Riot squads curb latest Chinese unrest
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
(Filed: 16/01/2006)

Police used electric batons to disperse thousands of Chinese villagers, the latest angry confrontation provoked by the ferocious pace of the country's development.

Residents of Sanjiao, in the richest province of Guangdong, blocked a road in protest at the level of compensation being paid for land requisition.

Riot squads were called in and several villagers taken to hospital in confused and violent scenes. Rumour said that a 13-year-old girl had been killed, although there was no witness or police confirmation.

China has been rocked by several high-profile incidents of unrest in the past few months, including two major clashes in Guangdong.

The province, which borders Hong Kong, has until recently been the exemplar of China's economic reforms, recording great leaps in wealth as foreign, Hong Kong and Taiwanese firms pour money into its factories.

But in recent years the social costs have started to take their toll, with a rise in labour unrest provoked by low wages and opposition from some residents as the sprawl of factories has eaten up land ever farther out from the cities. There are frequent claims that officials embezzle compensation and that environmental standards are not observed.

In the bloodiest incident for which there is confirmation, police fired on villagers protesting against a power plant in another Guangdong village last month. The authorities admit that three people were killed and others hurt but some residents say that 30 people are unaccounted for.

In Sanjiao, officials admit that there was an incident but are refusing to give more details, as is customary. Hong Kong radio reported that the protest on Saturday followed a sit-in at local government offices by thousands of villagers on Wednesday, but mainland media have remained silent.

A villager said that the government had been paying a pension of only £25 to £50 a year as compensation for taking their land.

"How can we live on that?" he said. "We are unskilled farmers; we can't find proper jobs. As a citizen in this society, we have a duty to obey the government, but things are just getting ridiculous."

The Communist Party leadership has proclaimed its concern for those who have lost out as a result of the economic reforms of the past two decades. In recent weeks it announced the abolition of agricultural taxes and, in Guangdong, issued orders demanding that all land requisitions should involve written contracts.

But with China determined to maintain growth at above seven per cent a year and to preserve a system that gives almost unchallengeable power to local party leaders, there are few financial incentives for these rules to be observed.

Official figures admit 74,000 individual incidents of unrest in 2004. The number is growing fast.

13 January 2006: China's iron road
14 December 2005[Money]: How China overtook us and cracked the top four
12 December 2005: Chinese police kill 20 villagers in row over land seizures

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