Protest in China over frozen bank accounts ends in violence

theguardian.com:

A rare large-scale protest in China’s central Henan province has been violently broken up by unidentified security personnel, amid outcry over a financial scandal that has exposed the fragility of the country’s banking system.

A crowd of more than 1,000 protesters, according to some estimates, had gathered on Sunday in front of the Zhengzhou sub-branch of the People’s Bank of China to attempt to recover frozen savings held in rural banks.

Footage reviewed by the Guardian showed protesters demanding local authorities help them retrieve their savings. Some held banners that said: “Henan banks, give me my money back!”, while others called for China’s premier, Li Keqiang, to personally intervene.

White-shirted security guards confronted the crowd. Video showed them dragging protesters and beating them up. One man with a swollen eye said he had been beaten by “gangsters” and dragged on to a bus by police.

The incident was followed closely by China’s social media users. A number of angry commenters posted on the Weibo account of the US embassy, urging Washington to pay attention to the plight of the victims.

In April, a large number of depositors caused a bank run when they tried to withdraw their savings from four banks in Henan. They then began to stage demonstrations to demand their money back.

The saga drew further attention in June, when some protesters reported that their personal health codes – which are now mandatory for almost all Chinese citizens to access public venues – turned red to indicate they were Covid positive. They suspected local officials were behind the move, in an attempt to dissuade them from complaining.

One of the victims was Ms Yang, who had 499,500 yuan (£62,000) held in one of the banks. On 18 April, she