The siege of Wukan: a Chinese village in revolt

A STAND-OFF between the authorities and 20,000 protesting villagers continues today in China. Wukan village, in southern Guangdong province, is surrounded by a 'ring of steel', a cordon of armed police who are attempting to stop food from being brought in. Yesterday, the villagers estimated they had enough supplies left for 10 days' continued demonstrations.

What are the villagers protesting about?

In a word, land. They say local communist party officials have colluded to push residents off their agricultural land, which is then sold to rich incomers who build mansions. The villagers say they need to farm the land in order to survive and are not being properly compensated by corrupt officials. They are also angry because one of the village's prominent citizens recently died in police custody.

Is this sort of protest common in China?

More than we realised. According to the AP news agency and The Guardian, tens of thousands of large-scale public protests hit China every year. Land disputes like the one in Wukan are one of the leading causes of dissent.

So why has Wukan's protest gained world attention?

What's unprecedented in Wukan is that all the local Communist Party officials have fled the village in fear for their lives and the police have failed to quell the unrest, allowing the protests to continue for days on end. Malcolm Moore, in Wukan for The Daily Telegraph, wrote earlier this week: "For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt."

How did it get to this stage?

Until quite recently, Wukan was an official model village. Throughout China's economic revolution of the past two decades, the villagers say, they were happy to sell off land – they were able to subsist by fishing. But over-fishing and pollution have put paid to that and now there is a desperate shortage of land for farming.

When did the protests start?

The villagers petitioned the Party in 2009 and 2010 about the issue - but the first demonstrations only took place between 21 and 23 September this year. Thousands of angry people held a protest demanding proper compensation for land and then attacked a Party building, a police station and an industrial park. They drove out the local Party's top local official, who had governed them for three decades.

How did the authorities respond?

Riot police flooded the village after the September incident. According to the villagers, they beat men, women and children indiscriminately. The authorities' next move was praised by observers, however – they asked the villagers to appoint local representatives from among their own number to liaise with the Party. Thirteen local men were put up for the job.

What happened next?

Last Friday, the Party changed tack again. Four mini-buses without license plates entered the village unannounced and a team of plainclothes men snatched four of the village representatives from a restaurant where they were eating. A few days later, the Party offered to return the men if the protest was ended, the Telegraph reported. The offer was refused by the villagers.

And how did the 'Siege of Wukan' start?

Armed police surrounded the village only after they had failed to take control of it in the small hours of Sunday morning. Villagers claim they thwarted the attack because they had posted scouts on the outskirts of Wukan. When the police vans approached, 23-year-old Chen Xidong told the Telegraph: "They banged the warning drum and the entire village ran to block the police." The police employed water cannons and tear gas but couldn't move the villagers, so were forced to withdraw to a safe distance.

What will happen now?

On Monday, the villagers learned that one of the four arrested men, 43-year-old Xue Jinbo, had died in custody, allegedly of a heart attack. His family believe he was murdered. This has intensified their anger and they show no signs of abandoning their cause. The Telegraph reports one man as saying he is willing to starve to death rather than give in to the authorities when the village's food supplies run out – in about nine days' time. ·