The Chinese Village Of Wukan Is Under Siege After Open Rebellion Against The Government

Gus Lubin
Business Insider
December 14, 2011

Villagers in Wukan, China have chased away local police and government after a mass protest against corruption.

The Telegraph’s Malcolm Moore filed a report and is tweeting from inside the besieged village.

The situation has been brewing for months, with violent riots breaking out in September too. People are upset over local corruption, particularly regarding seizures of agricultural land to build housing developments. Initially it seemed like the protest movement was working as the government agreed to review all land deals going back to 1976.

Moore tweets: “At the edge of town, around 100 palatial three and four storey houses now upsetting villagers – they were built on farmland. #Wukan:

Wukan is now under siege and blockade, with around ten days of food remaining, according to Moore.

The Chinese government tolerates some government protests as long as they aren’t directed against the central government. Beijing now has three options, according to commentary by China Geek’s C. Custer:

Come to the rescue of the down, declare the local government officials corrupt, put them on trial and restore order peacefully. This is, I suspect, exactly what the people in Wukan want.
Come to the rescue of the officials and provide them enough manpower to completely crush the rebellion. This would be easy, but would attract a lot of negative attention internationally, and there’s a risk of it leaking online domestically, too.
Do nothing for the time being, and see if the officials can regain control on their own, or if the rebellion spreads.

Here are a few pictures of the rebellion from Weibo (via China Geeks).