Four Chinese protesters chop off, swallow finger tips
By IANSThursday, August 5, 2010
BEIJING - In a bizarre protest, four Chinese men in Beijing chopped off the tip of the little finger of their hand and swallowed it to protest their sacking from a power utility company.
Li Bo, Zhang Yongsheng, Huang Qunyue and Zhang Shen are former employees of the Ningyuan county electric power bureau in Hunan province’s Yongzhou city.
The four men went to the Tsinghua University in Beijing at about 3.30 p.m. Sunday and placed their hands on books, Global Times reported.
Then, as hundreds of bystanders watched in horror, each one severed the tip of the little finger of their one hand.
As the blood squirted, they swallowed the severed tip.
They were forcibly expelled from the city Wednesday.
“I felt so calm doing that as we have been driven from pillar to post,” Li was quoted as saying.
On July 9, they had filed a lawsuit against their employer, but the Hunan capital city court set it aside.
“We even received threats from local government officials who said ‘We can have you ended for a mere 50,000 yuan ($7,382)’,” Li alleged.
They said they were forced to take the step after exhausting all avenues.
Li claimed they were fired in December 2008 on fabricated charges of absenteeism.
Li said: “We decided on the step at home without telling our families, and bought the kitchen knives in Beijing.”
