Protests in rural China have thwarted government attempts to enforce cremation in place of traditional burials, demonstrators say, as economic pressures fuel unrest in poor areas.
Such outbursts of dissent are rare in China, where authorities act swiftly to stamp out civil disobedience on the ground and online, although monitors said localized protests appear to be increasing.
Since last month, videos have shown crowds in mountainous Guizhou Province confronting officials who allegedly tried to force the cremation of dead people despite the strong local preference for burials.
Photo: Reuters
The Chinese government has promoted cremation for decades, saying it preserves land, reduces costs and represents “modern” funeral practice.
Cremation is commonplace in cities, but many rural communities view burials as an essential rite for the dead.
The recent unrest in Guizhou’s Mushan Village in Xifeng County began after officials tried to force the cremation of a recently buried resident, locals and relatives of the deceased said.
“They would come every day to harass my family,” one relative said, adding that drones monitored the site overhead. Videos — many of them now apparently removed by China’s online censors — showed crowds of dozens of people guarding burial grounds from local officials who residents said wanted to exhume the body.
A 37-year-old Xifeng resident surnamed Shen said he and many others had traveled to Mushan to support the family of the deceased in undertaking a burial.
Authorities showed “disrespect for local customs,” Shen said.
The family “worried that the body would be forcibly dug up and cremated,” he said, adding that their watch continued throughout the night.
By the end of last month, police blocked roads into Mushan, stopping supplies and supporters from entering, Shen said.
Local authorities were “forcibly preventing the incident from spreading and stopping the people from protecting their rights,” he said.
While exceptions exist for 10 mainly Muslim ethnic minorities, the state encourages cremation wherever local conditions allow.
George Mason University anthropology associate professor Liu Huwy-min said that for China’s Han majority — which makes up more than 90 percent of the population — burial has ancient roots.
Traditionally, body burials were “at the core of thinking about what being a person means for Han Chinese,” she said.
So when cremation is done “by force, and people aren’t ready for it,” opposition is likely, Liu added.
In 2016, some elderly residents in Anqing, a city in Anhui Province, reportedly killed themselves to ensure they were buried before a new cremation mandate.
A 2018 campaign against burials in Jiangxi Province sparked an outcry, including from state media, after videos showed officials destroying coffins.
After nearly a month-long standoff in Mushan, authorities have stayed away, another relative of the deceased said.
“Everything has now subsided,” they said, confirming the body remains buried.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS