This Land is My Land (Hebei Edition)

Reason Hit and Run ^ | July 22, 2005 | Kerry Howley

[FreeKeys]

This Land is My Land (Hebei Edition)

For two years, villagers in China's Hebei province have refused to leave 67 acres of their land that the local government granted to a state-owned power company. On June 11, six villagers were killed in a confrontation between hired thugs with pipes and locals wielding pitchforks. This week, government officials backed off.

The Washington Post report suggests it may have been video of the brutal June riot, recorded by one of the local farmers and distributed over the internet, that led to the about-face.

Violent video here.

[FreeKeys]

This kind of brutality used to be alleged by Marxists as being the favorite "bargaining tool" of capitalists, even when the Marxists instigated labor riots during the industrial revolution. They have no such excuse to camouflage the fundamental brutality underlying their collectivism any more.

[FreeKeys]

I like the comments underneath:

Comments

In the U.S., our government, backed by the Supremes, would just take the land, anyway. And most Americans are too servile to stage a good riot.

Comment by: Franklin Harris at July 22, 2005 11:21 AM

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To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, this is how totalitarianism will end -- not with a whimper, but with a bang. And a video camera.

(Power to the people, right on!)

Comment by: SPD at July 22, 2005 11:21 AM

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This is a good reason to buy a rifle.
and a mini-dv camcorder.
and a laptop with a copy of iMovie or Final Cut Pro.

Does this make me an extremist?

Comment by: mediageek at July 22, 2005 11:24 AM

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Does this make me an extremist?

Nope, just a shill for Apple :). I like Final Cut Express myself (I need to upgrade before my next project too).

Comment by: the regulator at July 22, 2005 11:36 AM

[Alexander Rubin]

Chinese peasants to Communist Government:

[eamadia]

if the villagers failed to smuggle the video to Washington Post