Heavy armed police presence and patrolling helicopters on Friday kept Urumqi, capital city of the Xinjiang autonomous region, tightly locked against a fresh wave of protesters who continued to demand immediate security guarantee from local authorities.

Uncertainty was still stalking the city, as protesters were frustrated with a string of incidents in which people have been stabbed with hypodermic syringes since early August.

 

The rally came just a day after tens of thousands of people protested throughout the city against the syringe attacks.

 

The Thursday protest left five people killed and 14 injured and hospitalized, Urumqi's vice mayor Zhang Hong told a press briefing late Friday evening.

 

Two of the five deaths were innocent civilians, he said without elaboration.

Security forces on Friday used tear gas to disperse the crowd when they tried to break through police lines, the Xinhua News Agency said. It also confirmed more than 1,000 protesters “faced” armed police who blocked them from entering Nanhu Square, where the city government is located, at about 1:40 pm. 

 

Military wagons patrolled the area on Friday while security forces asked the public to show restraint.

 

“The armed police units are fulfilling our responsibilities in accordance with law. Please support our initiative and stop gathering,” police said through loudspeakers as paramilitary forces tried to restore order.

 

A number of other small-scale confrontations were reported in the city Friday, Xinhua said .

 

Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu arrived in Urumqi on Friday to direct local work of defusing the ongoing unrest.

 

Restoring social order is the top priority for all Party and government officials in Xinjiang, Meng said, while warning “those involved in violence, assaults, vandalism, looting and burning, and those who disrupt social order by different means or undermine ethnic unity, shall be punished according to the law without exception, whatever their ethnicity is”.

 

He called the recent syringe attacks, which he said were premeditated, masterminded and conducted by law-breakers and instigated by ethnic separatist forces, was a continuation of the July 5 violence in the city.

 

The tense mood has taken its toll on people around the city.

 

“I bought a lot of food today. Who knows what will happen next,” said Luo Huanzhang, who just returned from a regular morning outdoor market on the Guangming Road.

 

The market was crowded and many people intended to stock up groceries, Luo said. Residents also keep their forays into public places short.

 

Police on Friday said hospitals in Urumqi are treating 531 victims of hypodermic needle attacks.

 

Statistics from the city’s 24 hospitals say 106 of the 531 were showing obvious signs of needle attacks, Xinhua said. The victims included ethnic Hans, Uygurs as well as Kazaks, it said.

 

Munire, a Uygur staff with the Islam Hotel in downtown Urumqi, said she too was afraid of the syringe attacks because she “looks like a Han person”.

 

“I just hope things can go back to the way it was before the July 5 riot. That’s the only way I can forget all that’s happened since then,” she told China Daily.

 

As of Wednesday, there were no deaths or symptoms of infectious diseases, viruses or toxic chemicals having been administered.

 

A total of 21 people were detained and four arrested in connection with the attacks, according to Xinhua.

 

Local authorities acknowledged the stabbings on Wednesday afternoon, after several hundred people took to the streets, demanding government action.

 

The latest protest has brought shadows to the 18^th Urumqi Fair, which opened Tuesday and was scheduled to run until Saturday. No official figure is available on how many among the 500 overseas businessmen from 29 countries and regions had left amidst syringe attacks and the protests thereof.

 

The citywide traffic curfew imposed following Thursday’s protest was still effective at the time of going to press.

 

Xinhua on Friday quoted a municipal government spokesman as saying authorities in Urumqi have banned “unlicensed marches, demonstrations and mass protests” since the evening before.

 

The city government has banned all gatherings, marches or protests on roads or other public venues in the open-air without having first obtained permits from the public security department, Xinhua said.

 

Aside from demanding security guarantees, the protesters on Thursday also called on the government to severely punish the offenders of the new violence and the killings on July 5.

 

The July 5 riot left at least 197 people, mostly Han residents, brutally slain and more than 1,700 injured, according to official statistics.

 

Han residents first protested against the July 5 violence, the most brutal in decades, and called for government protection two days later throughout the city, triggering a traffic curfew.

 

Local authorities have issued arrest warrants to 196 suspects and prosecuted 51 of them for their involvement in the riot.

 

The police have further requested the procuratorate to approve the arrest of another 239 suspects thought to be involved in 140 crimes. Another 825 are held in criminal detention, the regional information office said.

 

Han Chinese run away as armed police chase them off during a demonstration at the center of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Sept 4, 2009.

I came to Xinjiang on Monday with every hope that stability would resume, that any nonsense violence be immediately stopped, or, at the very least, that all sides could treat the situation seriously and make no wrong moves.

 

But instead, I witnessed tension escalate in Urumqi, even as authorities tried their best to keep things under control. Stones were thrown, shovels were piled, wooden sticks and steel bars were carried, slogans were shouted and tear gas was fired all across this beautiful, remote western city.

 

In less than two days, what began as the autonomous region’s deadliest riot in six decades quickly evolved into unprecedented ethnic clashes and elevated hatred among the local peoples, segregated by prevalent separatist propaganda from overseas on the one hand and, perhaps in turn, increasingly discriminative views from Han residents on the other. 

 

All things aside, the question we should really be asking now is: whither Urumqi?

 

Everybody on the scene can elaborate at length, without getting to the bottom of the issue, what happened and is happening. I was, at 2 pm today, looking for a Uygur guard at the No. 2 People’s Hospital who reportedly saved some Han Chinese from the rioters Sunday night.

 

As I wandered around asking the guard’s whereabouts, scores of patients, mostly Uygurs, appeared from seemingly nowhere and, each deeply frightened, rushed into different hospital buildings. A few passersby shouted in Mandarin: “They’re coming! They’re coming!”

 

I followed. Everyone tried to hide somewhere; my safe haven was the department of gynaecology and obstetrics on the fourth floor of the outpatient building. I was the odd Han Chinese in the fully locked room, where more than a dozen anxious Uygur men and women awaited their fate.

 

Even they were utterly terrified by the Uygur rioters who, according to Shache resident Tuerhon Memeti, “would scare the shit out of anyone who comes near”. He, together with the rest of those who sought refuge in the room and the hospital staff, were urging for immediate government intervention because “otherwise, things could go really, really wrong”.

 

And it did. Without timely, adequate security presence, most Han inhabitants, who had been advised to stay home, voluntarily gathered to defend their families themselves with shovels, sticks, batons, and even baseball bats.

 

Leaving police work to the hands of civilians is far from wise, for justice always lies in the eyes of the beholder and, in the context of Sunday’s gruesome violence against Han inhabitants, ethnic revenge seemed to be a logical first choice.

 

But when the dozens of young Han residents took it to the streets, smashing cars and demanding that the “blood debt” be paid, and when even younger ethnic Uygurs responded with throwing stones and rocks back, people on both sides were desperately waiting for state intervention.

 

Deep down, the scared faces of ethnic Hans and Uygurs alike speak the same thing: we live in China, not Afghanistan or Iraq. Our home is no battlefield. Xinjiang has always been a place where people can simply and happily go to school, fall in love, work and grow old. It should always stay that way.

 

And most, if not all, in fact, were urging that government take “immediate and fierce action” against the rioters, whatever ethnic group they may belong to.

 

Had the police force arrived ten minutes earlier in most places where clashes broke out yesterday, or if the curfew were imposed earlier, much violence could have been prevented.

 

Rocks wouldn’t have to be thrown (I was almost hit by one myself). Tear gas wouldn’t have to be fired. Shovels, sticks and other simple-but-deadly weapons, which are still being widely distributed by local companies for self-defense, wouldn’t have to be made.

 

Most importantly, people wouldn’t have to be running for their own, or after some else’s, lives.

 

Ethnic harmony has never been more relevant as it is today in Xinjiang. The ethnic groups here – not just the Han and the Uygurs – have peacefully coexisted in this land for thousands of years. There’s no reason anyone can’t do the same now.

 

As many people on both sides of the spectrum here put it, the core of what has happened isn’t ethnic or culture-based. In Xinjiang today, all fancy words should be reserved for future essays; separatism is separatism, terrorism is terrorism. Timely government intervention is in the interest of all peoples of this land. After all, nobody should, or can, be left behind to face this alone.

