International Herald Tribune
Report: Protesters take officials' family members hostage in southern Chinese village

Hundreds of protesters have taken two hostages and have surrounded a government building in a dispute about a land deal in a southern Chinese village, a U.S.-based broadcaster reported.

The villagers were holding the wife of a former village leader and the son of another official involved in the land sale in Xichong village in Guangdong province, reported Radio Free Asia, quoting an unidentified villager.

"I am here with about 1,000 other villagers. There are a lot of plainclothes (police) nearby. It's not convenient for me to say too much," the villager was quoted as saying in the report on RFA's Web site.

Officials could not be immediately reached to verify the report. RFA did not say why the villager requested anonymity, but protesters in China are often reluctant to provide their names because they fear they will be arrested.

RFA reported that the villager said that the protesters were involved in a yearlong campaign to obtain more money from a piece of land they claimed the government sold to a developer at below market prices.

Such allegations are common in booming Guangdong, where villagers complain they get shortchanged when local officials sell farmland to factory owners.

A group of villagers protesting the land sale in Xichong were summoned to a meeting on Wednesday to discuss their grievances, RFA quoted the villager as saying. After arriving, 27 villages were detained and officials allegedly used the meeting as a pretext to round them up, RFA quoted the villager as saying.

"More than 20 villagers were taken away by police, including the village committee chief, the village committee deputy chief, the village chief, the village deputy chief, and a village committee cadre," RFA quoted another unidentified villager as saying.

RFA quoted the villager as saying that on Thursday evening, about 1,000 villagers had surrounded the local government building in Xichong and demanded the release of the detained protesters.

"We are holding the wife of the former village committee secretary and the son of the head of the Shareholders' Association," RFA quoted the villager as saying by telephone.

Last month, villagers in the Guangdong village of Dongzhou held hostage eight officials in a temple during a protest about a land dispute. Riot police stormed the temple and freed the officials.