Sunday:

• Guangzhou, Shenzhen Gaokao Applicants Sent Off With Emotion and Pageantry

Monday:

• Fires and Overturned Police Cars in Guangzhou After Mass Incident 
• Knife Attack Rumor Launches Stampede on Guangzhou Metro
• 1,000 “Naked Officials” Netted in Guangdong Crackdown

Tuesday:

• Bare Footed Workers Caught Stomping On Noodles Destined For The Dinner Table
• Snake on a Bed: 2.5 Meter-Long Python Found in Dongguan Bedroom
• This Is What Using The Internet In China Is Like

Wednesday:

• Setting Yourself On Fire? It’s a Form of Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Canadian Living in Shenzhen Jailed, Accused of Espionage
• Heavy Rains Flood Streets in Guangzhou and Zhanjiang

Thursday:

• Church of the Almighty God Members on Trial in Guangzhou
• Guangdong Prostitution Crackdown Leads to Arrests, Closed WeChat Accounts
• Scenery Is Nice, But Salaries Are Low In The Pearl River Delta

Friday:

• PRD’s Contribution to the World Cup: Footballs and Condoms
• Chinese Rich Plan to Leave in Droves, Here’s Where They Want To Go
• Soho CEO Pan Shiyi Denies Striking Airline Attendant as Photos Go Viral [UPDATED]

Saturday:

• Weekend Gallery: Defend Your Homeland by Using Your Leg as a Gun

Photos: Nanfang

According to a statement posted on the Shunde Police Department’s official Weibo account, a man surnamed Li stopped a truck in front of the Jun’an No. 2 Bridge to unload a group of five disabled beggars around 8pm on Saturday, an act described by police as “an occupation of the main road and greatly disrupting traffic order”. As the beggars were getting out of the truck, traffic enforcement personnel had reportedly requested Li to move.

Li refused to move and pushed the beggars into the middle of the road, some of whom were seen lying under cars, which quickly attracted the attention of hundreds of onlookers. The Wen Wei Po report said the police eventually beat beggars and damaged their singing props, a point not noted in the police statement.

No casualties were mentioned in either report.

Three people, including Li, were arrested for burning the motorbikes, vandalizing the truck and instigating the crowd.

It’s unclear if Li is involved in organised beggar gangs in Guangdong. Some gangs in the province purposely disfigure victims to send out as beggars.

Images posted by weibo user @史丹利澳门 can be seen below:

*Jun’an, Foshan is best known as kung-fu star Bruce Lee’s ancestral hometown

Home page and content page photos from weibo user @史丹利澳门

A day before Guangzhou hospital security guards were convicted for disturbing social order by protesting low wages, workers at a Galanz factory in Zhongshan rioted due to unfair wages.

Yesterday, a Weibo post (now deleted) reported a riot had broken out in the dormitories at the Galanz factory during the early morning of April 14. 2,000 workers were said to be protesting against a low wage standard that was below than that promised during recruitment, 21st Century Business Herald reported.

However, the management at Galanz gave a different version of the incident. They confirmed that a protest had indeed occurred at the factory by the workers. However, instigated by workers who had been drinking, only approximately 200 workers got involved in the unrest while those not involved presumably had a difficult time trying to fall asleep.

At present, the unrest is over and an investigation is pending after police were called in.

As for what could happen if protests are taken too far: Several hospital security guards involved in a high-profile labor protest in Guangzhou last year were convicted today, Reuters reports.

After negotiations between the Guangzhou Chinese Medicine University Hospital and other workers would leave them with nothing, the convicted security guards climbed to the roof and threatened to jump before detained by police on August 19 of last year.

All 12 accused were found guilty of “disturbing social order”, but received comparably light punishments with the longest sentence being nine months. A lawyer for one of the convicted guards, Duan Yi, explained that China’s leaders are still liable to crack down on labor activists:

“They are sending a signal to society at large which is that as workers protect their rights, if they are even slightly extreme they could receive criminal punishment.”

As a family member pointed out, none of the convicted had put any other people in danger, and yet they have been incarcerated up until the trial today.

It would seem that a dialog between both labor and management is the way by which a compromise can be achieved, and yet such an outcome is not assured when management like Galanz occupies an infallible position. They had explained their stance on the rioting workers’ demands by saying:

The company will do its best to fulfill all the rational requests of its employees.

