Farmers losing their land to development projects in China are becoming increasingly riotous, but analysts say there is little hope for them as China's economic boom fuels corruption and power abuse.
A slew of violent confrontations between villagers and officials over land seizures have thrown the issue into the spotlight over the past year, with the nation's top leaders identifying the rising unrest as a major concern.
Premier Wen Jiabao (
The protection of farmers' rights and improvement of their livelihoods will likely be a top agenda item during the annual legislative session that begins on Sunday.
Powerful locals
But Wu Guoguang (吳國光), a China specialist at Canada's University of Victoria, said the government was not able to protect farmers' rights because local authorities were too powerful.
With the ongoing collusion between local government officials and property developers, farmers would continue to have little choice but to resort to confrontation in their efforts to seek justice, he said.
"It is a triangular game -- central government, local government and the people," Wu said. "And Beijing will always be on the local officials' side, because the power is in the local governments' hands."
In one of the highest-profile incidents over the past year, police in December shot dead as many as 30 protesters in a confrontation in Dongzhou Village in Guangdong Province over a land dispute.
In another incident in Hebei Province in June, at least six people from Dingzhou Village were killed and scores wounded after the local government deployed hundreds of thugs to beat people who refused to make way for a power plant.
Tip of the iceberg
But these cases are only the tip of the iceberg.
The number of "public order disturbances" in China rose by 6.6 percent to 87,000 last year, while "mass gatherings that disturbed social order" climbed 13 percent, according to government statistics.
China's wealth gap is at the same time getting dangerously high, with the roughly 700 million rural residents having an average income of just US$403 last year, less than one-third of their urban counterparts.
Analysts say a major problem is China's Constitution, which states that farmland is collectively owned, allowing local governments to easily seize land for little or no compensation and sell it to property developers for huge profits.
Last week, Chen Xiwen (
"As long as there are no real property rights over land in China there is no solution to this, because the farmers do not own their land," said Pierre Landry, a political scientist at Yale University.
Few rights
Peasant frustrations are only magnified when they find they have few legal rights, with most local courts rejecting their cases under pressure from local officials.
"Chinese courts ... are under the Communist Party leadership, so they are often manipulated by the desires of the officials," said legal scholar and farmers' rights activist Li Baiguang (
"Under these circumstances, citizens can only resort to confrontation," said Li, who was imprisoned for five weeks last year.
Li is just one of many activists, lawyers and journalists who have been detained or intimidated in what appears to be a concerted government campaign to silence public activism and dissent.
Analysts say officials fear these isolated rural protests could turn into larger-scale political movements through the involvement of these intellectuals.
"The Communist Party historically grew powerful through combining intellectuals and ordinary people," said Wu, a former aide to late reformist leader Zhao Ziyang (
But violent suppression will only sow more seeds of discontent, Li warned.
"We need an open media, we need a government elected by voters," he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique