On August 28 and 29th, former employees of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) gathered outside ICBC’s Headquarters in Beijing to protest being laid-off. At least 1,000 former staff visited the scene within the two days.
According to an eyewitness, Mr. Wang, on the second day of the protest, approximately 800 employees of the ICBC participated in a sitting protest. Most of them came from the northeastern provinces such as Heilongjiang and Henan. Around 8am, the police arrived and took up guard positions around the protesters.
Mr. Wang said, “At 10:30 am, the special police started to arrest people. As they did so, ten police cars and four buses arrived at the scene. More than 500 protestors were violently arrested and sent to Majialuo appellant escorting center. Some of them escaped, and the others were released after 8 pm.”
Many protestors tried to explain to the police. The police responded, “It’s useless to tell us. Go, just go and get in the bus. The State financial institutions need to be protected.”
