The Unrest in China

Ray

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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 Chinese posters wonder why there is so much of squalor in India.

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.
 

Tianshan

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But even then, now the reality is visiting China, where people are no longer taking it lying down!
good. why should they tolerate corrupt local official taking their land without compensation?

the corrupt official in wukan are now arrested.
 

Armand2REP

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Just waiting for the day these protests get coordinated nationally.
 

asianobserve

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China is a powder keg waiting to explode... the World will be in for a rough ride. :scared1:
 

Ray

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It is a great change from the Cultural Revolution days.

They are not taking things lying down as before.

There were corrupt officials then also!

This is what is the Awakening and real Rise of China!
 

Ray

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Another report

Inside Wukan: the Chinese village that fought back

For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt.

The last of Wukan's dozen party officials fled on Monday after thousands of people blocked armed police from retaking the village, standing firm against tear gas and water cannons.

Since then, the police have retreated to a roadblock, some three miles away, in order to prevent food and water from entering, and villagers from leaving. Wukan's fishing fleet, its main source of income, has also been stopped from leaving harbour.

The plan appears to be to lay siege to Wukan and choke a rebellion which began three months ago when an angry mob, incensed at having the village's land sold off, rampaged through the streets and overturned cars.

Although China suffers an estimated 180,000 "mass incidents" a year, it is unheard of for the Party to sound a retreat.
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But on Tuesday The Daily Telegraph managed to gain access through a tight security cordon and witnessed the new reality in this coastal village.

Thousands of Wukan's residents, incensed at the death of one of their leaders in police custody, gathered for a second day in front of a triple-roofed pagoda that serves as the village hall.

For five hours they sat on long benches, chanting, punching the air in unison and working themselves into a fury.

At the end of the day, a fifteen minute period of mourning for their fallen villager saw the crowd convulsed in sobs and wailing for revenge against the local government.

"Return the body! Return our brother! Return our farmland! Wukan has been wronged! Blood debt must be paid! Where is justice?" the crowd screamed out.

Wukan's troubles began in September, when the villagers' collective patience snapped at an attempt to take away their land and sell it to property developers.

"Almost all of our land has been taken away from us since the 1990s but we were relaxed about it before because we made our money from fishing," said Yang Semao, one of the village elders. "Now, with inflation rising, we realise we should grow more food and that the land has a high value."

Thousands of villagers stormed the local government offices, chasing out the party secretary who had governed Wukan for three decades. In response, riot police flooded the village, beating men, women and children indiscriminately, according to the villagers.

In the aftermath, the local government tried to soothe the bruised villagers, asking them to appoint 13 of their own to mediate between the two sides – a move which was praised. But after anger bubbled over again local officials hatched another plan to bring the rebellious village back under control. Last Friday, at 11.45 in the morning, four minibuses without license plates drove into Wukan and a team of men in plain clothes seized five of the village's 13 representatives from a roadside restaurant.

A second attack came at 4am on Sunday morning, when a thousand armed police approached the entrance to the village.

"We had a team of 20 people watching out, and they saw the police searchlights. We had blocked the road with fallen trees to buy us time," said Chen Xidong, a 23 year old. "They banged the warning drum and the entire village ran to block the police."

After a tense two-hour standoff, during which the villagers were hit with tear gas and water cannons, the police retreated, instead setting up the ring of steel around Wukan that is in force today. The village's only source of food, at present, are the baskets of rice, fruit and vegetables carried across the fields on the shoulder poles of friendly neighbours.

Then, on Monday, came the news that Xue Jinbo, one of the snatched representatives, had died in police custody, at the age of 43, from a heart attack. His family believe he was murdered.

"There were cuts and bruises on the corners of his mouth and on his forehead, and both his nostrils were full of blood," said Xue Jianwan, his 21-year-old daughter. "His chest was grazed and his thumbs looked like they had been broken backwards. Both his knees were black," she added. "They refused to release the body to us."

Mr Xue's death has galvanised his supporters and brought the explosive situation in the village to the brink. "We are not sleeping. A hundred men are keeping watch. We do not know what the government's next move will be, but we know we cannot trust them ever again," said Mr Chen. "I think they will try to prolong the situation, to sweat us out."

From behind the roadblock, a propaganda war has broken out. Banners slung by the side of the main road to Wukan urge drivers to "Safeguard stability against anarchy – Support the government!" Nearby, someone has scrawled, simply: "Give us back our land."

The news of Wukan's loss has been censored inside China. But a blue screen, which interrupts television programmes every few minutes inside the village, insists that the "incidents" are the work of a seditious minority, and have now been calmed. "It is all lies," said Ms Xue.

Her brother, meanwhile, said life had improved since the first officials were driven out three months ago. "We found we were better at administration. The old officials turned out not to have had any accounts in their office, so they must have been swindling us. And we have a nightwatch now, to keep the village safe. We have all bonded together," said Xue Jiandi, 19.

With enough food to keep going in the short-term and a pharmacy to tend to the sick, the leaders of Wukan are confident about their situation.

But it is difficult to imagine that it will be long before the Communist Party returns, and there are still four villagers in police custody.

"I have just been to see my 25-year-old son," Shen Shaorong, the mother of Zhang Jianding, one of the four, said as she cried on her knees. "He has been beaten to a pulp and his clothes were ripped. Please tell the government in Beijing to help us before they kill us all,"

Inside Wukan: the Chinese village that fought back - Telegraph
Seems to be quite serious since the Communist Party apparently lost control!
 

Ray

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I wonder if this has been reported in the Chinese media, apart from the microblogs.

What is the influence of these microblogs on the Chinese people?
 

Ray

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SKC

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Horrible videos incoming from China!
Detainment camps in all major cities and this time huge capacity of upto 250,000.

Societies being welded shut again, pets taken away, Authorities turning social security code to yellow randomly turning the people homeless out of random.
 

Jambudweepa

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Horrible videos incoming from China!
Detainment camps in all major cities and this time huge capacity of upto 250,000.

Societies being welded shut again, pets taken away, Authorities turning social security code to yellow randomly turning the people homeless out of random.
Share it
 

SKC

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Chinese Police is literally checking people's phone for VPN and getting it deleted.

They are roaming around in Metro, buses and checking all people one by one.
 

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