HUNDREDS OF people clashed with police in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen at the weekend, throwing stones and setting fire to a police car after a motorcyclist died while trying to avoid a checkpoint.
The riots lasted from Friday afternoon until early Saturday morning. It started when angry relatives of the motorcyclist carried his body to a local police station and a group of about 30 people smashed items in the police station and let off firecrackers, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The crowd later grew to 400 people, with another 2,000 watching from nearby, police said. Some threw stones and set fire to a patrol car before they were dispersed by 2am.
Protests and incidents of "mass unrest" have been rising in China, generally driven by abuse of power, corruption, land grabs and environmental issues.
In June, angry residents in Weng'an town in Guizhou province set fire to police headquarters and government offices after rumours spread through town that the police had covered up the rape and murder of a girl.
The Shenzhen checkpoint was put in place to stop people driving unregistered vehicles, following a spate of handbag snatchings by thieves on unmarked motorbikes.
The police in Shenzhen insisted they had reacted in a restrained manner, in line with calls from senior public security officials to be careful when dealing with incidents of public unrest and to avoid inflaming protests.
The motorcyclist was identified as 31-year-old Li Guochao. Police said he and a passenger were driving an unlicensed motorcycle. The passenger disembarked at a checkpoint, but Mr Li drove through the barricade.
He turned around at a crossroads and drove back on the other side of the road. Then, a checkpoint worker - not a policeman, but a worker at the Shenzhen police propaganda department - threw his walkie-talkie at Mr Li, causing him to lose control and drive into a lamppost. Mr Li died in hospital a few hours later.
His relatives demanded government compensation of 600,000 yuan (€68,000), according to Xinhua, but agreed to settle for 200,000 yuan after negotiations. The government said it would recoup the cost from those deemed responsible for the death.
Earlier in the week there was a public outcry on the internet after a senior Communist Party official was accused of drunkenly trying to sexually molest a girl in a restaurant in Shenzhen.