The New Old-fashioned Way
Property rights may be under assault in the United States, but we would do well to remember that there are some places in the world where they don’t even exist. One of those places is China.
You know, the kind of place where the workers of the world unite only to find out that somehow their land was stolen by the government they created:
Farms were being taken and handed over to developers for tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, with none of the proceeds going to the original occupants. Anti-government demonstrations in September were put down with excessive force, but the party agreed to mount an investigation and negotiate with representatives chosen by village residents.
Handed over to developers? Okay, so maybe that doesn’t sound as communistic as I thought. Still, that is no way to engender support among the proletariat:
Mobs seized control of government offices and police stations. Party officials fled, and 1,000 riot police, armed with water cannons and tear gas, attempted to take back the town. The insurgents held fast behind makeshift barricades, and the authorities retreated.
(Image from Foreign Policy)
That’s no mean feat for a small town. Wukan, the village in question, appears to just be a typical Chinese fishing village. There doesn’t seem to be anything special about it, other than that it felt abused and especially picked on by the ever-expanding bureaucracy.
After several negotiation attempts to bully or subdue the angry villagers, they seem to have – astonishingly – not had tanks roll into their village through their “makeshift barricades”, but rather have scared the authorities into giving in.
Up until Wednesday, officials had employed intimidation tactics common in such disputes. Riot police raided the village two weeks ago and took away leaders and set up road blocks to prevent food from being transported in. Officials blamed the unrest on “foreign forces” and threatened to crack down on protest leaders.
But the villagers refused to be cowed and issued an ultimatum at the start of the week, saying they would march to the government offices of the nearby city of Lufeng on Wednesday if authorities did not meet their demands. That would have been a direct challenge to police who have set up checkpoints on main roads outside the village.
Whether or not we believe, as Mao did, that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, it is heartening to see people stand up to defend whatever small freedoms they have left. Actually, come to think of it, it’s pretty nice hearing anyone issuing ultimatums to the Chinese government.
