Homeowners beaten on the front page

The Beijing News 28 May, 2007.

The top headline in The Beijing News today announces that Wen Jiabao took an inspection tour of pig farms to address the rising price of pork, but the front page image shows something much less harmonious: homeowners being beaten by a gang of men armed with pipes.

On 24 May, property owners at a community in Beishatan, Chaoyang District, met to protest the construction of unplanned buildings on their community’s green space. They were met by more than one hundred men armed with poles and shovels who sent eight of them to the hospital.

The photographs were circulated at an information meeting held last night to update the homeowners on the latest developments in the case: the police had arrested three people, including a representative of the security company. One suspect is still at large. TBN published five of thirty-nine photos, but the others will probably appear online before long.

In other newspapers, Beijing Times leads with the Wen Jiabao pork story and features a photo of ping-pong winners. The top headline in the Beijing Daily Messenger reveals that public transportation will soon carry route and traffic information inside buses and subway cars, and the top photo is of a football scuffle. Beijing Youth Daily features a photo of a shop given rent-free to Ai Dongmei. The top headline announces new, relaxed punishments for unlicensed street vendors: only a warning, and no fine, will be given for a first offense. All papers put this item somewhere on their front page.

See below for more beating photos from TBN.

Men carrying weapons attack homeowners (man in white at center; crouching woman at lower left; woman holding pipe at lower right).

Men armed with steel pipes and shovels attack homeowners. One homeowner has collapsed on the ground.

Six hours before the beatings, a representative of the property managers is restrained by another individual. The representative, Tong Lijun, later claimed that he was not at the scene during the fighting. Police later found he was at the scene but determined that he did not participate.

Hou Liping, 44, had her forehead fractured. Police officers contributed 17,000 yuan for her emergency room fees and her condition is no longer critical.

A homeowner sits on the ground after being beaten.