Chinese authorities were locked in negotiations on Friday with striking truckers who have besieged the country's largest port, in a bid to prevent the unrest from spreading to other cities. Truck drivers at the Shanghai port of Baoshan are demanding relief from rising fuel costs and port fees, in a rare industrial action that will reinforce government fears about the destabilising impact of rising prices.
While localised labour and land disputes are common and usually contained, one of the government's greatest fears is that popular discontent over inflation could spark a wider protest movement.
"Every intersection has riot police," one Baoshan trucker interviewed by phone on Friday afternoon, who declined to be named, said. "I don't know how long it will last."
In an alert, a logistics company at the port warned clients that strikers had blocked traffic in a protest over "domestic fuel [costs] and the high handling fees charged by port terminal operators".
Wen Yunchao, a rights activist who has been monitoring the protests, said authorities had agreed to eliminate or reduce a range of port fees. However, the parties were still divided over the port's container fees, which management offered to cut from Rmb50-75 to Rmb20. (read more)
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