![Local residents demonstrating with a banner saying “urban enforcers [chengguan] killed people” in Linwu county, central China’s Hunan province, last month. Chinese urban enforcers were reported to have beaten to death a roadside fruit seller in a dispute - reports that seem to have been something of an exaggeration. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/6JV6DZ3RL7SAOE7I3JYDQQV67E.jpg?auth=561168f234ddd06330b05ac19d9e8bd945e9cc386e7335ffeae2266744bc961d&smart=true&width=1024&height=576)
A protest in a central Chinese city over claims municipal officials had beaten a street hawker to death went wrong when the man playing dead under a white sheet was overcome by the ongoing heatwave and jumped up for a drink of water.
A group of 10 men were holding the “corpse” of the soft-drink vendor on a gurney in Wuhan, claiming the hated “chengguan” urban management workers had beaten the man to death and demanding tens of thousands of yuan in compensation.
More than 300 people gathered at the scene in 36-degree heat, and more than 80 police officers were dispatched to maintain order there. By some readings, the temperature had crept into the 40s.
However, in a scene reminiscent of Tim Finnegan's revival when splashed with whiskey in the last verse of the Irish ballad Finnegans Wake, the "dead" vendor suddenly jumped up, grabbed a bottle of water and drank it before saying: "It's too hot. I can't bear it anymore."
The “chengguan” are para-police agencies which are widely despised in China for their heavy-handed tactics, and there are regular reports about urban management law-enforcement units beating street sellers and smashing their stalls.
Though they have no legal authority to use force, they are often accused of beating people who commit minor offences in shows of power that have fuelled social tension, triggered riots and aggravated public discontent against the government.
Public-order offences
On July 17th, a watermelon seller who fought with urban management officers in Hunan, central China, died of a haemorrhage caused by external force.
After being detained for public-order offences, the “dead man”, identified only by his surname Han, told police that street hawkers had clashed with urban management workers, who had told them their stands were blocking traffic, ordered them to leave and confiscated their mineral water and other beverages.
Xu Shuangmin, a professor of public administration at Zhongnan University, said the department in charge should seek the truth and let the party who is wrong take responsibility. “If the city management workers enforced the law too harshly, then they should take responsibility and apologise to the vendor,” said Prof Xu.
