While others are comparing apples {commentary on a news story} with oranges {another paper's newsstory} and imagined hypotheticals, let me provide some news.

Yesterday saw a flurry of activity in SCMP. First reports on increased road blocks on travel in and out by NG HAN GUAN of Associated Press in Dongyong.

Police stepped up security on Tuesday outside a southern village where protesters were shot and killed, setting up roadblocks in surrounding towns even as the government tried to defuse local anger by promising to deal with grievances.

Police were stopping cars headed for the village of Dongzhou, the scene of the December 6 violence, and checking the identities of drivers and passengers. Roadblocks were set up some four kilometres farther out from the village than on Monday. Checkpoints were also set up at villages next to Dongzhou.

...

On Tuesday, relatives and friends of villagers killed in Dongzhou held traditional mourning rituals on the streets, which were almost deserted. Four people sat tiredly in front of a photo of a man, burning incense sticks in his memory.

The government hung banners throughout the village appealing for order. One said, “Troublemakers will not win the hearts of the people.”

Villagers earlier had put up banners appealing to the Chinese government to intervene in the dispute, according to residents. They said those banners were torn down the day of the shootings and burned by police.

Reports of at least 9 arrested by Minnie Chan.

At least nine villagers from Dongzhou village, Shanwei , are believed to have been arrested for their part in riots last Tuesday in which police opened fire and killed at least three protesters, according to local television reports and villagers.

The arrested villagers were all in their 30s and 40s and included the three alleged instigators - Huang Xijun , Huang Xirang and Lin Hanru - who were described as "wanted criminals" by police.

Five others were identified as Huang Xiping , Huang Xiran , Chen Jinsong , Zhang Jinwang and Zhuo Nianfu. Villagers were yesterday unable to confirm the identity of the ninth person arrested.

Villagers said the announcement was broadcast on television, but did not show the faces of the nine.

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Other villagers said police had stepped up their search for demonstrators who joined last Tuesday's riots by posting photographs of protesters on the street. They claimed more than 100 photographs had been posted by police.

An open letter has been signed by intellectuals condemning the action reported by JOSEPHINE MA in Beijing.

More than 50 mainland scholars, writers and activists have signed an open letter condemning the deadly attacks on farmers in Dongzhou village.

The signatories included many prominent scholars, internet writers and dissidents such as Bao Zunxin , Liu Xiaobo , Yu Jie , Wang Yi , Zhao Dagong and Zhang Zuhua .

Ding Zilin , leader of the Tiananmen Mothers group who lost her son in the 1989 military crackdown, and Aids activist Wan Yanhai were also among the signatories who registered their anger about the violence in the Guangdong village.

In comments about the incident, activists brought up 64 in terms of the handling by the government by censoring the media and trying to cover up the actual death toll. The government has bleated back that Dongzhou is no Tiananmen, but check out the rationale *snicker*

In a regular briefing in Beijing yesterday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the two incidents were not comparable as no conclusion had been reached about the Dongzhou violence.

"Conclusions have been reached on the 1989 incidents, but no conclusion has been drawn on this event. How can we know if they are the same type of incident?" he asked.

The time is always ripe for a reconsideration of the verdict of 64. Yup. It is time for Luo Gan to go and time to revisit the verdicts of 64 and Zhao Ziyang and to free Ching Cheong and publish those manuscripts/transcripts of Zhao Ziyang.

The Hong Kong-based Ta Kung Pao yesterday reported that Guangdong party secretary Zhang Dejiang had visited Dongzhou last Wednesday - a day after the shooting - to "give important instructions on the investigation and handling of the incident".

The newspaper also identified the commanding officer who gave the order to open fire as Wu Sheng , a vice-director of the Shanwei Public Security Bureau. Guangdong newspapers reported on Sunday that he had been detained by prosecutors for allegedly mishandling the riot.

From the Chinese government side the property corruption causes a dilemma between government/party stability and civil stability. The article goes in to greater detail on this and shows that civil stability is currently an acceptable sacrifice for the pragmatic goal of party stability.

"People have long lost their faith in local governments. When bad things happen, they think they're the local governments' fault. And they believe the central government can help them. But now, more and more people have lost their faith in Beijing. This is a serious problem," he {Xu Youyu , a political theorist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences} said.

"The central government should be happy that there still are people visiting the petition offices in Beijing - that means there are still people who trust them."

But Professor Xu said it was not likely that Beijing would properly address the problem because it needed to maintain a relationship with the local officials.

"The local governments have been doing things that embarrass the central government. But they know that even if Beijing is aware of their wrongdoings, that wouldn't do them any harm as Beijing would have to rely on them to carry out policies and to keep local administrations in order," he said.

"Beijing has to weigh between maintaining the stability of the governments and a governance crisis as it tries to avoid upsetting local officials."

As for external pressure on the Chinese government to back civil stability and justice, I recommended such action from the Busheviks a year and a half ago based upon a report from Human Rights Watch on corrupt property deals. Since the Busheviks' China policy is crafted to curry favour with US domestic core supporters of the Busheviks, property corruption and the suffering and injustice in China is unaddressed in favour of of attending church services as a photo op for the fundie nuts back home. And the Chinese are smart enough to know that Bushevik policy meetings are primarily stuck on favouring domestic politics, such that no real action has been taken to address the fundamental issues of civil stability and civil justice in China today.