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Thursday, 4 December 2008
Town police storm party office in pay dispute
Dozens of police officers besieged the Communist Party headquarters in a town in Hunan province this week to demand higher pay and allowances, a human rights watchdog said yesterday. Such protests are almost unheard of on the mainland.
Dozens of police officers besieged the Communist Party headquarters in a town in Hunan province this week to demand higher pay and allowances, a human rights watchdog said yesterday. Such protests are almost unheard of on the mainland.
Nearly 100 officers drove their patrol cars to party headquarters in Leiyang on Tuesday, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.
They reportedly blocked both entrances for nearly three hours, vandalised stools, chairs and other property in the party office and quarrelled and scuffled with party staff.
A Leiyang propaganda official confirmed the protest had occurred but said no full-time police officers were involved.
The rights group quoted a caretaker as saying most of those taking part were auxiliary police, though a few were officers from a local substation.
It quoted another source as saying that the monthly wage of an auxiliary policeman was about 650 yuan (HK$730), and that a full-time officer in Leiyang received about 1,000 yuan.
The protesters want a rise to bring their pay up to the level of police in the Hunan capital, Changsha , where officers are paid a basic salary of at least 2,000 yuan.
The propaganda official said Zhang Aiguo , head of the Public Security Bureau in Leiyang, had negotiated with the protesters and promised to raise their incomes, after which they had left the scene.
There was pressure on the city authorities to balance the books amid the economic downturn, the unnamed official said.
Hundreds of thousands of police and People’s Armed Police officers have been mobilised across the mainland to crack down on protests.
One Hong Kong expert attributed such incidents to people’s growing awareness of their basic rights.
Johnny Lau Yui-siu, a veteran China watcher, said these incidents showed that the issue of how to handle the welfare of law enforcers, both serving and retired, had become a thorny one for the authorities.
“Foreign statistics show that once the annual per capita gross domestic product of a society reaches US$1,000, consciousness about individual rights kicks in,” he said.
“For China, the personal income has already surpassed US$2,000.”
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Town police storm party office in pay dispute
Choi Chi-yuk
4 December
Dozens of police officers besieged the Communist Party headquarters in a town in Hunan province this week to demand higher pay and allowances, a human rights watchdog said yesterday. Such protests are almost unheard of on the mainland.
Nearly 100 officers drove their patrol cars to party headquarters in Leiyang on Tuesday, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.
They reportedly blocked both entrances for nearly three hours, vandalised stools, chairs and other property in the party office and quarrelled and scuffled with party staff.
A Leiyang propaganda official confirmed the protest had occurred but said no full-time police officers were involved.
The rights group quoted a caretaker as saying most of those taking part were auxiliary police, though a few were officers from a local substation.
It quoted another source as saying that the monthly wage of an auxiliary policeman was about 650 yuan (HK$730), and that a full-time officer in Leiyang received about 1,000 yuan.
The protesters want a rise to bring their pay up to the level of police in the Hunan capital, Changsha , where officers are paid a basic salary of at least 2,000 yuan.
The propaganda official said Zhang Aiguo , head of the Public Security Bureau in Leiyang, had negotiated with the protesters and promised to raise their incomes, after which they had left the scene.
There was pressure on the city authorities to balance the books amid the economic downturn, the unnamed official said.
Hundreds of thousands of police and People’s Armed Police officers have been mobilised across the mainland to crack down on protests.
One Hong Kong expert attributed such incidents to people’s growing awareness of their basic rights.
Johnny Lau Yui-siu, a veteran China watcher, said these incidents showed that the issue of how to handle the welfare of law enforcers, both serving and retired, had become a thorny one for the authorities.
“Foreign statistics show that once the annual per capita gross domestic product of a society reaches US$1,000, consciousness about individual rights kicks in,” he said.
“For China, the personal income has already surpassed US$2,000.”
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