The latest round of arrests comes via protests from enthic Mongolians over what they view as unfair development policies that almost always benefit the Han Chinese settled in Inner Mongolia, where 52 have been arrested for creating and spreading rumors.
On Aug. 29, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau released a statement blaming the “criminal suspects” for distributing more than 1,200 pieces of information mainly of “Internet rumors and false reports of disaster, epidemic, and police emergency.”
“Upholding the principle of ‘strike, investigate and punish group by group,” the statement concludes, the authorities would deter “these criminal activities in order to protect the legal rights of the broad masses.”
Well, the rights of the "broad masses" can consider themselves to have their legal rights well and truly protected, and we're sure that the masses will rest easier in their beds knowing that the punishments doled out on the unfortunate 52 were fair and fit the crime.
Of the 52 people detained by police, 21 were handed administrative sentences of up to 15 days without trial, 10 were fined, while 21 were issued with warnings, reprimands, or "education" sessions, SMHRIC said.
The arrests come as tensions simmer over between ethnic Mongolians and the majority Han Chinese, who have been seen as unfiarly exploiting the grasslands that nomadic Mongolians depend upon for their livelihoods.
The recently announced plan to resettle several thousand Han Chinese who lost their homes in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to Inner Mongolia has done nothing to calm the situation, with many Mongolian taking to social media to voice their opposition to the plans.
