China protest village again erupts in conflict

BEIJING, Nov 17 (Reuters) A Chinese village where police shot protesting residents last year has again erupted in conflict after locals took eight officials hostage, residents said today as the standoff continued.

Angry residents of Dongzhou in the southern province of Guangdong have held the officials near the village for nearly a week, demanding the release of a detained local activist.

''The villagers grabbed eight government officials and have kept them locked in the temple for seven days,'' said one shopkeeper in Dongzhou. ''The villagers have locked the gate.'' The villagers were protesting against the detention on November 9 of a resident who had hung anti-corruption slogans outside his house, Radio Free Asia reported earlier.

Several residents told Reuters the standoff had escalated as police and anti-riot troops gathered on the edge of the township, out of direct view of residents.

''The police at the village entrance don't dare enter,'' said one resident surnamed Huang.

Dongzhou gained notoriety in December 2005 after police and troops fired on locals in a violent standoff over construction of a coal-fired power station.

The shootings galvanised domestic and international concern about rising discontent in China's countryside after a string of violent confrontations.

Reports at the time said dozens of protesters and bystanders might have died, but the government said only three were killed -- a number backed by some residents, including kin of the dead.

THOUSANDS OF PROTESTS The trouble in Dongzhou is just the latest of thousands of protests and confrontations that the government says erupt across China every year, even as the Communist Party leadership seeks to ease strains over corruption, land grabs and inequality and create a ''harmonious society''.

The number of protests and riots throughout the country fell by over a fifth in the first nine months of 2006, a senior police official said this month. Police dealt with 17,900 ''mass incidents'' from January to September -- a fall of 22.1 per cent on the same period in 2005.

The specifics of the latest confrontation remain clouded in uncertainty; many residents refused to talk over the phone about events there, or said they were minding their own business and knew of no confrontation.

Shops and businesses in the small settlement surrounded by paddy fields were closed today at the behest of angry locals, some villagers said. Some residents had been giving food and drinks to the hostages, two said.

Dongzhou police and officials in the nearby city of Shanwei, the local administrative seat, either did not answer phone calls or refused to comment.

Many Dongzhou residents were afraid there would be a repeat of last year's bloody conflict, said one villager, surnamed Gu.

''There are many police and People's Armed Police on the edge of the village now,'' he said. ''We don't want to see bloodshed again.'' He said there were 30 or so police vans and trucks on the village outskirts, but he did not know how many troops they might have brought in. Another villager said there were dozens of vehicles.

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