CHIZHOU, China, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Tension remains high in the Chinese city of Chizhou, one month after thousands rioted over the beating of a student by a wealthy businessman's bodyguards.
Police are reviewing videotapes of the June 26 riot in which four policemen were seriously injured, and several arrests have been made, the Washington Post reports.
It began when a businessman's sedan struck a bicyclist near the market square in the city, 250 miles southwest of Shanghai. Witnesses said two muscular bodyguards beat the student until he was unconscious. As a crowd quickly grew, local police refused to handcuff the official or his guards, and nearly eight hours of violence erupted. Cars were overturned and torched and a major store was looted.
The newspaper said the riot was directed against the flourishing alliance of Communist Party officials and well-connected businessmen that runs Chizhou. As the party strives to continue economic growth, the official partnership with private business has generated resentment among farmers whose fields have become industrial parks and youths with assembly-line jobs paying $60 a month.