If it ain’t rational, it ain’t being fulfilled.

Photos: Weibo

Irate passengers clashed with airport personnel as equipment was smashed, reported NFDaily. Male passengers were photographed standing upon service counters as they demanded the airlines compensate them for having been inconvenienced, after which police were eventually called in.

Readers may remember airports as being the traditional place to properly express a public meltdown when not granted the entitlement of being able to put their bum on a seat in a vehicle that flies. We’ve seen vicious attacks upon airport personnel, a rant from a woman who threatened to shut down the internet, and most famous of all, the viral video of former CPPCC committee member Yan Linkun who destroyed a check-in counter after he missed his own flight. Twice.

Air travel in China is often fraught with sudden delays without explanations, further enraging consumers to bouts of “air rage”. But all the same, perhaps it would have been easiest for all involved if the airport didn’t cancel or delay any flights.

That is, according to the NFDaily report, if flights were able to take off despite local flooding that inundated the interior of the new Bao’an Airport (as well as having leaked in), and then be able to fly through the heaviest locally-recorded March precipitation in over 30 years that included hailstones in what has been declared a code red weather alert for all of Shenzhen. And then, after that, be able to fly in a storm that has seen 9119 recorded lightning strikes since the evening of March 30.

Airlines: can’t you get your act together and schedule our flights in a time not during a deadly storm? These prices are high enough as they are.

Standing on a table usually has some connotations associated with it (”Oh Captain, my Captain” aside), so here is some hot “standing-on-counter” action for ya:

Photo: NFDaily.com

(Photo courtesy Euronews.com)

One week after protests erupted in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and elsewhere in China over Japan’s claims to the Diaoyu Islands, protesters in Dongguan took to the streets to voice their displeasure yesterday.  The key difference in this case: the riot police were brought in to disperse the crowd.

While the original protests last week seemed to have the tacit approval of authorities, this latest one in Dongguan clearly did not.  The South China Morning Post reports (behind a paywall) that hundreds of protesters gathered in Dongguan yesterday and marched towards the city’s government plaza in Dongcheng District.  Before they got there though, riot police arrived and began trying to break up the protest.  This inevitably resulted in some scuffles, with protesters throwing objects at the police.

A 25-year-old man who was visiting Dongguan with a friend from a town outside the city was severely beaten by police, said the 17-year-old friend.

“We were just curious to see what was happening and suddenly we were rounded up by police carrying shields and long black batons,” she said, sobbing. Her green top was stained with her friend’s blood.

The distraught girl was looking for a doctor and lost track of her friend in the chaos.

“A policeman, without warning, hit my friend’s head with his baton. He was covered in blood. But they still beat him even though he was already bleeding,” she said. “The next thing I knew I was pushed away by police. I can’t find my friend and I can’t find a doctor. I don’t know what to do.”

One shop owner in Dongguan said messages began circulating earlier in the week calling for a protest to take place on Sunday, however the idea was scrapped when 20,000 people signed up.  He said organizers shut it down because they were worried it would be out of control.

You can watch footage of the protest here.

This animosity has now manifested itself in the form of a riot in Zhongshan City, according to local media.

A 13 year-old was set upon by a gang of 15 year-olds in front of the city’s Shaxi Center Primary school. Two locals intervened and tied up the three 15 year-olds. The teenagers who were tied up came from Sichuan and their friends and family gathered to fight back. At around 10 pm, 300 Sichuanese migrants gathered to confront locals and police.

A statement by Zhongshan police said everything was under control, but pictures circulating online show police being beaten and cars being burned. Witnesses said there were at least 300 people involved in the fight. Early reports suggest five people were killed including one policeman.

This footage of riot police approaching the scene has been uploaded, and the news has gone big on Sina Weibo. Sina Weibo user Lee Hong Wei expressed support for the police and the government. Jason Zhangzhengyuan urged police to get the Sichuan “dogs” out of their territory. Another urged the government to be careful about dealing with social unrest. Another called for an end to discrimination against Sichuanese migrants.

Cantonese-languaged media have covered the story, but an official death toll and other key information is yet to emerge.