China to Change Mine Rules After Mongolia Unrest
China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said it will take measures to improve the mining industry, part of new rules following protests by ethnic Mongolians sparked when a coal truck ran over a herdsman. The official Xinhua News Agency said the region’s government will probe how the industry has impacted the environment and the livelihoods of local residents, find ways to protect grasslands from mining vehicles and improve the training and management of mining personnel.Protests erupted last week in Xilinhot, 493 miles (793 kilometers) north of Beijing, and other cities following the killing of the herdsman earlier this month. The U.S.-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center says the herdsman, named Mergen, was trying to prevent coal-mining trucks from crossing pastureland. The unrest by minorities in Inner Mongolia follows deadly riots in western China’s Xinjiang region in 2009 and in Tibet in 2008.
Recent incidents “have triggered a great deal of public anger,” Hu Chunhua, the Communist Party Secretary of Inner Mongolia, told teachers and students in the region on May 27, according to a May 28 report in the official Inner Mongolian Daily. “We will firmly protect the dignity of law and the rights of the victims and their families.”
Protests have taken place in several Inner Mongolian towns and cities since the death and martial law was declared in several cities, according to the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, citing local residents.
Large numbers of police patrolled the regional capital, Hohhot, especially around the main square, where Internet messages over the weekend urged people to protest today, the Associated Press reported, citing people reached by phone. Police blanketed Chifeng city, scene of protests yesterday, residents reached by phone told AP.
‘Little Hu’
The Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said the government would increase subsidies in the region by more than half. Hu, 48, nicknamed “Little Hu,” in reference to President Hu Jintao, is a rising star in the Communist Party and mentioned by analysts of Chinese politics as a future top national leader. Calls made to the Inner Mongolia government to ask about the measures went unanswered.
Ethnic Mongolians make up less than one-fifth of the population of Inner Mongolia, which has about 24 million people living in an area about the size of South Africa.
–Michael Forsythe. Editors: Ben Richardson, Patrick Harrington
To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing at mforsythe@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
Recent incidents “have triggered a great deal of public anger,” Hu Chunhua, the Communist Party Secretary of Inner Mongolia, told teachers and students in the region on May 27, according to a May 28 report in the official Inner Mongolian Daily. “We will firmly protect the dignity of law and the rights of the victims and their families.”
Protests have taken place in several Inner Mongolian towns and cities since the death and martial law was declared in several cities, according to the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, citing local residents.
Large numbers of police patrolled the regional capital, Hohhot, especially around the main square, where Internet messages over the weekend urged people to protest today, the Associated Press reported, citing people reached by phone. Police blanketed Chifeng city, scene of protests yesterday, residents reached by phone told AP.
‘Little Hu’
The Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said the government would increase subsidies in the region by more than half. Hu, 48, nicknamed “Little Hu,” in reference to President Hu Jintao, is a rising star in the Communist Party and mentioned by analysts of Chinese politics as a future top national leader. Calls made to the Inner Mongolia government to ask about the measures went unanswered.
Ethnic Mongolians make up less than one-fifth of the population of Inner Mongolia, which has about 24 million people living in an area about the size of South Africa.
–Michael Forsythe. Editors: Ben Richardson, Patrick Harrington
To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing at mforsythe@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
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