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Farmers riot in China over 'one child' policy

Police clashed with protesters in southern China as thousands of angry farmers rioted over the nation's controversial 'one-child' family planning policies.

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BEIJING: Police clashed violently with protesters in southern China as thousands of angry farmers rioted over the nation's controversial "one-child" family planning policies, residents said Monday.   

Angry farmers besieged up to four township governments in Guangxi province on Friday and Saturday, with police and protesters clashing in at least one demonstration, they said.   

The demonstrations occurred after local governments this month dispatched "family planning work teams" to levy fines on families that were violating government population control policies, they said.   

One woman in Shapi township, speaking on condition of anonymity, said up to 20,000 people had gathered and rioted there on Saturday, hurling rocks, breaking windows and torching public property.   

"The farmers were really angry because the family planning team was going around to homes and making farmers pay fines if they had too many kids," the woman said.   

"If the farmers had no money they took things from them. Property with value they confiscated, things with no value they destroyed."   

Local and provincial government and police departments refused to comment on the unrest.   

On Friday, similar demonstrations erupted in neighbouring Shuiming township, with locals confronting up to 1,000 police armed with clubs and dogs, one witness said.   

"It's hard to say how many people were there, you could say there was a sea of people," a man in Shuiming township informed.   

Hong Kong press reports said up to 50,000 farmers protested the family planning policies in the four Guangxi townships in recent days.   

China has since the 1970s enforced strict family planning measures to control its population, which at 1.3 billion people is the world's biggest.   

Reports of abuse by authorities enforcing the law, such as forced late-term abortions, are common.   

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