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Beijing.
Thousands of demonstrators marched on Monday in south China to protest against
a local land grab, carrying banners and shouting slogans opposing
“dictatorship” and “corruption,” locals said.
The
peaceful march in Lufeng city in Guangdong province — China’s industrial
heartland — comes two months after protestors there rioted over the same
problem, attacking a police station and ransacking vehicles.
“Yesterday,
4,500 people signed their signature to support this (protest),” a marcher
surnamed Zhang told AFP by phone.
“The
government promised to solve the land problem but they haven’t... If they don’t
handle it this time, it won’t be peaceful next time.”
The protest
centers around land requisitioned in Wukan village, which comes under the
jurisdiction of the Lufeng government.
Locals have
accused authorities of forcibly grabbing the land and not compensating them,
but the government insists the process was lawful.
The Lufeng
government was not immediately available for comment.
Land grabs
have become a leading social issue in China with locals often accusing
authorities of colluding with developers in lucrative real estate deals, which
have become a key source of government revenue.
Zhang said
around half of the people who had signed up for the march had shown up and were
peacefully shouting slogans as they marched. Another local said that more than
4,000 people were involved.
Photos of
the protest posted on China’s popular Twitter-like weibo site showed marchers
carrying colorful flags with printed slogans such as “Oppose dictatorship,”
“Punish corruption” and “Give us back our rights.”
“The issues
brought up by the villagers have not been resolved,” one local, who refused to
be named, told AFP by phone.
“Villagers
from Wukan have petitioned the Lufeng government countless times, all to no
avail, so this is why they have joined together in protest.”
The unrest
is the latest to hit Guangdong, known as the workshop of the world for the tens
of millions of migrant workers who toil in the province’s factories.
On Thursday,
more than 7,000 workers went on strike at a factory in Guangdong that makes New
Balance, Adidas and Nike shoes, clashing with police in a protest over layoffs
and wage cuts, a rights group said.
Agence France-Presse
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