From The International Herald Tribune :
Incidents of social unrest are not uncommon across the Chinese hinterland. Last year, there were an estimated 120,000 strikes, protests or riots, most of them sparked by popular discontent over government corruption, the illegal confiscation of land, or workers agitating for unpaid wages.
But a clash between the police and residents in rural Guizhou Province on Sunday may be the first disturbance inspired by a dragon dance, or at least a thwarted one.
According to officials and residents in Dejiang, at least a dozen people were injured during a riot that began when the police tried to stop the traditional Lunar New Year procession from winding through the city’s narrow streets. At one point, soldiers were called in to quell the disturbances. Three of the injured were police officers, officials said.
