China Military Puts Down Protest over Beating of Pregnant Woman

 Unrest has broken out on the streets of a southern Chinese city that saw protests over the weekend. Police and military units have been brought in to enforce a curfew… days after migrant workers took to the streets… condemning the beating of a pregnant migrant worker by police in Zencheng City.


 Migrant workers from Sichuan Province, unhappy for a long list of reasons, plan to strike for a month. Chinese authorities mobilized 2,700 soldiers from the nearby Guangdong Military Base on the night of June 12 and another five thousand police on June 13, according to report from the Hong Kong-based newspaper Apple Daily.


 From late June 12 to early June 13, tens of thousands of Zencheng residents took to the streets in protest and clashed with police. A witness tells NTD that countless protesters had emerged, wave after wave. Gunshots were heard as the police used tear gas and police batons to disperse the crowd.
 
 Zengcheng is around an hour's drive from Guangzhou, the affluent capital of Guangdong Province, which produces about a third of the country's exports.

 About 150 million workers have moved from the countryside to the city in search of a better standard of living.

 Although their wages have improved in recent years, there remains a stark income gap between migrant workers and those who originally hail from the city.

BY: http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/news_china/2011-06-15/china-military-puts-down-protest-over-beating-of-pregnant-woman.html