Rebels of the Week: Chinese Villagers in Revolt
December 21st, 2011
While the Arab Spring is still in full swing, it’s definitely worth noting that protests over the last decade have become increasingly common in China as the nation develops and its people yearn for more openness and accountability for their government officials. In the wake of the Arab Spring protest movements, some of which have turned into full fledged revolutions complete with regime change, there has been an increasing amount of active, popular discontent in China, all rolled up in a string of protests in cities across the ancient nation that have been referred to as “The Jasmine Revolution” in China.
This week’s rebels are a group of those protesters in one Chinese village who have taken things to the next level by erecting barricades to keep out police and gathering by the thousands in an energetic and sustained campaign of protest and rebellion. The uprising was sparked by the death of a village representative while in police custody, but remains fueled by the villagers’ anger at the government for selling their land to developers without their consent. If only the residents of New London, Connecticut could show this kind of gumption! This is a story that really speaks to us here at The Silver Circle because of our interest in stories about courageous rebellion against economic tyranny that benefits the privileged few at the expense of the rest of us. Here are some more details from The Washington Post:
BEIJING — Thousands of residents of a southern Chinese village staging a rare revolt are calling on authorities to return the body of a local representative whose death in police custody helped sparked the rebellion.
The villagers, who have driven local authorities from the area, gathered at a square outside a local temple Saturday to shout slogans calling for the return of farmland they say has been sold to developers without their consent and to urge the central government to intervene, said resident Qin Zhuan, a woman contacted by phone.
“We have been wronged,” the villagers chanted, according to Qin. “Long live the central government! Strike down corrupt officials.”
The villagers will also hold a march in the village to demand that police return the body of Xue Jinbo, a village representative who died in police custody last Sunday, she said.
Police have set up checkpoints around Wukan, a village of 20,000 that has for months been the site of simmering protests, and have blocked transportation of food in a bid to choke off the weeklong revolt. Since last weekend, villagers have kept police out with barricades made of tree trunks.
Young men are guarding the barricades and patrolling the village roads, sometimes armed with wooden clubs, said Huang Jinqi, another resident reached by phone. Food is smuggled in by other routes, he added.
“Some people from neighboring villages have been bringing us vegetables and rice using the small roads so we are currently all right, there’s no need to worry about food,” Huang said.
Oh yeah, our village is under siege by our own government, which is trying to cut off our food supply and starve us out– no big deal! We’ll just keep smuggling rice in and patrolling our country roads at night– with wooden clubs in hand– to make sure our people are safe– no big deal!
Yeah, it’s a pretty big deal. Could you imagine a city in Iowa protesting the transfer of some of its land via eminent domain to some mega-corporation just rising up in furious protest, barricading its main roads to keep police out, and smuggling food in from sympathizers in neighboring towns while the Iowa governor uses the state police to blockade the town and keep food from getting in(!)? Americans would be glued to our television screens as the drama unfolded. And this actually happening. In China.
For standing up for their economic rights, for bravery in the face of police intimidation, for not freaking out while an authoritarian local government tries to starve them into submission: we honor the villagers of Wukan and its sympathizers in surrounding villages with as this week’s Rebel!
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