Scores of armed police, deployed to quell demonstrations by laid-off workers protesting the detention of some of their leaders, kept the protesters off the streets of one northwestern industrial Chinese city Friday for the first time in several days.
“There’s no disturbance today. We’re back to normal,” said a government official in the “rust belt” city of Liaoyang.
The protests, some of the largest of the communist era, have highlighted the pressure on the Communist Party from millions laid off under wrenching government reforms.
The angry workers reportedly said they had suspended protests in the hope that authorities would deliver on promises to free four leaders police seized in raids earlier this week.
“One detainee told his family that police and government officials promised to release them soon if the workers stopped demonstrating,” said a relative of one of the leaders.
There was no new information on the status of another protest in Daqing, where thousands of former employees of oil giant China National Petroleum Corp. have been railing against inadequate welfare benefits.
