Police tackle more political violence

Riot police used tear gas to suppress violent protests that broke out in the southern town of Zengcheng on Monday, Reuters reported. The rioting seems to have been sparked by the alleged abuse of a pregnant street hawker, Wang Lianmei, by security guards ordered to clear her from the streets of a nearby village in Guangdong province. Witnesses say over 1,000 demonstrators surrounded a government facility in the town. The protests are the latest in a series of political violence that have roiled China in the past three weeks, including multiple bombings of government buildings across the country and ethnic tension in the hitherto quiet province of Inner Mongolia. While the incidents appear unrelated, their urban focus is a departure from the usually rural location of demonstrations in China.