A rights lawyer helping villagers in southern China resolve a tense land dispute with the local government has been formally arrested, his attorney said yesterday.
Gao Zhisheng told reporters the law firm received notice this week from police that Guo Feixiong had been arrested on charges of "gathering crowds to disturb social order."
"All we know is that he's been formally arrested. ... We don't know when the trial will take place," said Gao, head of the Beijing-based Zhisheng Legal Office and Guo's employer.
PHOTO: AP
Guo "disappeared" last month after he educated farmers at Taishi village in Guangdong Province in their ongoing battle to legally remove village head Chen Jinsheng, whom locals accuse of corrupt land practices.
Chen had allegedly sold villagers' land without their consent and pocketed some of the money.
Villagers told reporters yesterday numerous plainclothes police and uniformed guards have been posted in the village to monitor the activities of the villagers around the clock.
"They are guarding entrances to our village. They've also gone from door to door warning us not to cause trouble," said one woman who declined to be identified for fear of retribution. "People are afraid to speak to reporters."
Several previously outspoken villagers' mobile numbers have been switched off. Foreign reporters who tried to go to the village have been harassed.
Academics and lawyers around China view the case as a test of the central government's determination to fully implement laws on village democracy, something they had been promoting.
The case could have significant ramifications, especially given it involves China's richest province, as it could affect the widespread land redevelopment -- which often come with unfair seizure of land from the farmers -- going on in major cities.
Authorities may view any victory by the farmers to regain possession of the land Chen sold as having a negative impact, such as scaring away buyers and developers.
For weeks, civil affairs officials from the provincial capital Guangzhou's Panyu district refused to accept a petition to remove Chen and repeatedly sent police to detain villagers and break up peaceful protests.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not