Police detain man over bombings in north China city

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have detained a man in connection with several small bombs that exploded in front of a Communist Party building in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan earlier this week, state media reported on Friday. The suspect is Feng Zhijun, 41, who had previously spent nine years in prison for theft, according to state media. "Police found home-made explosive devices at his residence, and a large amount of evidence of his crimes," state television said on its official microblog. "Feng Zhijun fully confessed to the evidence of his crimes." Police caught him early on Friday, it added, without providing other details. Wednesday's bombings killed one person and wounded eight, according to state media reports. Such incidents are not uncommon in China and underscore the government's worries about stability in the world's second-largest economy, with a widening gap between rich and poor and growing anger at corruption and environmental issues. The Chinese government blamed Islamists for an attack in central Beijing last week when a car ploughed through bystanders on the edge of Tiananmen Square and burst into flames, killing three people in the car and two bystanders. The incidents come as China ramps up security before top leaders gather on Saturday for a plenum meeting in Beijing to discuss key reforms. In 2011, a farmer bombed three government buildings in Fuzhou city in Jiangxi province after failing to get redress over seizure of his land. Two people and the farmer were killed. A 42-year-old farmer with terminal lung cancer detonated a home-made device aboard a bus in Fujian province in 2005, wounding 31 and killing himself, possibly to protest prohibitive healthcare costs. (Reporting by Adam Rose; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Jeremy Laurence)