图：北京天安门广场，一座纪念作为宪法规定领导阶级的工人阶级历史贡献的群雕。Jonah M. Kessel摄。

 

处江湖之远的付林学，体内充塞着数十年来新中国道德体系所形成的厚重力量。家国传统不仅让这名河南青年在1990年追随着牺牲于解放战争的祖父的足迹，成了中国人民解放军的一名战士，也让他在三年后步其父的后尘，开始了在林州钢铁有限责任公司的工作。

 

对时年23岁的付林学来说，即便是在当年 – 以“砸三铁”为核心目标的经济改革进行到第15个年头的时候 – 在林钢子承父业仍然是相当合理的选择。国营企业的所有在编员工，依旧享受着终身雇用制和包括吃喝拉撒、生老病死、子女教育等在内一并由企业包干的诸多福利。

 

“我复员回家是要照顾我爱人。我去当兵后不久，她出了车祸，伤得很重。我们当时还没结婚，但我必须得回来。所以就打报告，回家来。回家到哪呢？我父亲在林钢工作了几十年，所以我也就没想那么多，进了林钢做保安。”付林学说。

 

《中华人民共和国宪法》总纲第一条明确规定，工人阶级是我国的领导阶级。和绝大多数工人一样，付林学回乡时，满怀着能过上在此前几十年内，与中国工人阶级身份几乎划上等号的稳定生活的期盼。然而仅仅16年后，稳定变成了无序。在恢复秩序的努力失败后，他参加了三千余名林钢工人在8月上旬发动的持续五天的抗争。抗争的对象是凤宝钢铁有限公司，一家林钢人认为在7月24日非法收购了林钢的当地私营企业。

 

付林学的怒火，凝聚于林钢管理层的“惊人腐败”及经其“精打细算”后上演的亏损大戏。“我们是多好的企业。要是没有腐败问题，哪有这些东西？”他问道。

 

这名朴实的复员战士说，他一直梦想着“让国家造航母的时候能用得上林钢的铁；让国家需要铁的时候，林钢能做出贡献。”现在，这个梦想几近破灭。

 

曾被誉为社会主义政权支柱的全民所有制企业，在几经更名后，以“国有企业”的身份在1997年被中央政府批驳为国家发展的瓶颈。当年5月，国务院发布了其批转国家经贸委关于1997年国有企业改革与发展工作意见的通知，称“国有企业改革是1997年经济体制改革的重点，也是政府工作的突出任务”。两个月后，时任国务院副总理朱镕基在辽宁视察国企改革情况时强调，要“用三年左右时间使大多数国有大中型亏损企业走出困境”。中央政府认为，企业改制，或私有化，是国企“走出困境”，焕发活力的唯一途径。

 

以“搞活大的，放活小的”为主要手段的改制，使国企职工受到了空前的冲击。据《中国劳动统计年鉴》的数字，从1997年到2001年中国加入世界贸易组织期间，全国下岗职工累计达三千万。与此相对应的是，直到去年，城市职工才被全部纳入政府社会保障体系。十几年来，正如驻宁夏全国政协委员、全国政协人口资源环境委员会副主任任启兴2008年底所反映的那样：“部分严重亏损的国有企业既没有破产，也没有扭亏为盈，基本上处于停产状态。这些企业的职工拿不上工资，也没有被纳入下岗工人的范围，享受不到失业保险和城市最低生活保障，却要承担沉重的社会保险缴费负担。”

 

国家工商总局的数据表明，在改革开放尚未开始时的1978年，全国99%的企业均属全民所有制。如今，该数字已猛降至约5%。

 

在如此戏剧化的变更背后，是各地工人针锋相对的抗争。

 

第一例针对国企私有化改革的大规模抗争爆发于2002年3月的东北。其时正值北京“两会”。在资本与政权翩翩共舞，互称兄弟的日子里，十余万工人在东北各地发起了针对私有化的大规模运动。在辽宁省辽阳市，以当地铁合金厂工人为核心，近20家改制工厂职工参与的游行示威活动持续了十周之久。

 

姚福信是被当地警方逮捕的辽阳工运组织者之一。中华全国总工会副主席张俊九当年11月11日对外国媒体表示，“姚福信并非因组织工人运动被捕,他是违反了中国的刑事法,具体一点是他进行了引爆汽车的暴力行为。”然而官方最终认定，姚福信的罪名是“颠覆国家政权”。他被判刑七年。但据时任辽阳市工会副主席苏海军的说法，姚福信“最严重的也就是到政府上访，反映一些情况，没有什么暴力、过激行为”。而对所谓姚福信引爆汽车的说法，苏海军表示，“完全是造谣”。

 

“政府那会儿不像现在，对咱这工人运动可一点儿都不含糊，因为我们要的是让他们改错，可他们啥时候也不觉着自己能有错。”一名其时曾协助组织工运，现为当地小商贩的中年男子告诉本报。他拒绝透露姓名，不过再三强调：“我们要是今天搞工运，跟当年就肯定不一样了。”

 

7月24日，吉林通化钢铁集团股份有限公司的改制遭数千职工暴力抗争，私营企业建龙集团派驻通钢的总经理陈国君被殴致死。全国各大媒体一时云集通化。

 

也正是当天，在通化以南1600公里的林州，林钢在一场耐人寻味的拍卖会上以低于竞拍价3.294亿元近20%的离奇价格被卖给了向以欠薪、不上保险、强占农地驰名林州的凤宝。

 

自三月后即被遣散回家的林钢职工们宣称，他们对拍卖毫不知情，直到数日之后才从企业管理层口中证实了公司已卖与凤宝的消息。

 

8月11日，被激怒了的工人们包围了林钢大楼和正在楼内视察改制工作情况的濮阳市国有资产监督管理委员会副主任董章印。在“改制林钢”的口号提出六年后，濮阳市政府去年8月批准了林钢改制方案。

 

在这起抗争前，近千林钢职工曾于3月、4月两次封路，反对改制，直到以濮阳市副市长王相玲、公安局局长阮金泉为首的工作组做出一系列承诺后，工人们才渐渐散去。

 

“他们当时跟我们说，这个事情解决不好，就吃不好饭睡不好觉。结果最后还是不了了之。” 一名不愿透露姓名的林钢员工回忆道。

 

兼任濮阳市林州钢铁有限公司改制领导小组组长，并在7月24日拍卖会上发挥重要作用的王相玲，已于近日因林钢事被“双规”。

 

“那些老板跟我们说改制是为了我们好。让我们下岗怎么可能是为了我们好？”林钢保安朱军亮问道。“他们还说这是为了国家，结果这厂子卖给私人了，我们连知都不知道。这改制不就是给他们谋福利了吗，还什么为职工，为国家！”

 

林钢党委副书记、副总经理蔡信杰8月16日对本报表示，7月24日的拍卖完全合法：“法律规定，拍卖时如果没人竞价，可以按不低于最低价20%的价格出售。我们的出售价格没有低于（最低价的）20%。”

 

至今，本报仍未能找到蔡信杰所引的相关法律条例。

 

落款日期为8月14日，并于次日凌晨由省委工作组发予林钢职工的传单强调，尊重广大职工的意愿，暂停改制工作，并在林钢恢复生产前，按照有关政策规定，为企业职工每人每月发放550元生活补助。但蔡信杰却在采访中表示，他“没听说过要发放补助这个事情”。

 

“工人们有一个误区。他们以为工厂改制，他们就应该拿到钱。工人把应该得到的拿到就行了。”蔡信杰说。

 

 

引发工人抗争的正是林钢管理层倨傲的态度，一名曾在劳资纠纷中为劳方辩护的广东律师告诉本报。

 

“他们根本觉得工人就是劣等人。同时呢，政府也不想承认他们必须做出让步，才能让工人们结束示威活动。政府永远把姿态摆得很高。”这名律师说。出于对自己的保护，他没有透露姓名。

 

“林钢的管理层想把这件事情解释成，政府派工作组做工人的思想工作，做通了，工人自动撤离了，示威结束了，然后政府才出来发了这么个安民告示，结果天下就天平了。这就把暂停改制当作了一种恩赐，而不是一次让步。”他说。

 

官方版本的事件发生经过与这名律师的分析遥相呼应。在维权活动结束一天后的8月16日，新华通讯社发布通稿，称暂停改制的“意见”（而非决定）是当日才由河南省委、省政府提出并向工人们传达的。

而到当时，省委省政府与工人们的协议已达成并生效约30个小时。付林学在头一天，即8月15日上午，已将一份印有协议内容的传单交予本报。

此间分析人士认为，林钢改制的主要受益人是林钢董事长、党委书记兼总经理刘俊生，和凤宝董事长李广元。

一份由1800余名林钢职工签字的《林钢改制情况和工人维权要求》说，刘俊生曾在此前的中层干部会议期间公然宣称：“越是亏空，越有利于林钢改制，越有利于我们收购。”

林钢副总经理张治国断然否认企业在改制过程中存在腐败问题。他认为，改制是运行不善的国企的天然命运。然而中国社会科学院经济学家左大培却表示，全国早已有成千上万国企在被极大幅度地压低售价后，被贱卖给个人或宣布破产，使个人 – 往往是这些企业的管理人员 – 乘机大量侵吞国有资产。工人们认为，林钢“至少值8亿元”。

 

而在多数当地群众眼里，凤宝董事长李广元长期滥用其兄长、兰州军区原司令员李乾元上将的影响，暴力扩张其企业。1990年以来，在他任党支部书记的林州定角村，李广元一直以霸占村民土地、骗取国家贷款、操纵村委会选举等“事迹”闻名于世。

 

李广元的女婿、凤宝总经理李静敏拒绝对7月24日的拍卖及其公司的口碑发表评论。但他透露，公司将“按照法律手段向濮阳市政府索赔”。

 

