China`s industrial heartland last week, a report
said.
Hundreds of villagers, angered at the sale of land
without their permission, attacked a police station and
ransacked vehicles in the southern province of Guangdong,
leaving dozens injured, local authorities and media reports
said.
Officials in Lufeng city have promised to investigate the
deals if locals stopped protesting, according to a report in
the Southern Daily newspaper posted on the Shanwei city
government website yesterday.
Lufeng comes under the jurisdiction of Shanwei.
Unrest first broke out Wednesday in villages near Lufeng.
Protests escalated after rumours of a child`s death
spread.
By yesterday the situation was "almost calm", the report
said.
A news agency calls to the Lufeng city government today went
unanswered.
It was the latest in a series of protests sparked by
perceived injustices in the region, known as the workshop of
the world for the tens of millions of migrant workers who toil
in the province`s factories.
In the last reported protest in Guangdong in June,
hundreds of people battled police and destroyed cars after a
factory worker was wounded in a knife attack over a wage row.
In the same month, riots erupted after rumours spread
that police had beaten a street hawker to death and manhandled
his pregnant wife.
PTI
