Villagers in Open Rebellion

[Anonymous]

This is such an interesting idea you bring up, that people are not necessarily protesting against the communist party. I was surprised to see the video of children dancing to michael jackson and wearing their communist party scarf. Don't the ideas of american pop culture and communist counter-act each other? Also, I was surprised to hear from our fellow colleague that she was a part of the communist party in high school and that it was such an elite program to be a part of. I have several students from China in my classes and they have never mentioned anything about the communist party. They instead mention the show Friends and Sex and the City all the time, and how much better KFC is in CHina than in America, but they never mention the communist party. I feel like I want to ask my students more, but I am afraid I will cross a faulty line.

[Anonymous]

This is a great story. I heard a follow to up to this story describing how the fellow leading the revolt instead of being jailed or far worse was actually given the top government position of the village. It seems like the organizer of the revolt was media savvy enough never to publicly denounce the government but instead made his charges against corrupt government officials. I’m fascinated by the story and hope to see how it prevails in the coming months.

[Anonymous]

well... Michael Jackson wore a red leather jacket, so he could be in posters for the RED party, if they wanted... Just a thought.

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

The residents of the Chinese village of Wukan were in open rebellion as a result of corrupt government officials selling land to developers to enrich themselves and the government. The villagers in Wukan had been protesting for days. They even kicked out local officials and set up barricades. The local police decided to cut off the village and as a result, villagers were sneaking in supplies to sustain themselves. At the village square, thousands of people, both young and old, gathered to shout slogans. They yelled, "Down with corruption!" But they also say, "Long live the Communist Party!" It is interesting to note that the villagers emphasized they didn’t want to overthrow the Communist Party, but rather were upset at the land grabs by the government. That is a bit of mental gymnastics as far as I am concerned, but I do understand that if they begin to openly attack the Communist party, their protest will be over really quickly and they will not get what they were demanding. They claimed they were just against corrupt local officials, and they felt the central government could save them. This appeal to the central government is nothing new, but as we learned in Professor’s Dube’s class, the government dislikes protests of any kind unless they foment it for a specific purpose. Despite the fact that the local television channel was on a constant loop with footage that accused the villagers of Wukan with among other things, organizing riots and disrupting public order, the central government decided to intervene and resolved the issue. The villagers won when the provincial officials agreed to release jailed protestors and work out a compromise. In recent years, land sales have made up an increasing portion of local government revenues, by some estimates as much as 70 percent last year, so this is a government policy and despite the fact that land seizures is a national issue I feel the government will continue to do it, because it needs the money and this of course will spark more protests, so stay tuned for more protests. I have provided a few links for those who want to read more about this issue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16205654

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-22/chinese-newspapers-praise-government-handling-of-wukan-protest.html

http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-top-paper-praises-settlement-village-dispute-013937371.html

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