持续五天的集体维权活动，并未动摇地方政府将国企私有化进行到底的决心。

 

接替被“双规”的副市长王相玲担任林钢改制工作组组长的，是濮阳市委副书记盛国民。他最近明确表示，直到工人抗争之前，改制“原本顺利进行”。而林钢副总经理张治国则说：“改制是无法阻挡的，职工这样的行为实际是因为对经济补偿金的不满，及国企思想严重。”

 

最近一段时间，“国企思想”一词通常被企业经理与政府官员们用于形容工人们对计划经济下稳定生活的怀旧情绪，及对私有化的强烈抵触。然而已在林钢工作逾廿载的尚新开告诉本报，“国企思想”从不应该带有任何贬义色彩。

 

“对我们来说，所谓‘国企思想’就是私企剥削压榨的对立面。”她说。“改制应该是为了企业的更好发展，而不是为了把它卖掉，再把我们当作包袱甩掉。”

 

濮阳市国资委副主任董章印曾在困居林钢大楼期间向工人们坦承，自己经手改制的八家濮阳市国有企业已经全部倒闭。

 

自8月15日维权活动结束以来，林钢工人们一直在要求选出真正维护自己利益的代表，并呼吁中央政府立即介入，进行对7月24日拍卖的独立调查。在他们的眼中，林钢之所以积重难返，正是因为“蛀虫太多，没人监管”。

 

然而二者均非易事。工人们与改制工作组的面谈直到前两周工作组进驻林钢后才成为可能。而即使在谈话之后，工人们对地方工作组谨慎不相信的印象仍未改变。

 

“是我们工人站出来要回林钢的，应该让我们参加（工作组与林钢职工代表的）会议。为什么要让这些出卖掉林钢的蛀虫代表我们来和政府工作组开会？”一位拒绝透露姓名的林钢资深会计说。

 

林钢工会主席郭建军承认在全体企业职工代表中，“可能领导层比例占得大一点”，但他同时表示，“具体多少，我不太清楚”。郭建军对工人们的激烈态度颇有微词。他说：“这些代表当初都是职工推荐选出来的。”

 

而工人们坚持说，不论是改制还是拍卖，他们“谁也没同意过”。这些行政决定的做出，与工人代表毫无关联。而讽刺的是，5月31日下发的《濮阳市林州钢铁有限责任公司改制实施方案》却将“职工强烈要求”列为改制的最大可行性。

 

迄今，对林钢管理层及7月24日拍卖的调查仍未展开。

 

“这都太荒唐了。工作组来这是应该调查事情怎么会变成今天这样的。”尚新开说。“工作组一共300多人，大多数都住在市里最好的中州国际酒店。到时候是谁给他们买单，又有谁能保证他们过了几个月不会拍拍屁股走人，就跟什么事都没发生一样？”

 

 

（本文英文发于2009年8月21日的中国日报。本文略有改动。）

After following one family tradition by joining the military in 1990, Fu Linxue did it again three years later when he started work at the Linzhou Iron and Steel plant in Henan province.

 

For the 39-year-old, it was the logical choice. Even after 14 years of economic reforms, becoming a security guard at the State-owned company would still mean lifelong employment, as well as comprehensive insurance, pension and healthcare packages.

 

"I left the army and returned home to Anyang to take care of my fiancee after she was badly injured in a car accident," said Fu, whose grandfather was a martyr in the War of Liberation (1946-49). "My father had worked at the plant for decades."

 

Like most workers, constitutionally China's leading class, he expected to enjoy a stable life. But just 16 years on, that stability has crumbled into chaos. He was among 3,000-plus workers who this month took a local official hostage and staged a five-day demonstration at the Linzhou Steel plant in a desperate bid to halt a controversial takeover.

 

His anger was fueled by the "shocking corruption" of bosses at the State-owned enterprise (SOE) he said orchestrated a "calculated downfall". He added: "We were a good company but the corrupt managers ruined it all."

 

 

Once hailed as a pillar of the socialist State, SOEs were branded bottlenecks to the country's financial future in 1997, with the central government citing corporate restructuring or privatization as the only tool to ensure they became vibrant corporations.

 

The employees were the hardest hit, with the China Labor Statistical Yearbook estimating that 30 million were laid off between 1997 and 2001, when the country joined the World Trade Organization. However, the nation's social insurance scheme was not extended to include all urban workers until last year.

 

In 1978, when the reform and opening up policy was launched, 99 percent of Chinese firms were State-run. Today, the number stands at just 5 percent, show figures from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

 

The workers have not met the changes without a fight.

 

The first mass protest was staged in March 2002, when more than 100,000 sacked SOE workers took to the streets across Northeast China, including in Liaoyang, Liaoning province, where laid-off staff from 20 SOEs held daily demonstrations for 10 weeks.

 

One of the alleged ringleaders, Yao Fuxin, was detained on charges of carrying out car bombings, Zhang Junjiu, deputy chairmain of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, told media in November 2002. Yao was imprisoned for seven years. But Su Haijun, standing deputy chair of the Liaoyang Federation of Trade Unions, later said "there is no way" Yao was involved in such activities.

 

"The government was far less tolerant of workers' protests back then because we were demanding they right the wrongs, while officials refused to acknowledge they could be wrong," a street vendor in Liaoyang who helped organize the protests told China Daily on condition of anonymity. "Things would've been different if we protested today."

 

The private takeover of Tonghua Iron and Steel in Jilin province hit headlines last month after staff rioted on July 24 and beat executive Chen Guojun to death.

 

That same day, Linzhou Steel, based just 1,600 km south of Tonghua, was sold to Fengbao Iron and Steel - a private firm with a local reputation for unpaid wages, poor insurance cover and illegal possession of farmland - for 20 percent less than the starting price of 329 million yuan ($48 million) after an auction in which no bids were made.

 

Staff at the Linzhou plant, which halted operations in March, said they had no knowledge of the auction until management confirmed the sale days later.

 

Outraged, 3,000 workers sealed off the building on Aug 11 and held capitve Dong Zhangyin, a deputy director of the State-owned assets supervision and administration (SASAC) in Puyang, which authorized the takeover last August after six years of talks over the SOE's restructuring.

 

It followed similar protests in March and April, when 1,000 people twice blocked traffic in the city, which only ended after Wang Xiangling, Puyang's deputy mayor, and police chief Ruan Jinquan promised to take their concerns seriously, said a worker who asked to remain anonymous.

 

"They said they wouldn't be able to sleep until they had dealt with the issue properly. But that was the end of it and we have not heard anything from them since," the worker added.

 

Wang, who also headed Linzhou Steel's restructuring team, was later sacked for misconduct in its privatization.

 

"The managers told us that SOE restructuring was for our own good. How can job cuts possibly be good for us?" asked Zhu Junliang, a security guard at Linzhou Steel. "They told us it was for the greater good, but they sold the company to private hands without us knowing. Privatization only benefits the managers, not the workers or the country."

 

The firm's deputy general manager Cai Xinjie insisted on Aug 16 that the sale had been legal, adding: "The law states any item nobody bids for at auction can be sold at no more than 20 percent below the starting price."

 

As yet, the China Daily has been unable to find any relevant clause in China's laws.

 

Leaflets dated Aug 14 and distributed the next day to plant staff by provincial negotiators stated the protests ended after the provincial authorities promised to halt the takeover and pay each worker a monthly subsidy of 550 yuan until production resumes. Cai, however, denied all knowledge of such a deal.

 

"The workers have misunderstood. They think they should get all the money just because the factory was sold to a private company. It's not like that. The workers should be happy with the share they deserve," he said.

 

Ultimately, it was the attitude of the Linzhou management that triggered the protest, said a Guangdong-based lawyer who represents SOE staff in labor disputes.

 

"They think the workers are inferior and officials don't want to acknowledge compromises must be made," said the lawyer, who withheld his name for fear of reprisal. "The management in this case wants to paint a picture in which the workers ended the protest on their own and the government offered to halt the takeover as a gift."

 

The official version seems to reflect his comments and, on Aug 16, the day following the protest, Xinhua News Agency reported that the decision to stop the buyout had been made that same day by the "provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the provincial government".

 

However, the deal with the workers was brokered 30 hours earlier, with Fu Linxue handing a written copy of the agreement to China Daily on Aug 15.

 

Chief beneficiaries of the privatization of the Linzhou plant would have been its chairman and general manager Liu Junsheng, and Li Guangyuan, chairman of Fengbao Iron and Steel, analysts claimed.

 

A petition signed by 1,800 workers at Linzhou also stated Liu had said in a meeting "the more the plant slips into the red, the more it benefits the restructuring and our purchase".

 

Zhang Zhiguo, a deputy general manager for Linzhou, denied there was any corruption during the company's privatization process, which he saw as a natural progression following years of downturn and inefficiency. But Zuo Dapei, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said: "Hundreds of thousands of SOEs have been sold off or declared bankrupt for purely accounting purposes so former bosses can steal assets."

