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Police Chased Out of Revolting Chinese Village

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A land revolt in a village in southern China has been resolved peacefully.

A man in the village of Wukan, in Guangdong Province, has been named the new village chief.

The man, Lin Zulian, led a protest over alleged land grabs by corrupt local officials.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Michael Wines, New York Times Beijing correspondent.

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Marco Werman: Across the Taiwan Strait, a village in southern China has seen a political transformation. A man who lead a peasant revolt last month has now been appointed to run his village. Michael Wines of The New York Times has covered the Wukan protests.

Michael Wines: This was really an extraordinary protest in terms of what you see in China, which has a lot of protests. But this one was incredibly unusual because they actually seized control of an entire town and held it for something like 10 days. The villagers were very upset about what they saw as a misappropriation of their land by the village leaders who’d been in power for decades really. And it reached a breaking point after one of the representatives on a village council that was trying to negotiate deals to restores some of the land, a fellow by the name of Xue Jinbo actually died while in police custody and villagers go so angry that they actually forced all of the village leaders to flee the town, as well as the police. And so for the next 10 days it was really a place where the inmates were in control of the asylum.

Werman: And now the leader of that protest movement, Lin Zulian, is now the village party secretary, and that’s a pretty high position, like mayor. Why an emeritus disappointment for someone who did something that some in China might say is criminal?

Wines: Well, that’s a good question. You know, we can only speculate because obviously we aren’t on the inside of any of these deliberations. But what you can say is that what Mr. Lin, who headed the village during these protests, was really unusually adroit in winning world media attention to the events in Wukan. They staged some very media savvy protests. I was there during some of them, and they were incredibly photogenic. And so he got his message out to the entire world and it’s hard not to believe that that didn’t have an effect on the leaders of Guangdong Province, who eventually relented and actually sent an emissary, a very high emissary, to Wukan to negotiate with Mr. Lin. And he eventually agreed to stage an inquiry into the villagers’ grievances and into essentially exonerate those villagers who had been involved in the protests from any criminal liability. So it was quite a victory and to their credit I guess, the Guangdong officials have not stopped anybody from elevating Mr. Lin to a higher position.

Werman: Michael, what next for the village of Wukan? Will the residents have their grievances settled? Will they get all their land back?

Wines: That’s another good question. The people I talked to today say that the provincial authorities who have pledged to investigate the problems there have so far offered to return about one quarter of the land that they say was illegally taken from them. They want more and they say that if they don’t get more they will seek legal help, but of course, the Chinese legal system, which is controlled by the Communist Party is rather opaque, and it’s unclear what that would get them.

Werman: If it’s as you say, Mr. Lin, the new party secretary in Wukan, is adroit and got all this international attention on his village, I guess people will be watching. This has gotta be the brightest spotlight that’s ever landed on the village of Wukan in recent years, I imagine.

Wines: Well, by far. You know, this is the case in which people have actually risen up to fight city hall in a country that doesn’t appreciate people fighting city hall. And miraculously won. And that’s one of the reasons it drew so much attention. You know, it has been written about in many places, including by me, as a potential example of how the Chinese government is managing to adapt to the rising number of protests by its own citizens. You could call it a revolution of rising expectations because life is improving in China, but of course, people see their neighbors getting a better life and they want more. And the question is how the Chinese authorities deal with that, and in many, many cases the answer has been to send in the police whenever there’s a protest. And here’s a case where it was settled peacefully. And the question is are the Chinese authorities going to follow through and deal with their grievances, instead of glossing over their initial protests and then letting things slide.

Werman: The New York Times’ Michael Wines in Beijing, thank you very much.

Wines: My pleasure.

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