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Farmland flooded and bulldozed
By Wang Yong |
February 3, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LAST month, around 200 thugs, brandishing knives and clubs, attacked unarmed villagers in northern Jiangsu Province to drive them off their prime real estate.
A 22-year-old farmer was killed as he tried to defend his tiny plot of land. Li Dongdong, the victim, had been preparing for his marriage in February and had just taken wedding photos the day before the fatal attack on January 7.
Xinhua news agency reported on January 18 that about 200 men stormed into Hewan Village, Pizhou City (county-level), arriving in more than 30 cars. These thugs were escorting mammoth bulldozers that came to clear the arable land for the expansion of a chemicals project. Farmers had only been offered a trifle in compensation for their land, far below its market value.
In a report on January 21, Xinhua news agency said Sun Xiaojun, Party secretary of Hewan Village, was suspected of having masterminded the attack. He and other alleged ring leaders were detained. Some key officials of Yunhe Town, which includes Hewan Village, were sacked. Bulldozing of the disputed land was halted, at least for now.
It is not clear whether officials of Pizhou City, which administers the town and village in question, have been implicated. But Xinhua reported on Monday that the Ministry of Land and Resources had criticized Pizhou for illegal use of arable land in 2007. Last year the city was once again on the ministry's "blacklist," the agency said.
This case of the thug attack on innocent farmers ranked the second among the 10 most-read news yesterday on the front page of Xinhua's Website. One Netizen posted on the Xinhua Website: "I'm from Pizhou. I know some local officials endorsed it (the acquisition of arable land by force). Do you expect them to investigate themselves?"
Indeed, Xinhua noted in a report on Monday that the "Pizhou miracle" - it was one of China's 100 strongest county-level economies by GDP and other measures last July - resulted from large plots of protected farmland losing out to industrial projects, which were often poorly planned.
Before the January 7 tragedy, Hewan Village government had already erased 2,500 mu (167 hectares) from its total of 3,000 mu (200 hectares) of arable land. Many farmers had been shoveled away into so-called "farmers' apartments" with no new jobs. Many farmers complained to reporters that they could no longer raise pigs or chickens in those funny apartments with no courtyards.
On January 15, Beijing News published what it said was a photo of a vast grain field - about 10,000 mu (667 hectares) - flooded by icy water in another village under Yunhe Town. Farmers told reporters that the local government had ordered the field be flooded to bully the farmers into abandoning the land on which they lived.
Joining corporate interests in plundering arable land was the local bureaucracy. The administrative center of Pizhou, completed in 2008, looks so imposing that Beijing News quoted local people as saying it resembles that of China's central government.
The administration center of Pizhou was supposed to cover only 60 mu (4 hectares), but it eventually sprawled over 600 mu (40 hectares) through illegal acquisition of arable land.
There's only one Pizhou in China, but the case of shoveling farmers out of their land is by no means isolated. It points up a thorny problem in local politics in many parts of the country: officials are incompetent in making policy but highly skilled in abusing power.
A 22-year-old farmer was killed as he tried to defend his tiny plot of land. Li Dongdong, the victim, had been preparing for his marriage in February and had just taken wedding photos the day before the fatal attack on January 7.
Xinhua news agency reported on January 18 that about 200 men stormed into Hewan Village, Pizhou City (county-level), arriving in more than 30 cars. These thugs were escorting mammoth bulldozers that came to clear the arable land for the expansion of a chemicals project. Farmers had only been offered a trifle in compensation for their land, far below its market value.
In a report on January 21, Xinhua news agency said Sun Xiaojun, Party secretary of Hewan Village, was suspected of having masterminded the attack. He and other alleged ring leaders were detained. Some key officials of Yunhe Town, which includes Hewan Village, were sacked. Bulldozing of the disputed land was halted, at least for now.
It is not clear whether officials of Pizhou City, which administers the town and village in question, have been implicated. But Xinhua reported on Monday that the Ministry of Land and Resources had criticized Pizhou for illegal use of arable land in 2007. Last year the city was once again on the ministry's "blacklist," the agency said.
This case of the thug attack on innocent farmers ranked the second among the 10 most-read news yesterday on the front page of Xinhua's Website. One Netizen posted on the Xinhua Website: "I'm from Pizhou. I know some local officials endorsed it (the acquisition of arable land by force). Do you expect them to investigate themselves?"
Indeed, Xinhua noted in a report on Monday that the "Pizhou miracle" - it was one of China's 100 strongest county-level economies by GDP and other measures last July - resulted from large plots of protected farmland losing out to industrial projects, which were often poorly planned.
Before the January 7 tragedy, Hewan Village government had already erased 2,500 mu (167 hectares) from its total of 3,000 mu (200 hectares) of arable land. Many farmers had been shoveled away into so-called "farmers' apartments" with no new jobs. Many farmers complained to reporters that they could no longer raise pigs or chickens in those funny apartments with no courtyards.
On January 15, Beijing News published what it said was a photo of a vast grain field - about 10,000 mu (667 hectares) - flooded by icy water in another village under Yunhe Town. Farmers told reporters that the local government had ordered the field be flooded to bully the farmers into abandoning the land on which they lived.
Joining corporate interests in plundering arable land was the local bureaucracy. The administrative center of Pizhou, completed in 2008, looks so imposing that Beijing News quoted local people as saying it resembles that of China's central government.
The administration center of Pizhou was supposed to cover only 60 mu (4 hectares), but it eventually sprawled over 600 mu (40 hectares) through illegal acquisition of arable land.
There's only one Pizhou in China, but the case of shoveling farmers out of their land is by no means isolated. It points up a thorny problem in local politics in many parts of the country: officials are incompetent in making policy but highly skilled in abusing power.
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