 

 

Linzhou's assets were valued at 320 million yuan by the Puyang SASAC, but it was estimated an affiliated cement factory with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons was worth no more than 17 yuan. Workers insist Linzhou Steel is worth 800 million yuan.

 

Fengbao boss Li, meanwhile, has been accused of using his brother General Li Qianyuan's influence to expand his company by force and has faced claims of corruption since 1990 from the villagers of Dingjiao, where he is Party chief.

 

Fengbao's general manager Li Jingmin refused to comment on the July 24 auction or his company's reputation among workers, but revealed his firm planned to sue the Puyang government for its losses.

 

Despite the five-day protest, local government officials said the privatization will go ahead.

 

Puyang's Deputy Party Chief Sheng Guomin, who now heads the restructuring team, said things "had been going smoothly until the protest", while Zhang added: "Restructuring is unstoppable. The workers were just upset about the compensation and because they have a strong 'SOE mentality'."

 

"SOE mentality" is often used by managers and officials to describe the workers' nostalgic sentiments towards a secured life under the planned economy, as well as their resistance to privatization. However, Shang Xinkai, a cashier who has worked at the Linzhou plant for two decades, said it should never be a derogatory term.

 

"For us, the 'SOE mentality' is the opposite of corporate greed," she said. "If privatization is unstoppable, it should be to develop the enterprise, not sell State-owned assets to private firms and treat workers like trash."

 

She said Dong, the SASAC hostage she helped look after during the protest, had told her all eight SOEs he helped privatize in Puyang had eventually gone bankrupt.

 

After the protest, around 5,000 staff at Linzhou Steel called for the re-election of workers' representatives to protect their interests, as well as a top-level independent investigation into the July 24 buyout.

 

Neither will be an easy task, and many have already been angered by the refusal of repeated requests to meet the Puyang government taskforce sent to probe the incident.

 

"It was the workers who stood up and fought. We should be at these meetings," said a senior accountant at the firm. "How are these cadres who tried to sell the company capable of representing us in meetings?"

 

The plant's labor union chairman Guo Jianjun admitted there were a "few more managers acting as workers' representatives than in the past" but was unwilling to reveal the actual number. Instead, he called the workers' attitudes "inappropriate", adding: "They were the ones who recommended these people to be their representatives."

 

However, staff insisted there were no elections held and no votes over the potential sell-off, which contradicts a copy of the company's restructuring plans dated May 31 that cited the will of its employees as the top reason for privatization.

 

So far, no investigation has been launched into the management of Linzhou Iron and Steel or into the alleged "illegal" sale on July 24.

 

"This is ridiculous. The taskforce is supposed to be here to investigate how things went wrong," said cashier Shang. "The group is made up of more than 300 staff members, most of who stayed at the city's luxurious Zhongzhou International Hotel. Who will ensure they don't just leave like nothing happened in a few months?"

 

地处河南安阳的林州钢铁有限责任公司职工在结束为期五日的抗议企业私有化活动之后，今日继续要求重新选举工人代表，与地方政府派驻的工作组直接对话。

 

今天上午，濮阳林钢联合改制工作组与企业的中层管理人员在一隐秘处召开动员会，要求后者深入群众之中，了解工人意见。林钢党委副书记、副总经理蔡信杰及工会主席郭建军分别向本报记者证实，企业将于今天向全体职工下发调查问卷，了解他们对改制的真实想法和态度。

 

工人们对此回应说，他们针对凤宝钢铁有限公司以低于起拍价近6400万元的价格，违法收购林钢而自发组织的激烈抗议，足以表达林钢工人阶级对改制的态度。

 

直到周六凌晨三时左右，在与前来调停的省委省政府相关官员达成暂停改制工作的协议后，工人们才结束了连续五天的维权活动。

 

林钢党委副书记、副总经理蔡信杰对本报透露，工作组本想在昨天（8月16日）召开中层管理人员动员会，但未能成功。

 

“这两天太混乱了，人都召集不全。”他说。

 

以濮阳市委副书记盛国民为首的改制工作组并未就此作出回应。林钢创建于1969年，1983年由安阳地区划归濮阳市管理至今。

 

蔡信杰强调，工作组处于了解情况的阶段，广泛征集工人意见的时机仍未成熟。工人们对表态强烈不满，并要求立即罢免企业中层管理人员，重新选举职工代表。

 

“是我们工人站出来要回林钢的，应该让我们参加会议。为什么要让这些出卖掉林钢的蛀虫代表我们来和政府工作组开会？”一位拒绝透露姓名的林钢资深会计对本报说。

 

“我们誓死保卫林钢的时候，他们没有一个人站出来。现在收果子的时候到了，就都站出来代表我们了。”她说。“他们从来没有考虑到工人利益。”

 

林钢工会主席郭建军告诉本报，企业现有170余名职工代表。

 

“我们这批一线职工代表（占全体职工代表的）比例是正常的，是2007年按照有关规定选出来的。到现在为止，一些职工退休，另一些走了，可能领导层比例占得大一点。但具体多少，我不太清楚。”郭建军说。

 

“这些代表当初都是职工推荐选出来的，现在出了这个事，他们就这么想（职工代表不能代表工人利益），可能有点不大合适吧。”他说。

 

林钢工人们对此表示，他们在历次职工代表选举中从未有过真正的发言权。

 

5月31日下发的《濮阳市林州钢铁有限责任公司改制实施方案》将“职工强烈要求”列为改制的最大可行性。但工人们普遍反映，他们“从没同意过改制，更没同意过拍卖”。

 

上周五，中华全国总工会发出通知，要求所有企业改制方案均应提交企业职工代表大会或职工大会审议。

 

“职工的裁减和安置方案等涉及职工切身利益的重大问题未经职工代表大会审议的不应实施；既未公开又未经职工代表大会通过的决定视为无效。”通知说。

ANYANG, Henan: Workers at a state-owned steel mill in Anyang, where authorities ended the takeover of their plant by a private firm after a five-day protest, yesterday urged for the election of their own representatives to negotiate with the local government.

 

An official group responsible for the restructuring of Linzhou Iron and Steel held meetings with the company’s middle management at a discreet location yesterday, asking them to probe workers’ attitudes toward the takeover.

 

The workers, who claimed to have not learned the news, said their attitude has always been clear. It was, after all, Fengbao Iron & Steel’s planned purchase of their enterprise after an auction last month at a price 64 million yuan less than the initial bid that led to the protest, a senior employee said.

 

They ended the protest only after provincial leaders who arrived at the plant promised on early Saturday to suspend Fengbao’s takeover.

 

Linzhou Steel's deputy general manager Cai Xinjie told China Daily that the government group tried to hold a meeting with their middle management on Sunday, but failed.

 

“We couldn’t find enough of them,” he said. “I don’t know where people went.”

 

The official group, led by Sheng Guomin, deputy Party chief of Puyang city, was not available for comment. Linzhou Steel is in Anyang, but authorities in Puyang, which was formed from part of Anyang, administer its operations.

 

While Cai insisted that the official probe is still at an initial stage and “will take time” before soliciting opinion from the ordinary employees, the workers demanded direct meetings with the group with representatives of their own.

 

“It was we the working people who stood up, fought for Linzhou Steel and got it back. We should be there at the meetings,” a senior accountant with the company told China Daily. She refused to disclose her name.

 

“How are these cadres who tried to sell the company off capable of representing us in meetings with the government?” she asked.

 

“Not one of them stood up when we were out there fighting for Linzhou Steel. Now that the fruits are ripe, here they are, trying to represent us.”

 

Linzhou Steel’s labor union chairman Guo Jianjun told China Daily the number of workers’ representatives stands at around 170.

 

“We’ve managed to keep the proportion of grassroots workers among these representatives in line with state regulations. But some retired in recent years; others left. So now, we may be having a few more managers as representatives than in the past,” he said.

 

“The workers’ attitude now may be somewhat inappropriate. After all, it was they who recommended these people to be their representatives,” Guo said.

 

The workers, meanwhile, insisted that they never had any say in elections.

 

The Linzhou Steel restructuring plans, dated May 31, cited the strong wills of its employees as the main reason for privatization.

 

The workers claim they never wanted violence. “We’ve all been compelled to come this far,” said Fu Linxue, a Linzhou Steel guard for 16 years.

 

On Thursday night, day three of the protest, local police cut off all phone signals around the factory, triggering workers to smash two government cars inside the compound.

 

Cai, speaking on behalf of Linzhou Steel management, said he doesn’t know who blocked the signals.

 

“We don’t trust them anymore. This has been going on for too long. They’ve lost our trust,” said Wang Mingxian, 39. He has been working at the factory for 21 years and earns about 800 yuan a month.

A banner outside the compound read: “Learn from the Tonghua steelworkers. The 40 years of wealth accumulation is not up for grabs.”

 

Linzhou Steel’s auction was held on the same day when a protest against private takeover erupted at a steel factory in Tonghua city of Jilin province, where workers beat the newly appointed general manager to death.

