Police in China’s capital and in southern Guangdong have detained or taken away more than 50 people after two separate protests, police and state news agency Xinhua said.
Guangdong police arrested 22 people after demonstrators forced their way into a high-speed rail station in a protest about land and housing issues, Xinhua reported late on Friday.
In a separate incident in Beijing yesterday, police took more than 30 people to hospital after they consumed pesticide during a “lie-in” protest on a shopping street near the center of the capital, city police said in a statement.
The statement said the protesters were taxi drivers from the far northern province of Heilongjiang.
Similar incidents have happened before in China, with protesters drinking pesticide or fertiliser in public areas in the hope of drawing attention to a grievance.
About 90,000 “mass incidents” - a euphemism for protests - occur each year in China, triggered by corruption, pollution, illegal land grabs and other grievances.
