China: Dongzhou power station opened in spite of bitter protest

Jan 082008
 

Map of Dongzhou peninsulaThe villagers of Dongzhou appear to have been defeated. The Honghaiwan Power Station was inaugurated today with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. Some of the villagers tried to get close to the plant, clashing gongs in protest, but the police cordon around the area held. Here are some interviews by RFA’s Mandarin service(ZH) with local residents:

Dongzhou villager surnamed Huang (woman):

“The wife of one of the detained people went to protest today and was beaten by some of the officials, and kicked savagely. She has been taken to hospital.” Continue reading »

China: New regs seek to control video-sharing sites

Jan 032008
 

From RFA’s Mandarin service:把自己拍摄的生活录像，或者自己喜欢的电影电视节目传到网上，与更多的人分享，个人的生活空间随着网络的延伸而扩大。总部在广州的我乐网就是提供这种网络视频节目服务的公司。过去2年多来，这家网站播放过5000多万个视频作品，注册用户达2500多万。该网站工作人员表示，他们是中国最大视频分享娱乐网站之一：

It could soon be much more difficult for Chinese netizens to post video to ordinary Web sites or to the Chinese equivalent of YouTube under a set of new rules aimed at imposing strict controls on online video. If you take a look at this recent video of clashes between riot police and villagers in Baima village, Guangdong province, you can see how this kind citizen journalism is becoming increasingly normal in China, where the official media is barred from covering rural unrest of this kind. Continue reading »

Cantonese: Video of clashes in Baima village land dispute

Jan 032008
 
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Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan have dispatched several hundred riot police to Baima village, where a land dispute has flared into clashes with local residents. Continue reading »

China: More crackdowns in 2007

Jan 022008
 

Human rights in China suffered in 2007, activists and experts say, with heavy-handed crackdowns on dissidents and petitioners as well as tougher curbs on freedom of expression and religion. “The worst period of China’s human rights violation in the last five years was when the Chinese Communist Party held its 17th Congress” in October, dissident and rights activist Hu Jia said in an interview. “People involved in the Congress security arrangement totaled almost 1 million. It was out of fear that unmanageable protests might erupt while the meeting was in session,” Hu said. At the same time, authorities warned dissidents and activists against traveling or publishing. Continue reading »

China: Petitioner village demolished ahead of Games

Dec 292007
 

The last houses in “Petitioner village” near the southern railway station in Beijing have been swept away, petitioners say. Continue reading »

China: Three reporters missing in Guangdong land protest

Dec 282007
 

From RFA’s Mandarin service: In Heping county, Guangdong province, three reporters whose video equipment carried the China Central Television (CCTV) logo are missing after they interviewed local villagers about how tens of thousands of mu of farmland had been expropriated for commercial use.

On December 26, after the three wrapped up their interviews with the villagers, officials from the local county government took them away and said they were to be treated to a meal.  But the three have been missing since. Continue reading »

Dongzhou drama escalates, 2,000 police on guard

Dec 272007
 

The drama in Dongzhou, a small fishing village in Guangdong province, seems destined to escalate. At least that’s what the villagers say, as local official insist that any troubles have been minor and are long past. The latest news comes from native witnesses on the ground—reporters are being bundled away—who say some 2,000 police are guarding a key electricity pylon in the village, site of a deadly crackdown two years ago.
Witnesses told RFA’s Mandarin service that 1,000 more police were sent in Dec. 22, in addition to some 1,000 police sent in earlier. Continue reading »

Reservoirs of grievance: A Tianjin land dispute

Dec 202007
 

From RFA’s Cantonese service(ZH) Reporter: Bat Tzi-mo:

More than 8,000 farmers from six villages in Wuqing district of the northern port city of Tianjin have protested a massive land grab by local government amounting to around 10,000 mu (670 hectares) since 1992.

The local government has claimed it intends to build a reservoir in the nearby area, and began to requisition the land from farmers without any compensation.

Later, the farmers discovered that the land had in fact been used to develop large-scale commercial fish farms. Continue reading »

Cantonese: Land protest in Dongguan

Dec 202007
 

A villager from Baima village, Dongguan city, Guangdong province said the local authorities used the excuse of building a university to buy their land at a very low price—8,000 yuan per mu. But later the villagers found out the local authorities resold the land to a third party at a price ten times higher than that which they compensated the villagers for. The villagers deem the compensation is unreasonable and blockaded the village committee offices in protest on Monday.

One villager told RFA’s Cantonese Service, “Almost all our villagers (about several hundred villagers) went to protest. When we blocked the committee office, the Gu On and armed police beat us. Some villagers are injured.” Continue reading »

China: Mass incidents vs. the sound of empty clapping

Dec 192007
 
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Video shows a rally by “ant farmers” in Liaoning.

From RFA’s Mandarin service(ZH):

A researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says 35 percent of “mass incidents” in China are sparked by rural communities fighting for their rights, 30 percent by workers, 15 percent by ordinary citizens, 10 percent from other disputes, 5 percent as a result of “social disturbances,” and 5 percent by organized crime. Continue reading »

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