Protest against chengguan in Changsha

[onebir]

On Monday night I was with some friends in an apartment on DongPai Lou (东牌楼) just East of Huang Xing Lu (黄兴路). There was a shouting & chanting outside. My friends closer to the window said they saw 'soldiers' walking East.

I went to the window and saw 城管 (I may have missed the soldiers) surrounded and followed by a much larger number of people who were chanting. I couldn't catch what they were chanting, but a Chinese friend said it was 抗议. I'd guess there were 50 odd police, and hundreds, or maybe a few thousand people (it took so long for them to walk by). The crowd seemed pretty good-humoured; I'd initially thought they were being led away by the police - a unofficial street market has sprung up at the North end of Huang Xing Lu and it gets overcrowded. I thought perhaps the overcrowding had become dangerous.

But when I went down and asked people, they told me it was a protest or 造反 (uprising). In the last few days, the chengguan have cracked down on street traders, restaurant tables on the pavement etc. Apparently the street traders are mostly people who've lost their jobs. They & their customers got fed up with being pushed around.

A local restaurant owner said he saw the incident that sparked the whole thing off. The chengguan moved on a very badly burned beggar, and the surrounding people thought that was 太过分了, surrounded the chengguan and knocked their hats off. Seriously outnumbered, I guess the chengguan decided to make their excuses and leave...

Edited August 20, 2009 at 02:50 AM by onebir

[wushijiao]

Pretty crazy. I'll be following the press to see if there is a follow up!

[roddy]

What you saw was the police safely handling an incident of illegal assembly.

I've come to the conclusion that the 城管 were formed simply to make the police look less corrupt, more efficient, better dressed, fitter and cleaner-shaven. Mission accomplished.

[onebir]

What you saw was the police safely handling an incident of illegal assembly.

Thanks Roddy - I'll have to read that at my leisure

But it didn't look much like "handling an incident of illegal assembly". Assuming there weren't any soldiers, for the chengguan it looked more like "backing down, severely outnumbered, to avoid provoking angry mob".

I also noticed some things that shop owners had moved inside recently - fridges, etc - were back in their original positions. Could reflect a loss of chengguan authority. I'll ask around.

[wushijiao]

I've come to the conclusion that the 城管 were formed simply to make the police look less corrupt, more efficient, better dressed, fitter and cleaner-shaven. Mission accomplished.

I've thought that as well. Why couldn't cities invest in a well trained police force to do the things that the 城管 have to do? I think it does come down to 1) cost, and 2) they don't want the prestige of the police to be hurt by all the nasty things Chengguan are tasked with doing.

From the Marxist point of view, the ruling class (执政阶级） and "get rich first class" （先富阶级）, who are tied at the hip (官商勾结), are pitting one part of the exploited class (所谓的"农"民工the rural working class, the people with stalls) against another part of the exploited working class (非农业户口的蓝领阶级，或者下岗阶级, the chengguan）. Whatever happened to good old fashioned class struggle 阶级斗争！

[roddy]

Divide and conquer

I've always assumed one of the roles of the 城管 has been to absorb, as you say, the 下岗. However for some reason rather than have them encourage order at pedestrian crossings and queuing at bus stops, they tried to give them real work to do and it hasn't been very successful.

The main part of the problem is that there's just no consistent effort - people are allowed to do whatever for so long you end up with a sense of entitlement (with certain justification, people are just trying to make a living). The street round the back of where I live basically has no pavement left due to stalls , shops spreading out and semi-permanent wooden huts, and it's been like that all summer with no sign of anyone caring.

I'm not completely opposed to the little guy trying to make a buck, and if there wasn't a demand people wouldn't be there. But I'd like to be able to walk on the pavement for more than three feet, and one table of noisy late-night eaters on the pavement can keep an entire apartment building awake.

[muyongshi]

I've come to the conclusion that the 城管 were formed simply to make the police look less corrupt, more efficient, better dressed, fitter and cleaner-shaven. Mission accomplished.

not here in MY. That would be our smartly dressed very nice looking 交警. 城管 are a bunch of fat hicks...

[wushijiao]

'm not completely opposed to the little guy trying to make a buck, and if there wasn't a demand people wouldn't be there. But I'd like to be able to walk on the pavement for more than three feet, and one table of noisy late-night eaters on the pavement can keep an entire apartment building awake.

Yeah, I wouldn't mean to imply that cities don't need order-- clearly, if you are in the Mainland, it is obvious that they need more order. I'm not sure that having 城管 do the nasty work is really the best solution, however. I personally once saw a group of 城管 kick and knock over a large row of of 煎饼 charts and other stalls, and then smash them once they were on the ground. It really was appauling. I've read tons of bad things about Chinese police, but in my experience, it always seemed that the police were a clear level above the 城管 in terms of courtesy and professionalization.

But then again, maybe the chengguan just need more training and more oversight.

I read that some city was experimenting with the idea of giving legal permits to stall vendors. If done at a fairly cheap price, and on a temporary basis, that might be a good idea for trying to regulate the stalls.

[abcdefg]

Recent chengguan issues in Kunming.

http://www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item/1061/kunmings_chengguan_suffering_image_problems