Inside China Today

About 1000 villagers from Guangzhou Huadu District protest against low-pay to requisition their land

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About 1000 villagers from Huadu District, Guangzhou dissatisfied with the amount of land requisition compensation protested on the requisition land while on October 1st (two days consecutive holidays) declared their sovereignty, while the villagers blocked the external road of the newly developed Bigui Garden unit. The authorities deployed hundreds of riot police and public security officers to the scene, and there was no conflict as the villagers dispersed on their own after the demonstration.

Two villagers from Ruiling village in Chini town and Huangshatang Village protested in the Bigui Garden unit that was built on requisition land; they highly held their protest banners that read “Give me back my right on my land” and “A reasonable compensation on land requisition”. They requested the authorities to solve the problem. A retired local cadre Zhu Jisong told reporters that this is the third time the village collectively protested, and last year he was nearly arrested by public security when he was participated in the rights defending.

The retired cadre Zhu Jisong said that the Government and business men colluded; they invaded and occupied our land, we’re going there to have a meeting and to declare our sovereignty. I know there are armed police or public security, because this is the third time. The first time in was on September 18, 2003, they beat and injured more than 30 people.

Zhu Jisong also said that mainly they invaded and occupied 164.4 acres of farmers’ land to use for new development. In addition they invaded and occupied 29.592 acres of land, and only compensated the farmers three to five thousands RMB yuans every year for renting. The Government sold 0.1644 acres of land to developers for forty thousand RMB yuans and now it had risen to more than 20 million, it is simply a huge profit.

The retired cadre Zhu Jisong said that the developer paid the compensation but the local government let them write for voluntary help in village development. The developers did not pay the compensation directly to the rural farmers but to the town government. Bigui Garden developers were the company on the stock market in Hong Kong. They paid the money to the government and the government did not pay the farmers. The government has organized crime. They would say you are bad and arrested you, how could they beat up the farmers? It is certainly not acceptable. Those farmers are angry with the Communist Party policies. Officials are not serving the people, they are now engaged in political achievements. When they do not have money, they sell the farmers’ land, and take it for their own use. The corrupted officials only protect their own interests, they rob the poor and give to the rich.

It is understood that 164.4 acres of land that belong to the local villagers were expropriated a few years ago, and no mutual recognition was reached for the amount of compensation. The villagers have not received any compensation yet. Starting from 2003, the villagers began their rights defending, they have petitioned to a number of government departments, and during those times, some of the villagers had been arrested by the Public Security Bureau.

The above was brought to you by Wang Qian and Huang Rong, and Chris Thomas for Inside China Today on SOH Radio Network.