NANNING: Calm has returned to two townships in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which were the theater of the latest flare-ups in a series of protests against local family planning policies on Tuesday, a local government spokesman has said.

Hundreds of people in the Yangmei Township of Rongxian County gathered in front of the local family planning office at midday on Tuesday, claiming a refund of penalties levied for having more than one child, a spokesman with the county government said.

Some of them forced their way into the office, smashed furniture and set fire to government vehicles, he said.

The protesters brandished papers claiming that the penalty for a second child had been reduced to 1,000 yuan ($130) and demanded a refund, the spokesman said.

Local police said the protesters had been incited by a small group of ringleaders whose dialect indicated they were not natives of the county.

The instigators reportedly quoted a so-called "government paper" that said the maximum penalty for having a second child was only a few thousand yuan, while locals had been forced to pay at least 10,000 yuan.

The county government said their "government paper" was fake and penalties being levied were in line with laws.

The spokesman said a similar incident was reported in the Lingshan township in the same county at midday on Tuesday, when several hundred people smashed windows at the township government office.

By late afternoon, calm had returned to all the townships, he said.

Similar incidents were reported in Bobai County, not far from Rongxian, between May 17 and 20. Government facilities and documents were damaged and vehicles torched.

Twenty-eight people suspected of instigating the attacks were detained by police, local government said.

Xinhua

(China Daily 05/31/2007 page5)