One of the most widespread causes of discontent and protest in the Chinese countryside is the forced appropriation of farmers' land at knock-down prices by local government officials, who then sell it on to property developers and industrialists for vast profits.
Farmers, who have been pressed into selling their land at a discount, very often seek redress by petitioning higher levels of government, sometimes going all the way to the capital Beijing in search of justice. However, as a group of farmers from Wenling in the coastal region of Zhejiang discovered, even in the sanctity of the State Council's petitions office, they can be subject to physical abuse and arbitrary detention.
In an series of interviews broadcast in August 2006, CLB Director Han Dongfang, talked to two of the Wenling farmers, Wang Ziqing and Zhang Wenbin, about their long-running dispute with the local government, which began in 1998 when the government, in a bid to cash in on the economic boom of the southeast coastal region, sought to appropriate agricultural land for industrial use. The farmers submitted numerous petitions and appeals to government officials in the nearby city of Taizhou and the provincial capital Hangzhou, before traveling the more than one thousand kilometers to Beijing. However at every turn they were either ignored, rebuffed, detained or beaten-up.
Wang Ziqing said the land seizures began in 1998, when the farmers were pressed into selling their land to the local government at 36,000 yuan per mu (666 square meters). Today however, as Wang pointed out, a 40 square meter property developed on the land can sell fetch as much as 1.85 million yuan. Asked why they sold at such a low price, Wang explained: "If we didn't sell, they would send in the police to arrest and beat us up."
Sell-up or get beaten-up
"We did not agree with the sale, we did not agree to the sale price. Let me tell you, provincial government regulations say land should be sold at 110,000 yuan per mu, but even at that price we would not have sold because our land is our life," he added.
Despite the farmers' determination not to sell, Wang said, the head of the village committee secretly colluded with the local government to sell the land behind their backs. Wang estimated that about half the villagers' land was seized between 1998 and 2003. And now the villagers, who had always worked on the land, have to find alternative employment.
In August 2003, without notifying the villagers or even the village committee, the local government sold on one mu of appropriated land. The villagers only discovered the sale when a group of police officers, some in plain clothes, and construction workers arrived to level the land. About 300 villagers came out to oppose the land grab and a clash between the villagers and police ensued. Although some of the villagers did block the police cars, Wang said they did not resort to violence. However the police did, beating up the demonstrating villagers and arrested nine of them.
Since the clash of 2003, Wang said the villagers had managed to prevent the local government from seizing any more land. However, the villagers continued to petition the authorities, including the governments of Wenling city and Zhejiang province, requesting the return of their land. The municipal and provincial government officials were either unresponsive or unhelpful, he said. In addition, the villagers have petitioned the central government in Beijing once a year for the past six years, including appeals to the State Council and the Land Bureau.
Arrested in Beijing
On 11 March 2006, during a visit to Beijing, six villagers were arrested when they attempted to petition the State Council. One of the detained villagers, Zhang Wenbin, described how he and his colleagues were summoned to Room 408 of the State Council's Petitions Office in Beijing. They were arrested and taken on a long car journey to an unknown destination, where they were locked in an underground room. Some of the villagers were released and sent home the next day, while the remaining villagers were sent home two to three days later.
Earlier in 2005, Zhang and four or five other colleagues had been beaten up on their way back from a visit to Beijing. Their car was blocked by police cars, and Zhang and his colleagues were dragged into another car. Zhang said they were detained in a military base in a desolate mountainside area near Wenling city for two to three hours. There, Zhang and two or three of his colleagues were beaten up, and warned not to visit Beijing to petition their case again. Some of his colleagues were hit until their faces bled, he said.
Zhang pointed out that he and his colleagues had raised about 70,000 yuan of their own money to fund their trips to petition the central government on behalf of their village, all to no avail. Wang Ziqing added that on his previous visits to Beijing, the officials who represented Wenling city refused to help and appeared utterly corrupt. Nonetheless, he personally still had hope, because the central government had recently replaced 300 to 400 local representative officials in Beijing who had failed to properly represent their constituents. Wang said he had faith in Premier Wen Jiabao, after his recent pledge to lighten the farmers' burden. Wang said he was preparing to write a letter to the premier about the conditions of his village. Han asked Wang what he would say if Premier Wen was listening to their broadcast and Wang replied; "If Wen Jiabao has the determination and ability to resolve our problems in Wenling, we would be grateful."
Violence and obstruction at home
Wang and Zhang detailed the daily abuse and obfuscation they experienced in trying to get their land back. When Zhang and his colleagues went to the local land bureau to check the land records, Zhang said the officials in charge refused to let them see the records, despite the fact that he had a letter of introduction from his lawyer.
Zhang said the villagers had filed about three lawsuits with the Wenling Municipal Court against their village head over the land seizures, but the case had dragged on without any verdict. At one court hearing, Zhang said he and his fellow villagers were beaten up by the village head and some other officials. Even his lawyer and a reporter covering the case were attacked, he added. The journalist was told not to report the incident and he complied.
When the village held elections for the committee head in the first half of 2005, Wang said he lost by only by nine votes of the more than 1,000 cast. By rights he should have won, but he said he lacked money, while his rival candidate had the financial resources to buy votes. Wang said his rival spent 500,000 yuan buying votes. When he and some villagers complained about the vote-buying to the election committee of Wenling city, they were basically ignored, he said.
Since 2003, Wang said the farmers of Wenling have staged six separate demonstrations, sometimes numbering in the thousands, protesting at the land grab. After the last demonstration on May Day 2006, the Wenling police visited Wang at his home, and told him the PRC had no laws allowing demonstrations, and he and his fellow villagers were deluding themselves if they thought otherwise.
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Han Dongfang's interview with Wang Ziqing and Zhang Wenbin was originally broadcast in six episodes in August 2006. To read a transcripts or listen to the audio files of the broadcast please go the workers' voices section of our Chinese language website and follow the links.