BEIJING - POLICE detained 21 people for smashing taxicabs during the latest taxi strike to hit China as more drivers took to the streets Tuesday to protest high costs and competition from illegal cabs.

The 21 detained in Sanya, a popular holiday destination on the southern island province of Hainan, were suspected of vandalizing two taxis after the drivers refused to participate in the strike that began Monday, said a man from the city's Communist Party branch who would only give his surname, Li.

Mr Li said many cab drivers assembled in front of the municipal government office in Sanya for a second day Tuesday, but he did not give a crowd estimate. The official Xinhua News Agency put the gathering at more than a hundred.

'Right now, you can't see a single taxi on the roads. This causes great inconvenience to the residents and affects the city as a whole,' Mr Li said in a telephone interview.

'The government is trying to solve this as soon as possible.'

It was not immediately clear how many taxis were participating in the strike, but Xinhua said there are about 1,200 licensed cabs in Sanya.

The strike was taking place just days after similar action by 9,000 drivers in the southwestern city of Chongqing. During that two-day strike, disgruntled taxi drivers smashed more than 100 cabs and three police vehicles, state media reported.

Sanya transportation officials were at the protest trying to persuade the drivers to resume work, but negotiations are at a standstill because the group has not named a representative to meet with the government, Xinhua said.

The protesting drivers are seeking relief from high monthly taxi rental fees and competition from unlicensed cabs, Xinhua said.

Calls to Sanya's public security bureau rang unanswered Tuesday and an official from the transport bureau said he was in a meeting and could not talk.

Taxi companies refused to comment.

Protests are becoming more common across China as dissatisfaction grows over issues ranging from tough living standards to official corruption.

In Yongdeng, a county in Gansu province hundreds of miles (kilometres) away from Sanya, another 160 cab drivers called off a strike after the county government promised to present in one week's time a plan for eradicating the county's 700 unlicensed cabs, Xinhua said.

Phone calls to county authorities rang unanswered.

The conflict in last week's Chongqing strike was resolved only after Bo Xilai, the city's top official and a member of the ruling Communist Party's powerful Politburo, met with representatives of taxi drivers.

It is extremely rare for a high-level official to publicly meet disgruntled workers, and the quick action reflected authorities' concerns that financial woes sweeping the country could spark anti-government action among the unemployed and others suffering from economic hardship.

Laid-off workers in the early part of the decade joined huge protest marches and sit-ins amid the mass closures of failing state industries.

Authorities responded by assuaging some protesters with promises of economic aid and other kinds of financial help and imprisoning protest leaders. -- AP