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The Chinese posters wonder why there is so much of squalor in India.A contagion of conflict in China?
Dozens of police barricaded a highway entrance ramp in Haimen, where protests broke out on Tuesday.
At least three other pockets of unrest had flared up in districts of a large city near Wukan: two of the groups were protesting similar examples of illegal land seizures and a third, the largest outbreak of demonstrations, was over government plans to build a coal-fired power plant in Haimen.
Though difficult to confirm, the initial reports described thousands of residents converging on the main local government office and organizing a sit-in on a key highway entrance to protest the development plans. Local residents were quoted as saying they hoped foreign journalists would cover their story.
Before long, photographs emerged on Sina Weibo and other Chinese microblogs showing large numbers of paramilitary police in riot gear lining up against civilians in Haimen, a large town about 70 miles away from Wukan. Tear gas was fired and clashes ensued. Rumors also circulated that at least two boys had been killed in the confrontations; the government denied them.
Protests are not unusual in China. In fact, according to the most recent official statistics, 2009 saw more than 90,000 "mass incidents," as the Chinese government calls protests, across the country. Land grabs and pollution concerns are among the top grievances.
Although the protests in Wukan and Haimen appear unrelated, it seemed a remarkable coincidence that two demonstrations adopting similar tactics would spring up within several dozen miles of one another.
Heavy-handed police tactics
On Thursday, the streets of Haimen looked like those of any other comparable-sized Chinese town: food stalls, shops, sleepy government buildings, a high school, and a population that relies mostly on motorbikes to get around.
Mid-morning, dozens of those motorbikes were massed near the Haimen highway entrance. In the distance, scores of black-and blue-uniformed police wearing helmets were standing behind barricades that had been pulled across the toll gate to the highway.
A large gas station on the corner looked open, but was in fact not. The station's attendants in bright yellow jackets were lazing around, directing traffic to the next station. The only energy came from a discussion about the power plant taking place among some of motorbike riders.
Dozens of police vehicles, fire engines, and water canon trucks lined the side of a highway running through Haimen.
A little over an hour later, the crowd around the main entrance ramp had grown. Motorbikes whizzed back and forth a couple of hundred feet away from the police barricade. Many of the riders were young.
Suddenly, a pop rang into the air and a group of young teenagers were scrambling back away from the highway barriers—a plume of smoke rose above them. The teens had tried to sidle up along the side. A murmur of "tear gas" arose in the crowd as people began rushing away, covering their faces. Nostrils burned.
"They don't have the right to treat people like this," said a 24-year old local resident who only offered his surname, Li. "Using tear gas? It's wrong."
Rumors of cancer
A few miles away, a large power plant with two smokestacks sat under the hazy sun. It was not in operation; local reports said the government had suspended it as well as the plans to build the second plant until further notice.
Haimen residents called Hongdong — the hamlet of one-storey homes nearest the power plant —"Cancer Village." But inside Hongdong, a man working in a local medical clinic denied that cancer patients were on the rise.
Back in front of the highway entrance, a young man named Chen and his two friends on motorbikes watched the police. They had joined in the protests on Wednesday, because they, too, were angry about the health hazards posed by the power plant.
"The ocean is polluted [because of the run-off from the plant]," said Chen, also 24 years old. "You can't fish in it any more."
He and others in the crowd said the number of cancer cases in Haimen had grown since the power plant was constructed in 2009 and quoted local papers as saying 80 percent of the cancer patients at a major regional hospital came from their township.
Chen said news of the protest had spread by QQ, a popular instant messaging service, until it was blocked on Tuesday evening. Then they relied on word of mouth.
On the following day, the protesters were demonstrating peacefully, without weapons, said Chen, but the police rushed out from behind the blockade into the crowd and began beating up people—including women.
Many of the participants on Wednesday, according to residents, were young Chinese. Several were injured, and countless others arrested—just as was the case on Tuesday.
They had picked the highway entrance, said Chen, because it would attract the greatest attention. Unlike the existing power plant itself or the land where the second plant has been designated—both of which are removed from the main roads.
Hearing about Wukan
"Were you in Wukan?" was a question that crept up a few times in conversation with Haimen's residents. In the past couple of days, Chinese media had begun publishing reports on the dispute next door. Moreover, many had heard through friends or acquaintances or on the Internet about the months-long confrontation in Wukan.
But no one said Wukan had inspired them to take action.
"This [environment issue] has been a problem for us for a while," said Li.
There appears to be another difference between Wukan and Haimen. Local officials from Haimen have promised to come up with some sort of resolution in five days, according to Chen. But later on Thursday evening, he said that many more young Chinese had been rounded up and detained.
Behind The Wall - A contagion of conflict in China?
The reason is simple. One cannot evict people from their homes as they can do in China. But even then, now the reality is visiting China, where people are no longer taking it lying down!
They are also getting aware of the environment and so high handed govt actions are being called into question.
Indeed, China has changed a lot since such obstruction to the growth of China and giving it a sheen to be advertised would not have been tolerated during the Mao and the Cultural Revolution era.
However, what has happened in both Wukan and Haimen being similar in form is a bit surprising. One wonders if there is some foreign elements that are at work to destabilise China and the Communist overlords.
