VZCZCXRO0748
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHGZ #0322 0680937
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 090937Z MAR 07
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5883
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI

UNCLAS GUANGZHOU 000322 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM AND DRL/PHD 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI ECON CH
SUBJECT: Guangdong Governor announces closure of Dongzhou incident 
 
REF: A) 06 Guangzhou 15624 B) 06 Guangzhou 11684 (NOTAL); C) 05 
 
Guangzhou 32000 (NOTAL); D) 05 Guangzhou 31940 (NOTAL) 
 
(U)  THIS DOCUMENT IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE PROTECT 
ACCORDINGLY.  NOT FOR RELEASE OUTSIDE U.S. GOVERNMENT CHANNELS.  NOT 
FOR INTERNET PUBLICATION. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: Nearly ten months after Dongzhou villagers were 
sentenced for their role in a December 2005 violent riot in which 
protestors were killed by police, Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua 
announced at a press conference on the sidelines of the Chinese 
national Congress meeting that police officials detained for not 
following orders properly and shooting protesters dead in Guangdong 
Province in 2005 had been sentenced.  He did not provide further 
details.  With the vagueness of the report and Huang's statementm 
all from western media sources, it is unclear what punishment was 
given to police officials.  While most government officials had 
already received minor punishments earlier, such as letters of 
reprimand from the Party, the Governor's announcement effectively 
closes the incident.  The public statement by the governor is an 
indication of the seriousness with which the provincial government 
views the flawed handling of the incident.  It is clear the 
government would like to bring closure to the incident.  Governor 
Huang would, no doubt, also like to close out the incident as it 
damaged his reputation and of Guangdong Party Secretary Zhang 
Dejiang.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) Guangdong Provincial Governor Huang Huahua announced in a 
short and ambiguous message on March 7 in a news conference on the 
sidelines of the annual meeting of China's parliament that: "We have 
already dealt with this according to the law.  We have sentenced the 
criminals, including those who, in enforcing the law, made 
mistakes," according to Reuters.  A later report broadcast in 
Chinese by Radio Free Asia quoted Huang differently: "We have 
already dealt with the responsible persons for this accident 
according to the law. We have appropriately sentenced or punished 
the persons who did not properly enforce the law and shot 
protesters."  Hong Kong's Beijing-owned Wen Wei Po newspaper 
reported in 2006 quoting the city's Communist Party organization 
department director Jiang Haiying, that Shanwei deputy police chief 
Wu Xing had been fired and placed under "criminal detention" over 
the shootings. 
 
¶3.  (U) In the Reuters report, Huang was also quoted saying that the 
incident had "been dealt with appropriately," but he provided no 
further details.  Huang maintained the official story that the 
incident had been incited by a small group of lawbreakers which 
resulted in violence. 
 
¶4.  (U) The announced sentencing of police officials was the final 
act in a tragedy growing out of the violent riot in December 2005. 
In May, 2006, Guangdong Disciplinary Inspection Committee announced 
penalty decisions - internal party reprimands - for other officials 
held responsibile for the Dongzhou Incident (ref A), including one 
Deputy Party Secretary; the vice-mayor and Director General of the 
Public Security Bureau (PSB) of Shanwei; the Director General of 
Shanwei's Construction Bureau; and another Deputy Party Secretary 
who was also the Deputy Director General of the Shanwei PSB and 
removed from his position in the PSB.  Other officials of the Red 
Bay Development Zone and Dongzhou Street Administration have been 
punished. 
 
COMMENT: Protecting Authority Comes First 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) As in previous reporting on this incident (reftels), there 
is a clear distinction between the treatment of officials and 
villagers involved in violence.  This sentencing sends a message 
from the Communist Party to both the ordinary citizens and security 
officials about the use of violence in civil unrest situations: 
crackdowns are permissible, but regrettable, but should not involve 
excessive violence; villagers are given no latitude once they employ 
violence.  Accordingly, most officials received a light punishment - 
internal reprimand.  Even the figure most responsible for the 
killing of villagers, the Shanwei Deputy Party Secretary, retained 
his party position while losing only the PSB-level job.  While it is 
possible that the police officials who were sentenced or punished 
received harsher punishments, the lack of transparency leads us to 
believe that while they were punished and possibly removed from 
their positions, it is likely that their punishment was far lighter 
than that meted to villagers convicted of attacking the police. 
 
GOLDBERG