In a case of mistaken identity dozens of individuals wearing the uniform of a notorious urban police force beat a teen-aged boy to death and injured his companion. When the attackers discovered their mistake, they offered to pay medical expenses.
In the early morning of Oct. 7, while two students were having midnight snacks in Dabanqiao Town of Kunming City in the southwestern province of Yunnan, a group of people in “chengguan” uniforms suddenly rushed out and attacked them with steel pipes and wooden sticks.
Mr. Yuan, a resident of the Dabanqiao Town, told the Epoch Times, “I’ve heard that in the early morning of Oct. 7, Fu Guojun and his cousin Cui Wenhao attended a friend’s birthday party at a karaoke TV club. They had midnight snacks at a food stall after the party. Scores of people wearing chengguan uniforms came upon them suddenly and attacked them with steel pipes and wooden sticks. Cui Wenhao was injured and ran away. Fu Guojun who was 17, a technical secondary school student, fell to the ground and was beaten to death.”
When the victim’s families and the police arrived, the attackers went away and said, “We hit the wrong person. We’ll pay for the medical expenses,” according to eyewitnesses.
Authorities immediately tried to duck responsibility for the beatings. The City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau—urban police commonly known as the “chengguan”—said they were not responsible.
Someone claiming to have been on the scene posted a message about confronting the city administration on an online forum (BBS), “As Fu Guojun’s brothers and sisters, we went to the City Administration to ask for justice. But the official said, ‘This was personal behavior. It has nothing to do with us.’ We were furious over this statement. Fu Guojun’s family and people who know or don’t know him have all gone to the town hall to ask for justice regarding this violence.”
On Oct. 9, the local police station and Street Neighborhood Committee held a press conference, claiming that the security personnel involved were temporary workers hired from a Kunming security firm by the local Street Neighborhood Committee.
Whether those involved in the attack are regular members of the chengguan is not clear. Fu Guojun’s father told China News (www.chinanews.com) the attackers were wearing chengguan uniforms.
And townspeople acted as if these were chengguan. China News on Oct. 7 reported that more than 200 people protested at the town hall that afternoon. Even though officials dispatched the riot squad, furious members of victims’ families smashed the windows of the chengguan’s detaining rooms.
The chengguan are notorious for thuggish behavior and on several recent occasions have sparked large protests.
On July 26 a one-legged street vendor was strangled to death in Anshun in Guizhou Province, causing a mass riot.
In Qianxi, also in Guizhou Province, an estimated ten thousand people protested in mid-August when a woman was beaten by chengguan in broad daylight.
In a previous incident in Kunming City, on Sept. 8 one hundred vendors protested after a street vendor was severely beaten when he tried to assist a young woman holding a baby who was being hit by chengguan.
One villager said about this most recent incident, “They were in uniforms, organized, and ordered to complete a mission to kill, but killed the wrong person. The government is so deteriorated that there’s no security for anyone.”
Read the original Chinese article.
Follow The Epoch Times’ China feeds on Twitter @EpochTimesChina.
Friends Read Free