30 Taxi Drivers Drink Pesticide in Beijing Protest

30 Taxi Drivers Drink Pesticide in Beijing Protest
Apr 08, 2015 By eChinacities.com

On the afternoon of April 4, around 30 taxi drivers from Suifenhe, Heilongjiang staged an extreme protest by swallowing pesticide outside of a bustling shopping mall in Beijing's Wangfujing. The taxi drivers drank the pesticide in order to protest laws regarding license renewal and other issues. The group of men, mostly middle-aged, lay on the ground, some foaming at the mouth.

Eyewitnesses said that a few of the men did not drink, just lay down on the ground. A store clerk in a nearby shop said that a few of the men drank the pesticide but spit it out. The ones who actually drank the pesticide began to foam at the mouth. The clerk said that the men were quiet and had no message for the stunned crowd.

Police and ambulances rushed to the scene: witnesses counted four police cars and five ambulances. The men were taken to various local hospitals; seven were taken to Tongren Hospital. The hospital reported that five of them have returned to normal and two are recovering but require observation.

One of the pesticide drinkers treated at Tongren Hospital said that the taxi drivers had been dealing with the same issues for five or six years and had sent letters to the Ministry of Transportation and State Bureau but had not gotten a reply. The desperate and angry men then decided to take the train to Beijing in order to stage a protest.

Source: inews.qq.com

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Keywords: taxi drivers protest Beijing taxi drivers pesticide

11 Comments

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DavidJamesWright

I just tried to play detective and figure out if the word 'pesticide' had any hidden or colloquial meaning in Chinese. Perhaps it's some clever play on words with Chinese to create some verbal dig at the government or their unfair conditions. But after some research and communication, it appears that they just drank pesticide in protest. Unless the dialect in Heilongjian is radically different... So yeah. Pretty silly stuff.

Apr 11, 2015 19:02 Report Abuse

Guest2781358

Dumb idea

Apr 10, 2015 17:45 Report Abuse

Aylin35

Chinese are so cowards ! Harming themselves in this country, means nothing ! In this country nobody care even of a friend ! Nobody care if there is a peoples on the street who just got a heart attack ! I was seeing with my own eyes this scenes in China since I am living here. Is a shame for Chinese and I arrived to the conclusion than this peoples really have not any feelings for humans ! The best way is to make a revolution and change the government , but Chinese are not brave to do anything , they are afraid of everything . Anyway all their system is bad, also medical system. I am wonder, who pay the medical bills for this peoples ?.... of course themselves ! So, they spend a lot to come to Beijing , to pay the hospital and for what ? for a show in the middle of Beijing !.... Nobody care their protest anyway !

Apr 10, 2015 10:41 Report Abuse

Guest2503130

Will they anything other than arrest them? Probably not...

Apr 09, 2015 16:49 Report Abuse

Garbo

I talked to drivers in Beijing and they told me the same thing.

Apr 09, 2015 10:12 Report Abuse

Robk

I spoke with a taxi driver in Xian. He mentioned that about 5-6 years ago... the government took over the taxi industry and demanded the drivers pay like 40% of their salary (apparently they were making decent money). The taxi driver I spoke to said he was pulling in 14k RMB (keep in mind this is working 12 hours a day, everyday). He said he has to pay 6k RMB to the government and after some other fees (they have to pay for their own gas, taxi cab maintenance but don't own the taxi)... after all that their salary is like 5-6k RMB. Still decent but they are getting robbed by the government. Not sure if every city is the same but by the looks of it... many municipal governments are following suit and pretty much no protection to the taxi driver.

Apr 09, 2015 00:06 Report Abuse

Aylin35

Yes, but with 14 K rmb salary on the documents, they will have high retirement salary when they will retire. What they get in the hand, is different, but what is write on the documents , that will count much when they will retire.

Apr 10, 2015 10:47 Report Abuse

Stiggs

I wonder if they took a taxi to Wanfujing, or the bus because they knew they'd probably get ripped off by an unlicensed driver outside the train station, or wouldn't even get picked up because they weren't going far enough..

Apr 08, 2015 23:40 Report Abuse

Quinn68

They may as well have been drinking water. Chinese people have developed a high tolerance to pesticide as most of the food here has ridiculously high levels of it.

Apr 08, 2015 22:48 Report Abuse

Aylin35

That is very right ! Even eggs here are fake ! I ate eggs here and I got a very complicated skin issue , I was doing treatment and now I kick it out, but never happened this in my country eating eggs there ! I will never ever buy eggs here again ! Oh, and it was ecologic eggs !.........

Apr 10, 2015 10:50 Report Abuse

Chairman_Cow

Chinese taxi drivers are pests, so this actually makes sense.

Apr 08, 2015 18:07 Report Abuse