Workers said they were left in the dark of a deal that was about to see Jianlong, a large private steelmaker, take control of Tonghua by increasing its stake in the plant to 65 percent from 36 percent.

 

The incident has forced Jianlong to terminate its merger plans and reshuffle the leadership of Tonghua.

 

On Friday, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions said workers’ representatives must be involved in corporate restructuring plans.

 

“Any layoff and resettlement plans as well as relevant issues related to the workers’ interests are not to be implemented if they were not passed by these meetings,” the federation said in a circular.

在河南安阳，一国有钢铁企业的数千名职工在连续五天的抗议私企兼并活动结束后，正积极等待着省委省政府及地方官员们履行其承诺。

 

周六凌晨三时左右，职工代表与前来调停的省委省政府相关官员达成协议。工人们随即释放了进驻该厂负责改制事宜，并于示威期间被困居工厂大楼内的濮阳市国有资产监督管理委员会副主任董章印。

 

河南省委副书记陈全国、副省长史济春对林州钢铁有限责任公司的职工许诺暂停广遭批评的改制工作及凤宝钢铁公司的相关收购，并在林钢恢复生产前，为企业职工每人每月发放生活补助费550元。

 

但在随后的采访中，林钢党委副书记、副总经理蔡信杰对本报表示，他“没听说过要发放补助这个事情”。

 

“工人们有一个误区。他们以为工厂改制，他们就应该拿到钱。工人把应该得到的拿到就行了。”蔡信杰说。

                       

林钢创建于1969年，1983年由安阳地区划归濮阳市管理至今。企业职工总人数5122人，其中在岗职工2995人，年产生铁40万吨，水泥10万吨，曾是国内唯一能够大批量生产低钛生铁的企业。

 

7月24日，距地方政府做出该厂私有化的单边决定已近一年。这一天，林钢在没有经过任何职工同意的情况下，被以2.589亿元，比竞拍价还要低约6400万元的离奇价格卖与凤宝。

 

工人们认为拍卖违反了相关法律，是濮阳市政府暗箱操作的结果。但蔡信杰昨日对本报称，拍卖程序完全合法。“法律规定，拍卖时如果没人竞价，可以按不低于最低价20%的价格出售。我们的出售价格没有低于（最低价的）20%。”他说。

 

据查，《中华人民共和国拍卖法》并无相关条例。

 

在改制大旗下，所有林钢职工均按工作年限，与企业强制签订了每年仅1090元的一次性经济补偿协议。“不签这就不给签（凤宝公司的）新合同。”工人们反映说。负债累累，经营不善的凤宝只有1500多个工作岗位，向以欠薪和不给工人上保险的“业绩”驰名林州。

 

工人们迫切要求收回林钢。他们认为凤宝“只是一个空壳，根本没有资格买林钢”。

 

在林钢工作已20年的尚新开表示，官方意义上的“国企改制”，应该“是为了企业的更好发展，而不是为了把它卖掉，再把我们当作包袱甩掉。”

 

此前困居林钢大楼的濮阳市国资委副主任董章印曾向工人们坦承，自己经手改制的八家濮阳市国有企业已经全部倒闭。

 

当地国资委做出的资产评估，将林钢的起拍价定为3.2亿元。工人们及林钢其他雇员强调，林钢“至少值8亿元”。将年产能力达10万吨的林钢水泥厂定价为不到17元钱的该资产评估报告，在当地早已传为笑谈。

 

官员们表示，林钢改制的核心出发点，在于其经营不善，濒于破产。但一名已在林钢工作了39年，即将于今年退休的工人向记者表示，林钢面临的经济困境，是管理层“故意搞坏”，以便将其私有化进程合法化的结果。

 

“这是国有资产流失的最大一个典型。林钢40年的家底，就到了一个人手里了。”老人说。他拒绝透露姓名。

 

据称，林钢董事长、党委书记、总经理刘俊生曾在此前的中层干部会议期间公然宣称：“越是亏空，越有利于林钢改制，越有利于我们收购。”

 

以改制之名，企业于三月中停产，并将其职工遣散。其后，林钢工人两次以封路形式进行集体维权。3月21日，近千名工人将安林高速入口堵住一天多，直到以濮阳市副市长王相玲、公安局局长阮金泉为首的工作组进驻林钢，才渐渐散去。一名林钢员工回忆道，王相玲和阮金泉曾向他们承诺，“这个事情解决不好，就吃不好饭睡不好觉。”

 

“结果最后还是不了了之。”该员工说。兼任濮阳市林州钢铁有限公司改制领导小组组长的王相玲，已于近日因林钢事被“双规”。

 

周六凌晨，省委省政府专员们与林钢职工代表就改制一事举行了会谈。但工人们仍普遍认为自己被排除在了决策过程之外。他们同时表示：“省里再来人，应该和真正的职工代表开会。”

 

“现在的职工代表都是科长以上的干部，不代表我们的利益。应该重新选举工人代表。”一名资深员工说。“我们谁也没同意过改制，更没同意过拍卖。”

5月31日下发的《濮阳市林州钢铁有限责任公司改制实施方案》将“职工强烈要求”列为改制的最大可行性。

 

工人们声称他们从不希望出现流血事件。以前也不敢站出来。“我们现在都是被逼迫的。工人只有走投无路的情况下，才会做这样的事。”已经在林钢做了16年保安的付林学说。

 

“只要有一点点改善，我们就有日子过。”另一名工人说。

 

周四晚，林钢工人维权进入第三夜时，当地警方突然将厂区范围内的手机信号全部屏蔽，使维权职工认为“他们要采取行动了”，于是在一时冲动下，掀翻并砸毁了两辆地方政府的尼桑天籁轿车。

 

林钢党委副书记、副总经理蔡信杰称，他对切断手机信号一事并不知情。“我不知道是谁搞的这么回事。”他说。

 

“工人已经不相信了。多少多少次了，他们已经失信于民了。”39岁的王明现说。他已经在林钢工作了21年。与其他工龄相仿的工友一样，他每个月只能拿到800多元工资。

 

数日以来，一条鲜红的横幅一直傲然立于厂房之外：“向通钢工人学习，四十年的财富积累不容侵吞。”其后不远的大门上，另一条幅横刀立马：“用毛泽东思想占领我们的阵地，做企业的真正主人。”

 

林钢拍卖当日，恰逢吉林通钢集团上万工人激烈抗议河北建龙集团对之进行增资扩股，并将建龙集团派驻通化钢铁公司总经理陈国君打死。陈国君在死前对暴动的工人们悍然叫嚣：“我只要还有一口气在，就让你们全部下岗。”

 

通钢工人们表示，他们对建龙的参与既不知情，更不支持。经济学家左大培分析说，建龙侵吞了通钢的66亿元资金，严重伤害了全体职工的利益，还白送和白抢了吉林精品钢基地和通钢原有矿山的所有权。

 

事件发生后，建龙被迫暂停增资计划，通钢领导层也发生了重大调整。

 

本周五，中华全国总工会发出通知，要求所有企业改制方案均应提交企业职工代表大会或职工大会审议。

 

“职工的裁减和安置方案等涉及职工切身利益的重大问题未经职工代表大会审议的不应实施；既未公开又未经职工代表大会通过的决定视为无效。”通知说。

 

2009年8月16日午时的林钢。在一天的等待后，工人们又拉开了谈判后被短暂收起的横幅：“用毛泽东思想占领我们的阵地，做企业的真正主人。”

Thousands of workers at a state-owned steel plant in Anyang, Henan province are waiting for government promises to be delivered after a five-day protest against the takeover of their factory by a private firm.

 

Dong Zhangyin, a deputy director of the state-owned assets supervision and administration (SASAC) sent by Puyang city to oversee the takeover and was held hostage by workers during the protest, was released at around 3 am on Saturday after the demonstrators reached a deal with provincial authorities.

 

Henan’s vice Party chief Chen Quanguo and deputy governor Shi Jichun, who arrived at the trouble-plagued Linzhou Steel Corporation (LSC), promised to suspend its purchase by Fengbao Iron & Steel Co. Ltd and give each worker a monthly subsidy of 550 yuan ($80.5) until production resumes.

 

But the LSC’s vice Party chief and deputy general manager Cai Xinjie later told China Daily he had “never learned of such a subsidy”.

 

“The workers have misunderstood. They think they should get all the money just because the factory was sold to a private company. It’s not like that. The workers should be happy getting the share they deserve,” Cai said.

 

Set up in 1969, the LSC boasts 5,122 workers and pensioners on the regular payroll and 2,995 workers on the job. It produces some 400,000 tons of pig iron and 100,000 tons of cement a year, and was China’s only production base of low-titanium iron.

 

On July 24, almost a year after local authorities unilaterally decided to privatize the firm, the LSC was sold to Fengbao for 258.9 million yuan ($37.9 million), or about 64 million yuan ($9.4 million) less than the initial bid at an auction, without the workers’ consent.

