Officials from the Qiannan Buyei-Miao Autonomous Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Guizhou, and the Organization Department with the Weng'an County Committee of the CPC appointed Pang Hong as party chief of the public security bureau of Weng'an County. They named Zhou Sheng as the commissar of the bureau.

    Pang and Zhou arrived in Weng'an late on Thursday, according to local sources.

    The Standing Committee of the Weng'an County People's Congress took the necessary legal steps to appoint Pang as chief of the Weng'an Security Bureau, replacing Shen Guirong, Pang's predecessor, at 11 a.m. on Friday.

    Luo Laiping, Zhou's predecessor, was on Friday stripped of all three of his CPC posts: member of the standing committee of the county CPC committee, secretary of the politics and law committee of the Weng'an County CPC Committee and commissar of the county public security bureau.

    Previously, Pang served as deputy chief of the home security detachment of the Guizhou Provincial Security Bureau.

    Zhou formerly served as the chief of patrol police in Liupanshui City, Guizhou, and later worked temporarily at the organized crime division of the Guizhou Provincial Security Bureau.

    A protest, with 30,000 people involved, broke out on June 28 following a police report on the death of junior high school student Li Shufen last month. Police said the 17-year-old drowned, but her family and relatives contend she was raped and killed.

    The protest turned violent, with rioters attacking government buildings. More than 150 police and protesters were injured, but no deaths were reported. About 160 offices and more than 40 vehicles were torched.

    Guizou Provincial Party Chief Shi Zongyuan said that the leaders of the county's CPC committee and government had an undeniable responsibility for the violent protest.

    Wang Fuyu, provincial deputy CPC chief, who is heading an investigation into the incident, said the protest would not have happened if local officials had communicated appropriately with the aggrieved people after the first signs of protest emerged.

    The deep-rooted reasons behind the protest were "rude and roughshod solutions" by local authorities to solve disputes over mines, demolition of homes for public projects, the relocation of residents for reservoir construction and many other issues, said Shi.

    The provincial committee ordered the local CPC discipline inspection and supervision departments to investigate allegations against other officials in dealing with the protest.