Riot police quell two separate large protests in China

China dispatched large numbers of soldiers and armed riot police to quell two major protests, officials and a rights group said Friday, in the latest public discontent to rock the communist nation.

In central Hunan province Thursday, 5,000 soldiers and armed police converged on a furious crowd of up to 10,000 demanding money back from an alleged fundraising fraud, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.

In a separate protest Thursday, up to 10,000 people gathered around a factory in the eastern coastal city of Ningbo after a young boy was injured apparently after being thrown out of a factory window, the centre said.

The organisation said in both cases violent clashes erupted between angry crowds and authorities, who carried out several arrests and left dozens injured. Local governments did not confirm this.

In Jishou city in Hunan, 50 people were injured in rioting and police arrested 20 people, the rights group said.

From a blog:

A mass incident has occurred in the city of Jishou in northwestern Hunan province. The incident began when the companies including Rongchang Group and Sanguan Group raised capital for its real estate projects in return for promises of high interest rates. Recently, people claimed that they cannot extract the 300,000 RMB that they had invested and they suspect that the organizers have fled with the money.

On the day before yesterday, protestors went to protest at the county government building. In the evening, several hundred people went to the train station and unfurled banners. They also sat down on the railroad tracks to prevent trains from moving. The authorities sent out a large number of police officers to the scene. The demonstrators dispersed.

Yesterday, the situation worsened. Several thousand people blocked the train station and the principal roads of Jishou city. The train station was paralyzed once again. People also sat in the middle of the roads to stop vehicular traffic. More than 10,000 police officers were sent to the scene. A Tianya post said: "The masses threw rocks at the armed police officers. The stones fell down like the rain of arrows in ancient legend causing a rattling sound."

At 10pm last night, Xinhua reported that there has been a mass incident in Jishou. The masses were said to be dispersing and normal train/vehicular traffic has been totally restored.

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