By staff reporter Luo Changpin 

Few Chinese knew about a remote, ethnically diverse county in the mountains of Guizhou Province before a tense night in June when about 200 people, emboldened by a surrounding crowd of thousands, set fire to offices of the local government and public security bureau.

But the June 28 incident, which locals now call “6-28,” thrust Weng An County into a public spotlight -- at home and abroad.

The riot, which the official Xinhua news agency said injured 50 police officers and protesters, coincided with a community protest march. The march was triggered by public outcry over the suspicious death of 17-year-old Li Shufen.

Li was the pretty daughter of tobacco-farming parents who drowned in the Ximen River six days before 6-28. Police say it was a suicide. Relatives call it murder.

Although Li’s death was said to have sparked the riot, a range of local injustices -- from mining disputes to police thuggery -- apparently laid the foundation for seething discontent among the county’s farmers and townspeople.

The town is poor and primarily composed of the Buyi and Miao minorities. Per capita income among farmers -- who account for 90 percent of the county’s 460,000 people -- is just 2,000 yuan a year.

Provincial officials for the Communist Party who met less than a week after the riot acknowledged not only public angst over Li’s death, but also the public’s hard feelings tied to mining disputes with landowners, relocations of villagers from a dam project zone, callous government officials, and weak law enforcement by police.

In hopes of regaining public trust, the party’s Guizhou committee dismissed the chief and commissar of the Weng An public security bureau on July 3. County party chief Wang Qing and government head Wang Hairong were removed the next day.

Yet resentment over Li’s late-night death has continued to hang over Weng An like the humid summer air.

It all began when police investigators concluded that Li committed suicide -- and her relatives passionately disagreed.

Teacher Zhang Guoming told Caijing that Li was a good student who never skipped school and ranked sixth in a class of 87. Classmate Lan Xiaoyin said Li’s scores had slipped in the past semester but added that “recently, she worked diligently.”

Li’s older brother, Li Shuyong, said his sister’s death came after she accepted an invitation from another girl -- her classmate Wang Jiao -- to go out on the night of June 21.

Additional details were released by a Guizhou provincial public security bureau spokesman. He said Li, Wang and two young men -- Chen Guangquan and Liu Yanhcao -- ate dinner together that evening and walked to the Ximen River. The spokesman claimed Chen was Li’s boyfriend.

Li told Liu she wanted to kill herself by jumping into the river, police said. But the man apparently managed to change her mind. Thinking Li was safe, Liu then went to a nearby bridge to do push-ups. Chen also left the scene, police said.

Police said Liu, from the bridge, soon heard Li cry out, “I will go!” before she leapt into the water. Police were later notified by Wang.

A Caijing check of the records found that Wang phoned police at about half past midnight -- four hours after Li, Wang and the men walked to the riverside.

Records also show police chose not to try pulling Li from the river on grounds that none of the officers could swim, and that rescue team members who arrived later said “conditions are not proper for a rescue.”

Li’s body was retrieved by relatives and neighbors at 3 a.m. on June 22.

Chen, Liu and Wang were detained but released the following day after police said they lacked evidence to press charges.

All three were said to be related to high government officials. The claim of kinship was later discounted as a rumor by Luo Yi, the party official in charge of the local prefecture’s police and justice systems.

Separate autopsies were conducted at the county, prefecture and provincial levels. The final autopsy results, released July 9th, confirmed the findings from the first two, saying that Li drowned, and that there were no signs of sexual activity prior to death.

Word among locals in Weng An, however, was that Li was raped and killed, and that government officials were protecting Chen, Liu and Wang.

Li’s relatives pressed for a more thorough investigation. Police refused. Tension mounted. The dead girl’s uncle clashed with a county police officer on June 25 and was later brutally beaten by six unknown men.

Meanwhile, Li’s body was kept in a cooled coffin by the riverbank. Relatives and neighbors kept guard. Police urged the mourners to dispose of the corpse and, on June 28, issued a notice ordering its removal. If mourners disobeyed orders they were told that the “police will deal with the body according to law.”

The notice ignited fury. A taxi driver who saw events unfold said it began when two students started marching with a white banner. Other local residents, sympathetic to the plight of Li’s family, joined the protest march throughout town. It was Saturday, and the streets were filled with people.

The protesters stopped at the gate of a county government building, but no officials emerged to receive them. Eventually, the protest turned violent. Stretching from mid-afternoon to late night, the demonstration lasted seven hours.

Li’s corpse was buried four days later, while riot police were stationed around town and soldiers guarded government buildings.

The Communist Party of China’s Guizhou committee, headed by Shi Zongyuan, met a few days later.

Shi said Li’s death were not the only reasons for the incident. Weng An was also a hot spot for struggles over mine ownership and villager relocations. Citizens’ interests and rights had repeatedly been trampled upon.

Local party official Luo said the incident exposed complex conflicts tied to economic development in the poverty-stricken county. “Numerous conflicts criss-crossed, including the relocation of residents for reservoir construction, downtown reconstruction, struggles over interests in coal and phosphorus mining, as well as the ownership transfer of state-owned enterprises,” Luo said.

Another party official, Mo Tao, said many party and government officials had overstepped the law in the past by handling issues through personal connections, sometimes with criminal gang protection.

Shi further stressed that many government officials had dealt with sensitive issues callously. These officials frequently used police force to settle disputes, he said. In addition, the party leader said, many officials and police officers had been negligent toward their duties in battling the area’s gangs.

Official provincial reports indicate that crime, including theft and gang fights, have been rampant in Weng An. Only about half the crimes are solved by local police, souring public views of the government.

The community well remembers last summer’s late-night attack on a schoolgirl and her boyfriend by the Ximen River. The boy was beaten and the girl raped by four of the five attackers. Two hours passed before police arrived.

Another sore spot stems from the relocation of 45,812 people, including 32,553 farmers, to make way for the Goupitan hydroelectric station -- the biggest in the province. Complaints focused on heavy-handed house demolitions and inadequate compensation for displaced residents. At least one struggle turned bloody.

Weng An is also home to phosphorus mines and considerable coal reserves, creating clashing interests over mine ownership. Some locals blame land-grabs on government officials, including administrative and judicial powers who work with criminal gangs.

Referring to the violent demonstration that put Weng An on the map, Shi admitted, “the incident seems to have been spontaneous. But it was doomed to happen sooner or later.”

Staff reporter Chen Zhongxiaolu contributed to this article.

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