Fool's Mountain: Blogging for China

There appears to have been a clash involving riot police in Huizhou. I will provide these images and early hearsay reports, but I want to remind everyone: be careful with any unconfirmed reports. As the Weng’an riots proved, rumors are not only often wrong, they are also potentially very dangerous. As soon as we have credible media reports (and I expect that we will), I will make sure they are included in this story.

UPDATE: About 12 hours after this post first went up, the Chinese media is delivering the first official version of events, see here.  This version is different from the initial rumor in one specific detail: local police confirm the driver died, but insist it was in an accident.  Very similar to the Weng’an riots in that sense.  I trust we’ll see a thorough investigation from the province; Wang Yang, the party secretary for Guangdong, is known for his liberal take on government and politics.

Huizhou is a city in Guangdong province. The rumors (连接) tell us traffic police blocked a private minivan-bus, and asked for 100 RMB in toll. The driver refused to give any, and a confrontation followed, leading to the driver’s death. Rumors say local police offered private compensation to the victim’s family, but they refused and are demanding public investigation. Subsequently, a group from the driver’s home village in Hunan province, including alleged organized criminal gangs from Hunan, arrived in Huizhou. There are rumors of two police officers killed, in addition to the property damage seen below:

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