Thousands of Chinese farmers protest government-backed land grab
Weekend ?July 3, 2005
Thousands of farmers demonstrated against a government-backed land grab in China's southern Guangdong province, with clashes erupting after police detained some protestors, a rights group said.
The protests were the latest in a series of incidents that have turned violent throughout China in recent months over government land requisition polices or abuse of power.
Four villagers were rounded up by police Thursday evening after the farmers tried to stop bulldozers from levelling about 670 hectares (1,656 acres) of land near Sanshangang village, the Empowerment and Rights Institute said.
On Saturday, the third consecutive day of protests, demonstrators surrounded Sanshangang's public security bureau demanding the release of the arrested farmers, said Maggie Hou, an official with the independent institute.
"Some 200 demonstrators began the protest on Saturday, but by the evening several thousand protesters had arrived, with farmers from other areas also joining in," Hou told AFP.
Around 600 police watched as the protesters shouted slogans and carried banners that said "give our land back" and "the land law should be implemented equally", Hou said.
Police in Sanshangang refused to comment on the incident, only saying inquiries should be made to higher officials. Higher police officials in Nanhai county, which administers Sanshangang, also refused to comment.
According to Hou, at least one person, identified as Shao Shuntian, was arrested after clashes broke out with the law enforcement officers on Saturday.
"Police clubbed her with a baton and began kicking her after she fell down. She tried to fight back and so they took her away," Hou said.
An independent American photographer, Scott Gorman, was also detained Saturday by local police but was released later in the day.
Up to 7,000 farmers are being evicted from the land, in a murky process that began when several of the village leaders were bribed into signing blank contracts with the local land administrative office in 1992, the institute said.
Land prices in Guangdong, the shop floor of China's booming export-oriented industry, have sky-rocketed in the past two decades as thousands of factories have sprung up to take advantage of the region's cheap labor resources.
Farmer's protests are becoming increasingly frequent in China, with most of the unrest stemming to heavy-handed government land requisition polices or the abuse of power by officials.
A waning gap between rich and poor that has appeared following 20 years of robust economic growth has also led to widespread dissatisfaction among China's low-income earners, social scientists said.
Last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said the top 10 percentile of the nation's richest people enjoyed 45 percent of the country's wealth, while the poorest 10 percent had only 1.4 percent of the wealth.
Last week, police arrested 10 people after thousands rioted in the eastern Chinese city of Chizhou in Anhui province, after a car owner and his accomplices beat up a man who scratched the car with his bicycle.
The riot erupted after locals came to the conclusion the owner of the car was a government or police official.
On Thursday, hundreds of Chinese villagers in eastern Zhejiang province marched on a battery factory which they say was poisoning their children and held 1,000 workers hostage.
About 600 people from Jianxia village in the eastern province of Zhejiang took control of the Zhejiang Tianneng Battery company and barricaded workers inside, locals said.
Late last month, Chinese President Hu Jintao urged the country's paramilitary police, who often respond to riots, to do more to ensure social stability, especially as the country faced more unrest despite the booming economy.
And earlier in June, six people were killed and nearly 50 were injured after a gang of up to 200 thugs were hired to beat up farmers in a village in Hebei province for refusing to comply with government eviction orders. ?AFP
Ping!
This is a preview of what is going to happen here if the men in black keep up what they are doing.
"We will take from you for the good of the people"
-Hillary Rodham-
The Supreme Court calls it "Eminent Domain"
"They claimed, "Cops brought in about 60 heavy equipment, including excavator(s,) and plowed over flower and banana field, with resulting crop damage running up to 8 million yuan($967,000.)"
Now thats eminent domain.