 

Cai, however, claimed that the bidding was perfectly legal. “Law says any item that nobody bids for can be sold at no more than 20 percent lower than the initial bid,” he said.

 

No relevant clause exists in China’s auction law.

 

All LSC employees were forced to accept a compensation of only 1,090 yuan ($159.5) for each year of service before signing a new contract with Fengbao, a debt-rich company with only 1,500 job slots and a reputation for unpaid wages and lack of work insurance.

 

Eager to take the LSC back in their own hands, the workers say Fengbao is an empty shell with no right to buy a healthy organization like that of their own. 

 

Shang Xinkai, a worker in her 20th year at the LSC, told China Daily that privatization, or “corporate restructuring” in official terms, should aim for the healthier development for the enterprise, not “selling state-owned assets off to private hands and sending workers home like trash”.

 

Dong, the Puyang SASAC official who Shang claimed to have treated during his days as a hostage, reportedly acknowledged that all eight state-owned enterprises he helped privatize in Puyang eventually declared bankruptcy.

 

His SASAC evaluated the LSC’s assets at about 320 million yuan. The workers insist that the enterprise is worth “at least 800 million yuan”. They see the SASAC report, which valued an LSC-affiliated cement factory with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons at no more than 17 yuan ($2.5), as a joke.

 

Officials say the LSC’s impending bankruptcy is a core rationale for its restructuring. But a senior employee, who has worked with the factory for 39 years, said its management “deliberately screwed up” to legitimize the LSC’s privatization, which workers see as a move to “sell them out” to fill the pockets of the rich and the powerful.

 

“It’s a classic model of how state-owned assets are lost in corporate restructuring efforts in China. All 40 years of the LSC’s assets are now in the hands of a single person,” the worker said. He refused to disclose his name.

 

Liu Junsheng, the LSC’s board chairman, Party boss and general manager, reportedly told an earlier inside meeting that “the more we’re in the red, the more it benefits LSC’s restructuring, and the more it benefits our purchase.”

 

In the name of restructuring, the plant suspended all operations and sent its employees home in March. Until the latest protest, the workers had tried to resist the privatization by blocking local traffic twice.

 

Puyang’s deputy mayor Wang Xiangling and police chief Ruan Jinquan reportedly promised the workers to take their concerns very seriously. An anonymous LSC staff recalled the officials as have said they “wouldn’t be able to sleep without dealing this issue properly”.

 

“But that was the end of it. We never heard anything from them since,” the staff said. Wang, also former chief of LSC’s restructuring team, has been sacked from her post in light of the protest.

 

On early Saturday, the provincial mediation team held meetings with representatives from LSC and employees about the privatization. But the workers feel they were still left out of the decision-making process, and demand future meetings to be held with representatives of their own.

 

The current representatives, they say, are cadres who “can no way” stand for their interests. “We must reelect workers’ representatives,” a senior staff said. “Not one among us has ever agreed to privatize or sell off the enterprise.”

 

The LSC restructuring plans, dated May 31, cited the strong wills of its employees as the top reason for the privatization.

 

The workers claim they never wanted violence and dared not stand out before. “We’ve all been compelled to come this far,” said Fu Linxue, a LSC guard for 16 years.

 

On Thursday night, day 3 of the protest, local police cut off all phone signals around the factory, triggering frustrated workers to smash two government cars inside the LSC compound.

 

Cai, speaking on behalf of LSC management, said he doesn’t know who blocked the signals. “I don’t know who did something like that,” he said.

 

“We don’t trust them anymore. This has been going on for too long. They’ve lost our trust,” said Wang Mingxian, 39. He has been working at the factory for 21 years and, like many others, pulls in no more than 800 yuan a month.

 

A banner hanging outside the LSC compound reads: “Learn from the Tonghua steelworkers. The 40 years of wealth accumulation is not up for grabs.”

 

LSC’s auction came on the same day as a protest against private takeover erupted at a steel factory in Tonghua city of the northeastern province of Jilin, where workers beat the newly appointed general manager to death after he threatened to downsize them all.

 

Workers said they were left in the dark of a deal that was about to see Jianlong, a large private steelmaker, take control of Tonghua by increasing its stake in the plant to 65 percent from 36 percent.

 

The incident has forced Jianlong to terminate its merger plans and the leadership of Tonghua to reshuffle.

 

On Friday, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions said all corporate restructuring plans must be passed by the workers’ representative meetings.

 

“Any layoff and resettlement plans as well as relevant issues related to the workers’ interests are not to be implemented if they were not passed by these meetings,” the federation said in a circular.

 

A China-bound Afghan plane diverted to Kandahar Sunday night after an alleged bomb threat arrived at Urumqi, its scheduled destination, late last night.

 

The Boeing 767 flight arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul, from which it had departed, early Monday after an overnight stay in Kandahar, said Feda Mohammad Fedawi, deputy head of Kam Air.

 

Carrying 168 people, including five Chinese, the aircraft was earlier refused permission to land in Urumqi and made an emergency landing in Kandahar during its return because “(the) weather condition in Kabul was not suitable at that time”, Kam Air president Zamarai Kamgar reportedly said.

 

Pan Dongjie, a Chinese passenger on the plane, confirmed that the plane “made landing efforts in Kabul airport, but failed”.

 

 “Maybe it was because of strong winds,” Pan said.

 

An official with Kabul International Airport, however, said the plane made the unexpected landing due to some “mechanical problem”.

 

In Urumqi, an airport source said “the plane had descended to an altitude of about 2,000 meters when it was informed by Ground Control that there were bombs on board and that it had to turn back”.

 

All airport staff “received news of the bomb threat on Sunday night”, according to the source.

 

Pan, the passenger, also claims to have known about the bomb threat.

 

But both Kamgar and Afghanistan’s counter-terrorism chief Abdul Manan Farahi said there was no bomb on the plane.

 

Still earlier, Xinhua reported that the plane had been hi-jacked. But a press officer for NATO-led and US forces in Kabul, Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, was quoted by Reuters as saying that there was no hijacking or bomb threat involved.

 

 “If something that significant happens we would know about it,” he reportedly said.

 

No official explanation has been given to explain the differing accounts. A source with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told China Daily that it is “looking into the matter”, but refused to elaborate.

 

In Urumqi, Xinhua said the incident triggered “an emergency response at the airport”. All is back to normal, it said after releasing photos showing armored vehicles withdrawing from the airport yesterday.

 

Urumqi last month was the site of Xinjiang’s bloodiest riot in 60 years, when at least 197 people were killed and more than 1,700 were injured. Most of the victims were ethnic Hans.

 

Officials say terrorist and separatist forces overseas, the World Uygur Congress (WUC) in particular, were behind the riot. While the WUC rejects any association with the riot, international terrorist organizations have been recently calling for “revenge” against all Chinese.

 

The Algeria-based Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an arm of Al-Qaida, has vowed to attack Chinese workers in North Africa.

A group calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) has urged Muslims to attack Chinese for what it calls “bar-baric massacres” against Muslims in Xinjiang, which it calls “East Turkistan”.

 

 “Their men (Chinese) should be killed and captured to seek the release of our brothers who are jailed in East Turkistan. ... We in East Turkistan have a duty to continue to resist without desperation,” Abdul-Haq, described by an Al-Qaida-linked website as the leader of TIP, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

 

Uygurs, the majority of whom practice Islam, make up roughly 46 percent of Xinjiang’s population of 21 million.

在奥运周年即将到来之际，北京奥组委执行副主席蒋效愚向本报透露，北京奥组委有望于两周内解散。

 

“如果国务院不下文的话，我们20号左右也许就宣布（解散），”蒋效愚在接受本报独家采访时说。

 

他还说，届时，奥组委将在其办公地点奥运大厦外举行内部的降旗仪式。在奥运期间，北京奥组委共有4000多名工作人员，其中1000多名为聘用人员。而在盛会结束近一年后的今天，这座大楼里的工作人员只剩下了20来个。

 

蒋效愚表示，今天上午成立的北京奥运城市发展促进会将以社会团体的形式继承北京奥组委的遗产，更好地发挥奥运城市品牌的持续效应，以期巩固奥运成果，弘扬奥运精神，为北京的长期科学发展作出贡献。

 

北京奥组委主席刘淇担任发展促进会会长，北京市市长郭金龙担任执行会长。近期被增补为全国政协教科文卫体委员会副主任的蒋效愚是副会长之一。

 

蒋效愚同时透露，作为市政府直属的局级事业单位，北京奥运城市发展促进中心将作为发展促进会的办事机构，起到秘书处的作用。发展促进会将另行成立一个奥运发展基金会。

 

北京奥运会和残奥会吸引了国内外4万多名记者，100多名国家元首、政府首脑和王室成员，2万多名运动员和随行官员，以及约50万入境游客。

 

蒋效愚表示，举办奥运的经验“使得中国人民对世界有了新的了解，不仅国家更开放了，包容性也更大了，人们的心态也更加平和成熟了”。

 

