China arrests 28 after family-planning riots

May 23, 2007, 11:55 GMT

Beijing - Police in south-western China's Guangxi region have arrested 28 people after thousands rioted during protests against draconian local enforcement of the government's family-planning policy, state media said on Wednesday.

In the most serious incident, more than 3,000 people smashed through a wall and gate to a town government compound in Guangxi's Bobai county, setting fire to vehicles and damaging files and office equipment, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Rioting erupted in seven towns in Bobai last week following a drive by local officials to enforce fines for families who failed to comply with China's national one-child policy.

'There may be problems with the government's family planning work, which has prompted complaints from residents,' the agency quoted Bobai county government head Huang Shaoming as saying.

The arrests began on May 17 when about 300 people attacked police and officials outside government offices in Bobai's Dungu town.

The protesters complained that family-planning officials had used 'very tough' measures and seized cash and property illegally, the agency said.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper quoted local residents as saying the officials had 'made fortunes by imposing arbitrary fines.'

One woman told the newspaper that her house was 'stripped bare' by officials after she was unable to pay a fine of 26,000 yuan (3,377 dollars) for having a second child.

'It was as if we were robbed,' the woman said. 'They took away everything useful - even my kitchen utensils.'

The riots are the latest sign of growing unrest and violence in rural areas, where many residents accuse local officials of corruption and abuse of power.

Experts believe that China's population of 1.3 billion would have swelled to about 1.7 billion without the one-child policy, which was introduced in the late 1970s.

But local officials have imposed fines on people who violated the policy and in some areas have used compulsory abortions, sterilisation and other draconian measures to enforce the policy.