The head of a Chinese “rebel” village once seen as a symbol of grassroots democracy yesterday said in a video that he had accepted bribes, but many in the village said the confession was probably forced and pledged to ramp up protests.
Lin Zulian (林祖鑾), the democratically elected and popular Chinese Communist Party (CCP) boss of Wukan village in Guangdong Province formerly known as Lin Zuluan (林祖鑾), was arrested in a midnight raid on Saturday last week.
Lin’s arrest came days after he made a public appeal for the village to launch a massive protest march against illegal land seizures.
Photo: Reuters
For the past three days, the village, that once made international headlines in 2011 for a months-long people’s uprising against corruption and illegal land grabs, has again become a focus of dissent, with mass protest marches taking place under the gaze of hundreds of heavily armed riot police.
The video, distributed to villagers via social media, showed Lin confessing to taking kickbacks for public works projects and purchases of resources.
“This is my biggest criminal activity,” said Lin, who was scruffily dressed in a checkered shirt as he sat before two unidentified people in a blue-walled, padded room.
The Southern Daily, an party publication, said Lin had been sacked after confessing to taking bribes.
Chinese government spokesman Shi Shuoyan (施碩焱) was quoted as saying the government welcomed media from home and abroad to “objectively and fairly report in accordance with the law,” but it would take action against publications who tried to incite people in Wukan.
However, Lin’s wife, Yang Zhen (楊珍), told reporters in her family’s walled compound that she believed the confession was forced.
“This is to deceive people,” she said, in the heavily accented dialect of Guangdong’s Chaozhou region. “He is innocent.”
Around the coastal village of about 15,000 people early on Monday there appeared a tense calm.
Since Lin’s arrest groups of young men have patrolled and guarded Wukan’s perimeter. Just after midnight on Monday, gongs were sounded and many people streamed outside preparing to repel intruders, although it turned out to be a false alarm.
A relative of Lin who declined to be named said scores of arrest warrants had been issued for villagers who might cause trouble and that Lin’s grandson had been arrested on Monday.
However, the grandson was reportedly released overnight, just before Lin’s videotaped confession was distributed online.
In 2011, thousands of Wukan villagers ransacked police and government offices, and forced provincial party authorities to grant rare concessions for a people’s movement.
A corrupt village chief was fired and a democratic election was permitted, resulting in the election of many protest leaders, including Lin.
It was unclear what the next step would be, but groups of villagers in Wukan debating the latest developments yesterday seemed inclined toward fighting on, with talk of another protest march to the nearby Lufeng government headquarters in the afternoon.
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