Wukan protest

The small fishing village in Guangdong has been protesting some government officials' illegal land sale and failure to compensate the villagers. It started as many other similar protests, where people organized on their own to get their rights. What's surprising is that people in Wukan is close to victory. Government has relented and released three organizers that were arrested. This is the most significant developement.

The protest and some of the government reactions were kind of expected. The government started blaming "outside" forces of trying to inflame the situation. At the same time they admitted that the requests from the villagers are reasonable.

I think there are two very positive things that came of this and definitely shows some progress of China's progress of self governing.

The first is the fact that protecters show great self control. There were some violence, but majority of the villager used peaceful protest to put pressure on the government. And they did not give up after government try to force them down. They expelled the government officials and setup road block. It is clearly the right way to fight for rights. It has the small similarity to what Dr. King's civil rights movement, although lacks a larger goal and leader.

The second is the government's relealization that simply using force is not going to resolve reasonable demands. They cannot just arrest a few people and try to scare the rest into submission.

Unfortunately, this story is unlikely to be reported by the Chinese media, which is really doing a disservice to the Chinese government, because this can help teach people not go to extremes and go violent. This shows people how to get justice in a more peaceful way. It also shows to local officials what they should not do, which is link a local event to "outside" force and try to fool people.

BTW, the city's Chinese is 乌坎.

Sent from my phone