DATE=8/29/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-FARMER PROTESTS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-265934
BYLINE=LETA HONG FINCHER
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A human rights group says that more than 20-
thousand farmers in eastern China have rioted over 
heavy taxes.  As Beijing Correspondent Leta Hong 
Fincher reports, the rights group says that 2000 armed 
police have been sent to quell the unrest.

TEXT:  The Hong Kong-based rights group, Information 
Center for Human Rights and Democracy, says the 
protests began August 17th in the eastern Chinese 
province, Jiangxi.  Frank Lu, a researcher with the 
center, says two-thousand farmers in Yuandu town 
surrounded the local government offices and broke all 
the windows.  

///LU ACT, EST. IN CHINESE, THEN FADE///

Mr. Lu says the protests spread quickly to other 
towns, until more than 20,000 farmers were 
demonstrating.  He says the provincial government sent 
in about two-thousand members of the People's Armed 
Police on August 23rd to quell the unrest. He says 550 
police are still patrolling Yuandu town alone, but the 
situation is still not under control.  Mr. Lu says 
police have so far
arrested 50 farmers.

He says the protests originally broke out because 
farmers had to pay almost half of their income in 
taxes, leaving them with a net income of about 12
dollars per acre per year.  Just three weeks ago, some 
30,000 farmers in China's central Shaanxi province 
also protested heavy taxes. 

Earlier this year, the Chinese governnment promised to 
implement tax relief but there has been no concrete 
action taken. And even if changes were made now by the 
central government, such measures generally take years 
to filter down to the local level. (signed)
 
NEB/HK/LHF/JO




29-Aug-2000 07:50 AM EDT (29-Aug-2000 1150 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.