Riots in China, But No Questions from the Media?

Lots of interesting tidbits in this snippet:

Thousands of Chinese rioted in a dispute sparked by a lopsided roadside brawl, set fire to cars and wounded six police officers in an outburst likely to worry communist leaders in Beijing desperate to cling on to power.

The official Xinhua news agency, in a rare report on a local disturbance, blamed Sunday's riot in Chizhou in dirt-poor eastern Anhui province on a few criminals who led the "unwitting masses" astray.

The violence was the latest in a series of protests which the Communist Party, in power since 1949, fears could spin out of control and become a channel for anger over corruption and a growing gap between rich and poor.

It started before 3 p.m. when a Toyota sedan grazed a middle school student crossing the street and the teen and the driver quarreled. A few men emerged from the car and set on the student, a local store manager surnamed Wu who saw the clash told Reuters by telephone.

The men were taken to a police station and a crowd that had been watching the fight swarmed around the building, Wu said, demanding that the men be handed over to them as their numbers swelled by the minute.

Some among the growing mob focused their anger on the men's Toyota, smashing it, flipping it over and torching it, Wu said.

"The fire fighters drove up, but when they saw what was going on, they fled," the store manager said.

Armed police tried to quell the disturbance but were driven back by a hail of rocks and lit firecrackers, he said.

The local Chizhou Daily newspaper reported six policemen were injured by stones, news Web site www.sina.com.cn said.

"The crowd also attacked reporters, one of whom was burned by a firecracker, and they grabbed cameras out of the hands of anyone taking pictures," Wu said.

Around 7.30 p.m., power to the police station was cut and "criminals" started throwing fireworks inside, the Chizhou Daily report said.

The crowd, now numbering as many as 10,000, also flipped three parked police cars and set them ablaze.

The mob crashed through the windows of Wu's store, located just down the street from the police station, and began grabbing anything they could get their hands on.

"We called the police immediately, but none came. Four hours later, the provincial police chief arrived with a large group of police, but by that time, my store was already stripped bare," Wu said.

Ok, since the reporter doesn't seem to have asked any questions, let's read between the lines here:

1. The dateline says Beijing, yet this occurred in Chizhou, hundreds of miles away.
2. In this "dirt-poor" province, the riot began when several men in a Toyota "grazed" a middle-schooler. I've been to China a number of times. Cars are exclusively a symbol of wealth and privilege there, particularly in the poorer provinces.
3. The men were taken to a police station, while a mob gathered outside. Doesn't sound like they had much faith the men would be punished for beating up the teenager after the accident, no?
4. The rioters destroyed the Toyota. Why do you think that was so important to them?
5. 10,000 people joined the rioting and looting, and cut power to the police station. Seems like a pretty big uprising, does it not? Why did they cut the power?

Looked at in this fashion, one can see why the Beijing kleptocrats might be worried. The new Mandarins are flashing their wealth, and the millions who left the rural areas for the gleaming new industrial cities have found that the middle-class dream is far beyond them, thanks to corrupt officials who turn a blind eye to the factory owners cheating them. The police are a concrete manifestation of injustice in China, always ready to mow down unarmed civilians or call in the tanks.

It would seem that the people of China are becoming increasingly restive under the hand of the arrogant Communist nomenklatura. This is a very good thing.