The Ministry of Defense has denied any knowledge of a protest by thousands of former soldiers in Beijing over a lack of pension benefits after the US government-sponsored Radio Free Asia (RFA) published a story claiming hundreds had been detained at the protest site and on their way to the capital, Reuters reported. “I don’t know about this situation you have mentioned,” ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun said when asked about the protest and veterans’ complaints. The RFA report claimed many of those involved were veterans of China’s short and unsuccessful war with Vietnam in 1979 and the 1969 border conflict with the then-Soviet Union.
China Economic Review