Chinese police fight running battles with villagers in restive Wukan

By Dilip -
Chinese police fired rubber bullets at villagers and arrested 13 people on Tuesday in an overnight crackdown to suppress demonstrations in a southern fishing village that became internationally known five years ago for protesting land seizures.

Police stormed into the village of Wukan in the southern province of Guangdong and arrested leaders of ongoing demonstrations in their homes. Videos posted on social media show one person with blood on his arm and chest, and another being treated for an apparent bullet wound on his hand.
Another video shows a line of black police vans streaming into the village, a hamlet of about 13,000 people on the South China Sea near Hong Kong.

Wukan carries symbolic importance due to the success of 2011 protests that broke out over land seizures and corruption. Villagers were able to expel government officials and police, and barricaded the village. The siege was resolved only after the provincial secretary of China’s ruling Communist Party agreed to allow a local election.

The winner of that election was Lin Zuluan, a former protest leader. Lin was planning to lead a new round of protests this year over more land grabs. Instead, authorities detained him and then charged him with taking bribes. Lin’s supporters say he was wrongfully charged and have staged more than 80 straight days of rallies since he was detained. Those protests continued after his sentence was announced on Thursday despite official state warnings to disperse.

An official statement issued on Tuesday said 13 villagers in Wukan were arrested, allegedly for inciting a mob and spreading rumours. The statement levies several allegations at “a small number of lawless persons,” including disturbing school, preventing fishermen from working and hampering shopkeepers. It says officials tried to “educate and persuade” protest leaders, but that guidance was evidently disregarded. “In order to safeguard the interests of the masses and restore the normal order of production and local people’s lives, local police decided to take action and apprehended them,” the statement said…read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/13/wukan-village-china-police-battles-protest

see also
Tom Phillips - 'Freed' Chinese human rights activist Zhao Wei still missing
The disappeared: faces of human rights activists China wants to silence
Tom Phillips - 'Reap what you sow': families of seized lawyers send public warning to China
Tens Of Thousands Protest In Hong Kong As China Tensions Simmer Over Booksellers
China’s memory manipulators: by Ian Johnson
Remembering June 4, 1989 - Families of Tiananmen Square victims accuse Beijing of three decades of 'white terror' // Tiananmen Mothers: No Amount of Power Can Rub Out June Fourth
Open up or break up, dissident Yang Jianli tells China
The day Zhao Wei disappeared: how a young law graduate was caught in China's human rights dragnet
China: dramatic increase in wage arrears protests in run up to New Year // China on strike
Chinese journalist linked to criticism of Xi Jinping detained by police, lawyer confirms // Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling for Xi Jinping to quit
MICHAEL FORSYTHE - Chinese Publication, Censored by Government, Exposes Article’s Removal
Ahmad Ibrahim - Tibetan Artists Silenced at Dhaka Art Summit
Matt Sheehan - Silent documentary on China's unspooling environmental disasters
Chinese justice - Activist lawyer who defended Ai Weiwei charged with 'provoking trouble' // Teng Biao - What will this crackdown on activists do to China’s nascent civil society?
China’s Brave Underground Journal - Remembrance
Class struggle in the Peoples' Republic: Chinese students use crowd funding website to support worker activist in Guangzhou
Strikes proliferate in China as working class awakens
Tom Barnes and Kevin Lin - China's growing labour movement
Religion is the opium of the comrades? China's Tensions With Dalai Lama Spill Into the Afterlife
Tibet's Communist party boss says temples must be propaganda centres
Dhruva Jaishankar - Beijing unravelling
Controversial film on China's air pollution disappears from sites
The People's Republic of Amnesia - Remembering A Forgotten Tiananmen
Minxin Pei - China’s historical amnesia
Hong Kong pro-democracy academics say face death threats, intimidation
Democracy Protests In Hong Kong Turn Violent // Cops, Protesters Clash In Huge Hong Kong Demonstrations
Hong Kong pro-democracy protests – in pictures
Hong Kong students begin democracy protest - Chinese people struggle for democracy
Cops, Protesters Clash In Huge Hong Kong Demonstrations - Photos
Democracy Protests Divide Hong Kong, China
'Killing the chicken to scare the monkey'- world-famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei on Self-Censorship // Press Freedom In China Continues To Deteriorate
Glory Days, or remembering how Indians love(d) China
"Tell the world! Tell the world!" Tien An Men, June 4, 1989
An Open Letter to the world on the Bangladesh crisis of 1971
Chinese Journalists resist censorship: Timothy Garton Ash on The Southern Weekly affair
Caging a Monster: In My Country (Today's China) by Murong Xuecun
Learning How to Argue: Interview with Chinese intellectual Ran Yunfei
Modi blows hot air at China in a rally in Arunachal ...
An Open Letter to the world on the Bangladesh crisis...
Popular Tibetan blogger Shokjang asserts his innocence in letter from prison



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