China's Rebel Village Still Under Close Surveillance, Cut Off From World
March 16, 2017 - More than a year after a police raid ended months of daily
demonstrations, the rebel Chinese village of Wukan is under a security cordon six or seven
levels deep, with residents under constant surveillance from security cameras, an activist
told RFA on Thursday .
The village in southern China's Guangdong province has been largely incommunicado
since hundreds of armed police in full riot gear raided the village on Sept. 13, firing
rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds of protesters who fought back with bricks from
behind makeshift barricades.
"There are six or seven layers of security surrounding Wukan before you get to the
center of the village," Chen Yongzong, a farmer-turned-rights activist from the
southern region of Guangxi, told RFA on Thursday following an incognito visit to check up
on the relatives of an activist in exile.
"But security cameras all have blind-spots. There were cameras all around the tombs
[outside the village] but I got in via the tombs at night," Chen said.
Chen said it had been difficult to avoid appearing on security cameras once inside the
main village, however.
"All I could do was not carry a big backpack, so they couldn't tell I wasn't
a local resident, or where I was from," he said.
Chen, who hails from Guangxi's Liuzhou city, said the atmosphere is still
"extremely tense" on the streets of Wukan.
"It is extremely tense, and there were so many security cameras when I went
there," he said. "I have never seen cameras so densely packed before."
"They had them on all of the main paved roads in the village, so it is impossible to
avoid appearing on them," Chen said. "The local residents there are very wary,
and very few people spoke to me."
"They were really terrified, that was the impression I got," he said. "If
you spoke to them, they'd just say they didn't know."
Missing activists sought
Chen said he made the trip in spite of the fear of being detained to try to find out what
happened to two fellow activists from Guangxi, Yang Jishuang and Huang Huimin, who have
been incommunicado since they traveled to Wukan to support the protests.
"They were detained and beaten up after they got here, and now they are
incommunicado," Chen said. "I am very worried about them, so I came here to
investigate."
While he was in Wukan, Chen also paid a call on the relatives of Zhuang Liehong, a former
land rights activist from Wukan who fled to the U.S. in the wake of earlier protests and
clashes in 2011.
"There were two or three [security cameras] installed to the left of Zhuang
Liehong's family home, and one on the right," said Chen, who paid a visit to
Zhuang's elderly mother.
"I bowed once I had gotten inside the door, and explained who I was, that I was sent
by Zhuang Liehong to visit them," he said. "She was pretty shocked; I think she
was scared. I could see it in her eyes."
He said the family had asked him to leave, apparently for fear of reprisals from the
authorities.
"Zhuang Liehong's brother was there too, and he said to me, 'leave, please
leave,'" Chen said. "They were terrified. I think they were afraid I might
be a plainclothes cop trying to entrap them."
"They didn't believe me until I played them a recording that Zhuang Liehong had
given me," he said. "Then their attitude changed completely, and they became
warm and friendly, and treated me very kindly."
Zhuang, who has continued to campaign on behalf of his hometown while in the U.S., said
Chen was the first person to make it past the tight security and visit his family.
"[Activists] I've been in contact with before said they were taken to the police
station for questioning, and part of the inquiry was about whether or not they were in
direct contact with me," Zhuang told RFA.
"I am the only person from Wukan who is able to speak out, so the authorities are
extremely focused on me," he said.
Police hound family of exiled activist
He said local officials typically visit his family home to check up on them several times
a day.
"They are afraid that the outside world will find out what is going on in
Wukan," Zhuang said.
Authorities in Guangdong in January sent nine Wukan residents to prison to begin serving
sentences ranging from two to 10 years for their involvement in resistance to the armed
police raid, without giving them a chance to appeal.
The nine were sentenced by the Haifeng County People's Court on Dec. 26 for their part
in resisting a raid that put an end to months of daily mass protest in Wukan following the
loss of village land and the jailing of its former leader Lin Zuluan.
They were found guilty of charges that included "unlawful assembly,"
"disrupting public order," "disrupting traffic," "obstructing
official business," and "intentionally spreading false information."
Wukan villagers have been campaigning for the return of land sold out from under them by
former village chief Xue Chang, who was fired for corruption after an earlier round of
protests and clashes in 2011, sparking fresh elections that saw Lin Zuluan take the helm.
But even Lin and his newly-elected village committee found it hard to secure the return of
the land amid powerful vested interests, political changes higher up, and a tangle of
complex legal issues.
September's raid by police on Wukan came after a court in Guangdong's Foshan city
sentenced Lin to more than three years' imprisonment on "bribery" charges
that local residents said were trumped up.
Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin
Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
View this s tory online at:
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/wukan-lockdown-03162017140431.html
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online
news , information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not
have access to full and free news media. RFA ’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of
freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an
annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to
engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to
engnews-join(a)rfanews.org .
#####
All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .