Inside China Today

Villagers facing survival crisis.

Due to local authorities filling beach land to make way for residential developments, they have severed a life line for many of the local villagers who survive on the fishing at these areas. Residents at Dongtou County had been petitioning the government for years before they took the approach of a mass sit in that lasted 22 days. The local law enforcement sent out 100 riot police on Oct 10^th to deal with the sit in and major clashes erupted between police and the villagers. Even with injuries sustained by the villagers, they have vowed to continue to defend their rights until the end or until there is a resolution.

One factor that has aggravated the situation is that some of the villagers went to see the local government officials to seek a resolution to the problem since they had had no reply to many written complaints. They were told that the appointed secretary or the rural township had an appointment in Dongtou County and could not see them. The residents saw the secretary leaving the building in his car and tried to stop him so that they could voice their complaints in person. He immediately phoned the police and on arrival the police clashed with the villagers.

One of the locals Miss Chen told SOH reporters that they had sent a petition on this matter to China’s Land Resources bureau as early as 2004, but had never received a reply.

The villagers are also seriously concerned about another issue that has arisen from the construction of the area. The builders did not make drainage points in any of its plans and now the entire village has become a flood point when heavy rains and typhoons come each year. This may seriously endanger the lives of a vast majority of the locals in these areas.
The above news is brought to you by Gu Xiaohua, Zhao Ziyun, hosted ……. for Inside China Today on SOH Radio Network.