Chengguan beaten by gang

By Zheng Caixiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-16 08:08

GUANGZHOU: A group of chengguan officers, who have made headlines for violent assaults on street vendors, found themselves on the other end of a beating earlier this week.

As hundreds of people huddled around to watch, 20 chengguan in Dongguan city of Guangdong province were attacked on the street by a group of armed and organized men, Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

Eight of the city administrators were seriously injured and four remained in the hospital after Tuesday night's attack in the city's Guancheng district.

The lengthy street battle lasted about an hour and a half.

"The case is an organized and premeditated attack on chengguan officers," said a senior chengguan officer from the city's Guancheng district chengguan bureau. "Officers had to grapple with professional, well-trained gangsters skilled in martial arts."

The incident started at about 7:45 pm when chengguan officers confiscated the garment of a young woman street vendor in her 20s who was illegally selling clothes on busy Jufuhaoyuan Road.

Five minutes later more than 20 unidentified men rushed to the scene with steel pipes in their hands.

The men, who claimed to be the relatives of the street vendor, surrounded the chengguan officers and asked them to return the confiscated garments.

The gangsters were equipped with walkie-talkies and were suspected members of a local secret society, the paper added.

The fight was brought under control when a large number of police reinforcements were sent to the scene about 9:20 pm.

All the gangsters ran away when police officers arrived.

The wounded, most of whom were bleeding from head wounds, were immediately sent to the hospital for treatment.

Police have established a special task force to investigate the case, but no one has been detained so far.

Chen Dongyang, a local lawyer, said the case was an act of violence that should be condemned.

"But chengguan officers should abide by laws and regulations and introduce more people-oriented means while they are on duty," Chen said.

New chengguan laws

In another development, chengguan officers can confiscate goods sold by illegal street peddlers only as a last resort under laws that came into effect in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, in September.

Under the new rules, chengguan officers must provide an itemized lists of confiscated products to vendors.

Meanwhile, chengguan officers are required to wear uniforms when they are on duty and show their certificates before taking any action.

The new rules also prohibit chengguan from taking bribes, drinking at work, violently enforcing the law and privately confiscating the peddlers' products.

The new rules have become a guideline for both street vendors and chengguan and will help make the city's chengguan operation more transparent, prevent corruption and reduce conflicts, said a Guangzhou chengguan officer.