BEIJING (AP) — China’s Inner Mongolia region is under heavy security following protests sparked by the death of an ethnic Mongolian herder run over by a Chinese truck driver.
Hotels and other businesses contacted by phone say police are out in force Monday and Internet access has been cut in many areas of the sprawling region north of Beijing.
Demonstrations last week are thought to be the region’s largest in 20 years, involving thousands of ethnic Mongolians led by students in uniform. They followed the death of an ethnic Mongolian herder who had tried to stop a convoy of coal trucks from driving across grazing lands.
Behind the protests is a sense that Mongolian identity is under threat amid large-scale Chinese migration to the area.
