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Security tight in Chinese village

Police stepped up security yesterday outside a southern village where protesters were shot and killed, setting up roadblocks in surrounding towns even as the government tried to defuse local anger by promising to deal with grievances.

Police were stopping cars headed for the village of Dongzhou, the scene of the Dec. 6 violence, and checking the identities of drivers and passengers. Roadblocks were set up some 4km farther out from the village than on Monday.

It wasn't clear who police were looking for, but villagers said earlier that security forces were trying to catch people whom they blamed for the protest. Officials also have tried to keep foreign reporters away from Dongzhou, a coastal village northeast of Hong Kong.

The new security measures came as the government tried to mollify public anger by detaining the commander of force that opened fire on people protesting land seizures and promising to respond to local complaints.

The government says three people were killed, while villagers put the death toll as high as 20.

Villagers say the protest erupted over complaints that residents received little or no compensation for land seized by the government for construction of a power plant.

The violence last week was the deadliest clash yet in a series of confrontations in areas throughout China between police and villagers who are angry over land seizures for construction of factories, shopping malls and other projects.

Chinese leaders are alarmed at the growing rural tensions.

President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) government has made a priority of trying to improve life for the 800 million people in China's countryside, many of whom have missed out on the country's 25-year-old economic boom.

On Monday, relatives and friends of villagers killed in Dongzhou held traditional mourning rituals, sobbing as they burned incense.

The government hung banners throughout the village appealing for order. One said, "Troublemakers will not win the hearts of the people."

Vehicles with loudspeakers blared warnings, telling people: "Don't make trouble, don't spread gossip."

Villagers earlier had hung up banners appealing to the Chinese government to intervene in the dispute, according to residents. They said those banners were torn down the day of the shootings and burned by police.

The government earlier defended the shootings, saying police opened fire after protesters armed with knives, spears and dynamite attacked the power plant before turning on authorities.

Villagers said the dispute had been brewing for more than a year.

By the government's count, China had more than 70,000 cases of rural unrest last year, many which are escalating in violence on both sides. The incidents have alarmed communist leaders, who are promising to spend more to raise living standards in the poor countryside, home to about 800 million people.
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