周六的奥运周年纪念日的重头戏之一，将是在国家体育场鸟巢进行的意大利超级杯足球赛。蒋效愚认为，这正是与一年前相比，中国愈发开放的表现之一。

 

“奥运会促进了中国的改革开放，使得中国更好地了解了世界。通过筹办、举办奥运会，我们也更好地学会了按国际规则办事，与国际接了轨。”他说。

 

在奥运会前，中国政府颁发施行了一系列临时措施、规定，以履行其作出的奥运承诺。一年来，很多经过实践检验，效果出众的临时措施，都已经变成了我国在规划、建设、管理、运行、服务保障等各方面的长效机制和常态机制。

 

例如，在奥运期间获得广泛欢迎的道路限行措施使北京每天上路的机动车减少了两百万辆之多。奥运会后，这项被称为“单双号限行”的临时措施已顺利地转变为长效的“每周少开一天车”制度。

 

此项措施及其他一揽子污染治理方案带来的，是北京空气质量的持续提高。官方数字表明，在今年上半年的186天里，“蓝天”数达到了146天，达到了十年来的最高水平。1998年全年，北京的“蓝天”数也只不过是100天。

 

而对外国记者在华采访限制的逐步取消，也是奥运会的一项重要遗产。

 

2007年1月，国务院颁布《北京奥运会及其筹备期间外国记者在华采访规定》，给予外国记者空前优厚的采访待遇。随着奥运会的结束和《规定》的到期，中国政府及时颁布了国务院537号令，其中很多的做法，都是此前《规定》的延续。蒋效愚认为，这“既是奥运会的结果，也是改革开放的结果”。

 

“今年新疆7·5事件，我个人认为，和拉萨3·14事件相比，7·5事件第二天政府就及时召开发布会，并允许外国记者到乌鲁木齐去采访，这是我们国家自信的表现，也是我们新闻采访上更加开放、更加宽容的表现。我认为效果是很好的。”他说。

 

去年拉萨3·14打砸抢烧暴力事件后，官员们曾以安全为由，阻止外国媒体入藏进行采访。拉萨事件最终导致18人遇难，623人受伤。

 

而在今年7·5暴力恐怖事件发生后，新疆自治区主席努尔白克力在第一时间内就录制了电视讲话。暴乱发生的次日上午，自治区和乌鲁木齐市政府就组织召开了新闻发布会和现场采访，并欢迎各国记者前往乌市。

 

根据乌市新闻部门人员的统计，截至7月底，共有400多名中外记者赴乌市对事件进行追踪报道，其中约一半是外国记者。在这场自治区历史上最血腥的暴乱中，至少197人丧生，1700余人受伤。

 

“可以看到，奥运会后，中国不是更封闭了，而是更开放了。”蒋效愚说。

 

“我国广大群众对举办奥运会充满了自豪和骄傲。可以说，在亿万人民心中，现在已经形成了一种很深的奥运情结……这是奥运会留下的一笔财富。”他说。

 

 “北京奥运精神已经成为我们中华民族精神在当代的生动体现，也是我们以改革创新为核心的时代精神的生动写照。它是我们民族精神财富的一部分。”

 

“奥运精神不仅没有泯灭，反而更扎根于人民群众的心中，并化作了我们推动社会进步、提高城市文明程度、推动经济发展、建设和谐社会的巨大的内在动力。”蒋效愚表示。

三年前的吐克孜·居麦尔，用一些知识分子的话来讲，“走在人生边上”。在离婚之后，法院把她独子的抚养权给了前夫。初中毕业后就离家结婚生子的她，怀着复杂的感情回到了那间老屋子里，和父母、两个哥哥和一个妹妹再次住到了一起。她在布拉克苏，一个即便是在西陲重镇喀什内部也向以贫瘠著称的农业乡的生活，已经不可避免地开始全面滑坡。

 

像吐克孜这样家境贫困、不懂汉语、几乎一无所有的年轻维族离婚妇女，正是伊扎布特组织在南疆各地的头号发展对象。

 

被汉人官民们称为“伊斯兰解放党”的伊扎布特组织，成立于二十世纪五十年代初期的耶路撒冷，其宗旨是通过圣战，建立政教合一的哈里发国家。1999年，这个在中东、中亚及俄罗斯均被明令禁止的国际恐怖主义组织，开始渗入新疆。

 

在发展十年之后，疆内的伊扎布特信徒据称已达两万，多为南疆地区二十多岁，教育程度有限的维族农民。而新疆维吾尔自治区首府乌鲁木齐，恰是伊扎布特的中国总部所在地。

 

至今，我情报部门并未公开表示该组织与7月5日在乌市发生的血腥暴乱有关。然而资深维族记者、分析人士海来特·尼亚孜近期称，残杀事件的组织者，或许正是在疆外仍鲜为人知的伊扎布特。

 

在新华南路目击了部分暴乱过程的海来特回忆道：“暴徒们打砸抢，一百多人，一聚一散，非常具有组织性，而且一律穿球鞋；从他们的口音看，基本上是喀什、和田那边的。”他同时表示，暴徒们的口号包括了具有伊扎布特风格的“汉族人滚回去、杀死汉族人”和“我们要建立伊斯兰国家，要严格执行伊斯兰法”。

 

根据新疆警方公布的消息，近几年来，维族妇女参与集会游行和暴力事件的现象不断增多。2008年3月23日由伊扎布特组织在和田地区策划的大规模非法集会游行中，就有70%的参与者是维吾尔族女性。分析人士对此现象表示担忧，并将其视为恐怖主义势力在疆内各界迅速扩张的表现。

 

在钱财和“来世上天堂”等物质和精神的双重诱惑面前，很多没有了收入、孩子和希望的吐克孜们，已经变成了伊扎布特的忠实成员。

 

与此相对应的是，一直以来，在布拉克苏乡所属的疏附县，各族官员们都在默默地却又坚定地，争分夺秒地抢夺着这个在传统革命语言中被认为是“无产阶级不去占领，资产阶级就要去占领”的阵地。

 

从2006年起，疏附县开始分批组织史无前例的疆外务工团队，并说服了吐克孜的父母，把女儿与几十名维族青年一起送到了天津兰奇塑胶有限公司。三年后，刚刚在7月15日由津返疆的吐克孜已经用打工岁月里省吃俭用存下的三万块钱给家里添置了三间土房、十五只羊、两头牛和一辆电瓶车。

 

她只是在当地政府组织下，打工于疆内外各企业的数千名疏附人之一。地方政府希望通过组织大规模团体外出务工，来增加当地青年的机会，促进经济发展，和遏止深深扎根于“穷则思变”定势中的恐怖主义扩张。

 

“我们希望这些年轻的维吾尔族母亲能够带动健康有序的社会变革。因为母亲是家庭的基础，家庭和谐又是社会和谐的基础。”自治区妇联副主席库来惜·阿不都拉解释道。

 

妇联资深基层讲师比丽克孜·依明补充道：“在新疆的农村地区，很多维族女孩初中毕业以后，第一件事就是去结婚。《婚姻法》规定少数民族女孩十八岁可以结婚，但事实上，还是有不少孩子十三四岁就被父母安排着结了婚。她们十八九岁就是几个孩子的妈妈，根本不懂得什么责任，也没有受什么教育，特别容易被煽动起来。”

 

“我们想给她们一个自己的未来。” 比丽克孜说。

 

对吐克孜来讲，那个未来是在疏附县开自己的服装店。“我一直都想在县里开店子卖衣服，一直都有那种动力。在天津的时候，我一直都特别注意衣服的颜色和款式，对色彩的搭配也特别敏感。我觉得我现在已经准备好了。” 吐克孜说。

 

疏附县共有31万7千常住居民，其中98%都是主体奉行伊斯兰教的维吾尔族。广袤无垠的戈壁滩在当地给农业必需的灌溉创造了相当程度的困难，而外来资本的缺失，又极大地限制了疏附的工业发展。多少年来，“繁荣”都是这个西域县城的居民们最陌生的词汇之一。

 

2003年，农民工作为中国经济奇迹的重要支柱，早已进入了大众传媒的视野。正是在这一年，疏附县委、县政府决定，开始成规模地分批组织派遣其农村剩余劳动力到疆内各地务工。该决定姗姗来迟的原因，据县农村劳动力转移领导小组办公室副主任努尔曼古丽·艾海提认为，是宗教保守势力在当地挥之不去的影响。

 

“从传统上来讲，维族妇女是不应该离开家的，未婚的更是这样。所以在最开始的几年，我们想让大家先在疆内务工试试。”努尔曼古丽说。“所以我们到现在为止，大多数的劳务输出都是由政府组织的。我们想保证这些孩子们的安全。”

 

由于普遍存在的抵触情绪，努尔曼古丽和她的同事们决定登门拜访，走家串户地宣传劳务输出政策的积极影响。但激进分子仍不时作乱，散布“我们的孩子一到乌鲁木齐就会被卖掉”之类的谣言。“我们能做的就是微笑，解释，让事实说话。”同为疏附县农村劳动力转移领导小组办公室副主任的易德里斯·伊斯兰姆说。

