China's internal troubles (not the Far West)

[davidbfpo]

A BBC reporter has gained access to the town, his short report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16195113

[bourbon]

Villagers say five people have been snatched from Wukan by police in recent days, prompting local people to mount nightly patrols to defend the village, he adds.

The villagers should grab some cops or government officials as counterhostages.

[davidbfpo]

FP Blog has a good update on the situation in Wukan; it opens with:

Peasants do not have a good record facing off with the Communist Party. Rural standoffs usually end with the arrest of the ringleaders and an increased security presence for the remaining residents. Yet on Thursday afternoon, Dec. 22, residents of the embattled village of Wukan scored a major achievement in their 11-day stand-off with local government, securing the release of one of the village's three detained leaders; the other two were released today.

Then asks is Wukan a crisis barometer:

The small farming village of 13,000 thousand embodies social changes brought about by more than 30 years of economic reforms in China.

I would suggest not:

...most Wukanese stressed that they only wanted resolution of their local issues, and that they maintained trust in the Communist Party.

Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...ption?page=0,0

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to Open Democracy:

The western media are too easily tying each and every mass incident to the question of the country’s democratic reform. Instead we should have a new discourse that captures how ordinary resistance has become in modern-day China. The interesting question is not whether such protests can lead to reform, but rather: How it is that so many can occur without undermining the Party’s rule?

Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/evelyn-...olated-anomaly

Despite the lack of coverage, the protest continues and a Google news search confirmed an absence of Western reporting since Xmas 2011, but found this commentary, which appears to be by Communist party cadres. Introduction states:

Wang Zhanyang, Director of the Political Science Department at the Central Institute of Socialism, contributed this essay to a forum on the implications of Wukan for the country as a whole. The forum responds to the December 22 People’s Daily editorial, “What Does ‘Wukan‘s Turn’ Mean for Us?”

Link:http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/01...lage-autonomy/

[davidbfpo]

An update on the events in Wukan, with Communist Party officials being expelled from the party:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17821844

There are two links to other reports. On a quick read it appears that a compromise was reached some months ago, unlike other villages involved in conflict with the state and party.

[davidbfpo]

Prompted by the wider context given in the link within the above post I have posted this BBC News report on recent public order incidents or rioting:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18623085