By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) - A rare strike by taxi drivers demanding relief from management fees and high fuel prices disrupted transport Wednesday around the northeastern city of Harbin.

The strike mimics similar work stoppages by drivers in other Chinese cities—all of them unsanctioned, and unreported in the entirely state-controlled media.

Drivers have been squeezed by high monthly management fees and a nearly 10 percent hike in gasoline prices not met with an accompanying rise in fares.

“Some drivers are barely making 1,000 yuan (US$135; euro92) per
month,” said Chen Weiguang, a driver with Harbin's Swan taxi company, who said he had been ordered by his bosses to ignore the strike. “Life is very tough.”

Chen estimated less than half of the taxis in the city of 3.8 million were carrying passengers. Calls to the city government's transportation department rang unanswered.

Staff at Harbin hotels said barely any cabs were available, while one driver said taxis had been attacked, apparently by drivers seeking to enforce the shutdown.

“There's not a single taxi at the hotel, and we have received many complaints from guests,'' said a receptionist at the riverside city's Flamingo Hotel. She declined to be identified by name because she wasn't authorized to speak to reporters.

Taxi driver Wang Yuewu said fees and higher fuel prices had cut take-home pay to almost nothing for some drivers, adding his company had forced some to work but most were parking their taxis and refusing to take passengers.

At least two of the company's cars had their windows smashed by other drivers, he said.

Both Chen and Wang said taxi company managers had been assigned to stake out intersections and hotels to make sure cabs were still working.

It wasn't clear who had organized the strike or how long it would last. China permits only one official Communist Party-controlled trade union organization, and independent labor organizers can be harassed and arrested under vague and generously applied national security laws.

While usually brief, such strikes have the potential to cause major disruptions because cities such as the regional tourism and industrial center of Harbin rarely have efficient public transportation systems such as subways to fall back on.

The strike also points to economic turbulence wrought by rising global oil prices. While China subsidizes the price of gasoline and diesel, some local governments have been forced to apply rationing and other measures to ensure supplies of diesel for trucks that keep the export-oriented economy humming.

Despite robust economic growth, many working Chinese have also been hit by price increases for food and other household goods that are running at an 11-year-high.