IN THE fishing village of Wukan, population 20,000, they were yesterday pulling down protest banners, dismantling barricades and celebrating a small, rare but significant victory. The Guangdong town – locals christened it the “Free state of Wukan” – had held out with rocks, bricks and bottles for 10 days against the police in a growing glare of international publicity.
“We will defend our farmland to the death!” one banner proclaimed. “Is it a crime,” another asked, “to seek the return of our land and for democracy and transparency?” Now the village has been told most of its demands have been met.
Wukan is not unique. Last year in China, largely out of sight of the media, there were 90,000 so-called mass incidents that ranged from petitions to demonstrations and strikes, peaceful and violent, although few will have involved such extensive defiance or ended in apparent success.
The dispute was sparked by an issue common to many protests: village anger at the sale by officials of large chunks of communal land to developers and concerns that money from the sales was unaccounted for. A protest delegation had been abducted, and one of its members, village butcher Xue Jinbo, died during interrogation. As protests escalated over the killing and land issue, the community also demanded the right to free elections for the local village administration.
The handling of the dispute was eventually taken over from local officials by the provincial authorities under the ambitious Wang Yang, the Communist Party boss of Guangdong, who has, most unusually, publicly acknowledged the villagers have a case. Wang is a candidate for a seat on China’s ruling body, the standing committee of the Politburo, when its membership turns over later this year, and so has a particular interest in seeing the high-profile protest on his patch, word of which has spread throughout China on microblogs, brought to an end.
The authorities have now promised to release those held, not to prosecute other demonstrators, a new autopsy on Xue and an investigation of the land sales. And Lin Zuluan, a Wukan organiser, told reporters that officials have also agreed the village can hold democratic elections. While villagers remain, quite rightly, sceptical about whether the promises will be honoured, the events in tiny Wukan may yet be a significant straw in the wind, a hint – no more – that the monolith of Communist Party rule may have to begin to accommodate the green shoots of accountability from below.