 

计划实施初期的困难之多，是外界很难想象的。甚至在赴疆内各地的劳务输出团整队出发后，还出现过不少维吾尔族女孩被自称是其亲戚的维族男子拽下火车，拉回原籍的现象。

 

“很多女孩在报名的时候，就是十七八岁左右，在农村已经到结婚年龄了……在外面打工的时候，如果（女孩）家里来电话，说该把孩子送回去结婚了，我们也只能就这么送她们回去结婚。”比丽克孜说。

 

在基层干部的努力下，疏附县劳务输出计划迎难而上。到2006年，地方官员们认为，派遣农村剩余劳动力出疆务工的时机已经成熟。于是从当年起，每年都有约三分之一的疏附外出农民工进入疆外企业工作。截止到今年7月6日，共有2,308名疏附人在疆外务工。他们中的66%都是女性，主要从事制造业工作。

 

在离疆前，所有疏附县农民工都会与将前往的企业签订一年的工作合同，并接受免费的集中职业技能和汉语对话培训。到达目的地后，他们会被分配到十人一间的宿舍里。每50人以上的出疆务工团队，疏附县都会配备一名维吾尔族厨师；每100人以上的团队，则配维吾尔族医生、警察；而每300人以上的大型团队，更是配备一名县委常委干部，全程陪同。

 

在祖国各地务工的2,308名疏附维族工人身后，有38名上述带队人员，除三人是汉族外，其余均为维吾尔族。这些被孩子们称为“带队老师”的陪同人员每周都会在各厂与全体维族员工开会总结，也会在库尔班节、肉孜节等维族传统节日时组织各种各样的文艺活动。

 

为了帮助孩子们存钱，带队老师们往往代管他们的工资。“他们如果需要钱的话，我们都会把银行卡还给他们。银行卡的密码也只有他们本人才知道。但我们希望能让他们每个人在这一年里能至少存下4000块钱，而不是到哪个酒吧去一晚上就全花完了。”易德里斯说。

 

年纪稍长的吐克孜并不需要这样善意的提醒。“我当时每个月也就花100多块钱……没什么地方需要花钱的，我也不怎么出去。带队老师有时候也会组织我们出去玩。”

 

为了向数千里之外的家长们保证他们的孩子没有像传言那样“被卖去做奴隶”，疏附县政府对每户有子女在疆外务工的家庭都免费发放一台21寸彩电，并刻录下记载各地维族务工人员工作生活的DVD盘，分别赠与各个家庭。地方政府与厂方还分别提供常规性的长途电话服务。去年，吐克孜的父亲居麦尔·卡西姆还和乡里的其他几名务工人员家长一起参加了由乡政府组织的公费“视察团”，在女儿打工的天津住了20天。

 

努尔曼古丽说，她与同事们和风细雨般的工作已经有了回报。“我们现在已经不用入户去说服人家送孩子去内地了。孩子们自己报名，非常踊跃。今年的报名人数很快就超过了定额。内地的厂方也每年都主动联络我们，跟我们重新签约。……厂方可喜欢我们的孩子了。汉族工人嘛，可能签一年的合同，做了两个月，学会了，成了熟练工了，就跳槽了。我们的孩子是政府管理，不会这样的。”她说。

 

自治区主席努尔·白克力在此前的采访中透露，新疆“有计划、有序地向内地转移农民工，每年都有10万转移出去”。

 

6月26日，在广东韶关旭日玩具厂务工的疏附县维族员工，与数百名当地汉族员工发生严重冲突，导致两名维族员工死亡，上百人受伤。

 

警方表示，暴力冲突的起因，是网民6月16日在韶关家园网“市民心声”栏目发表的题为《旭日真垃圾》的帖子。该帖称，在旭日厂里，六名维族男孩“强奸了2个无辜（汉族）少女”。此文被广泛转载，并直接引发了十天后的冲突。

 

广东公安部门已将两名在网上“制造和传播谣言、涉嫌诬告陷害罪”的人员予以刑拘。新疆区委、区政府称，这些谣言及其引发的6月26日的大规模冲突，是九天后那场自治区历史上最为血腥的暴乱的直接导火索。

 

根据最新官方数字，7月5日的乌鲁木齐暴乱及7日市内汉族群众的自发反抗使至少197人死亡，1,600余人受伤。然而此间多名可靠的内部消息来源分别证实，实际死亡人数超过400，其中绝大多数为汉族群众。警方认为，意图分裂新疆的各海外势力各处散布谣言，煽风点火，造成了维汉群众的对立。

 

一个由喀什在乌市务工人员阿卜杜拉告知本报的谣言称，300多名疏附维族女子在地方政府强行拆掉其住房后，被迫前往广东。在那里，她们被汉人奴役、欺凌、强奸，最终全部杀害。该谣言与以热比娅·卡德尔为主席的世界维吾尔代表大会所宣扬的暴乱起因版本如出一辙。中国政府指责热比娅为暴乱的背后主使。

 

努尔曼古丽强调，这些谣言及其引发的残杀事件，并未对疏附县的劳务输出工作造成影响。但她同时承认，暴乱对当地基层干部造成的心理创伤，将难以治愈。

 

“这就好像有人狠狠打你一巴掌，说你做事情做得不好一样。可我们做得很好。我们的工作的确做到位了。”她说。“我们本来马上就可以不用再政府组织劳务输出，可以让孩子们自己出去打工了。但出了这么一个事情以后，谁知道（这件事）会耽误到什么时候呢？”

 

“结果嘛，现在全世界都在盯着我们，但是没有几个人来。外国媒体想说什么说什么，造成很坏的影响。我们也做不了什么。没法说……我们这里是在做工作的。”

 

然而在远离风暴中心的布拉克苏乡，吐克孜和多数人一样，对6月26日和7月5日的事情只是略有耳闻。对她来说，在“内地”的日子让她“感觉就像是大学生一样”。

 

“一群姐妹，一起上下班，感觉非常美好，我很怀念。”吐克孜说。她初中毕业后在家务农的妹妹即将满18岁。她的父母也愿意把这个最小的孩子送往“内地”。

 

 “我能想到的给她的建议就是听带队老师的话……那些老师特别好，带着我们像亲妹妹一样，我们逐渐就适应了（在“内地”的生活）。”她说。

 

吐克孜新家外的不远处，就是一马平川的戈壁滩。在路的一侧，几个工人正喊着号子，奋力支起一块在滚滚黄沙下已然满面风尘的宣传牌。那牌上用维汉双语写着：“劳务输出是农民致富奔小康的现实途径。”

A town of 10,000 people in the northwestern Qinghai province has been quarantined after a second man died of pneumonic plague and 10 others were affected, according to local health authorities.

 

Officials have not disclosed the identity of the newest victim, who was reportedly a neighbor of the contagious disease’s first fatality, a 32-year-old herdsman in Ziketan township of the Hainan Tibetan autonomous prefecture.

 

The ten infected, mainly relatives of the deceased, have been isolated in designated hospitals where they are receiving treatment, Qinghai’s health authorities were quoted by Xinhua as saying.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) office in China said it was in close contact with Chinese health authorities and that measures taken so far to treat and quarantine people were appropriate, according to AP.

It has further said the outbreak is unlikely to cause mass fatalities.

The pneumonic plague is, in the WHO’s terms, the most virulent form of plague. If untreated, 60 percent of patients can die, many within 24 hours.

But early diagnosis and treatment with generic antibiotics such as streptomycin and tetracycline cuts plague patients’ mortality rate to less than 15 percent, according to the WHO.

The pneumonic plague occurs when the bacteria reaches the lungs, causing symptoms including fever, headache and weakness, and is then spread from person to person by coughing.

The bacteria is found primarily in rodents, rats in particular, and in the fleas that feed on them.

Officials from Qinghai’s health bureau have adviced anyone with a fever or cough in Ziketan town and its vicinity after July 16 to seek hospital treatment.

The pneumonic plague was responsible for massive deaths in northeast China in two separate outbreak in 1911 and 1921. The first reportedly killed 60,000 people, while the second claimed 9,300 lives.

The deadly disease was by and large contained for decades after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The severest outbreak occurred in 1962 in Gansu province, where 15 people died.

But in recent years, small-scale outbreaks are on the rise. The Ministry of Health says the epidemic focus is now found in 19 of the 31 provinces and municipalities on the Chinese mainland. Of the 19, the western province of Qinghai and Gansu and the Tibet autonomous region are the most vulnerable.

Qinghai, a relatively remote Chinese province where proximity to animals such as rats and fleas is common, has reported two minor pneumonic plague outbreaks in the past eight years, the China National Radio Network said.

The first involved a 29-year-old rural Tibetan male who was bit by fleas as he peeled the skins of a fox, and the second was related to a mid-aged Han resident who killed and ate a marmot.

This time, the herdsman in Ziketan reportedly died on the fourth day after he buried his dog.