Chinese villagers riot over stricter population-control measures

Chinese villagers riot over stricter population-control measures

An anti-communist activist says he's not optimistic about the ultimate outcome of rioting in a rural Chinese province brought on by the Chinese government's intense efforts to enforce strict population-control measures, including the use of forced abortions.

The International Herald Tribune reports that rioters smashed and burned government offices, overturned official vehicles, and clashed with the riot police in a series of confrontations in the autonomous Guangxi region in southwestern China. D.J. McGuire, president of the China e-Lobby, says the rioters were taking desperate measures to protect their unborn children.

"One villager said that the cadres were going to threaten to bulldoze the homes of violators in the future," McGuire notes. "So I think this is a case of people who were just simply pushed over the edge due to a tyrannical government that was forcing them to kill their own children against their will," he says.

McGuire says unfortunately until resistance around the country is unified, the Chinese people will not be able to rise up and overthrow the regime. He says the United States needs to assist the effort, as with the Soviet Union, the overthrow of which was not only due to the efforts of the people of Russia and the other republics but also due to "the United States challenging Soviet power all around the world, isolating it economically, containing it geo-politically, and then working to undermine it from within."

However, the China e-Lobby spokesman notes, the U.S. is not doing that with regard to Communist China. "So, at this point," he says, "unfortunately I suspect, sadly, that the Guangxi revolt will be crushed."

McGuire says the people need to be united all across China in order to have a chance of overthrowing the regime. "If more citizens of China are aware that it's every cadre and every official that's doing this sort of thing, then they may be more willing to rise up and to take their country back," he asserts.

Also, McGuire observes, the people of China may feel more confident about rising up against the oppressive communist government "if they realize that there is greater resistance out there," but he believes they will still require outside help.