Two villagers who went to Beijing to petition on behalf of 1,000 people from Zhanhuang county in the northern Chinese province of Hebei have been arrested and charged by the authorities.
Nine villagers made the trip–which is risky because local officials watch transportation links to make sure local residents don’t flood the capital with protests. The problem, as in so many other cases, was over compensation from the local government last November for land used for development.
The other seven representatives managed to get away, and now they’re stranded, as one of them told RFA’s Cantonese service (ZH):
“We are afraid of being arrested once we go home. I hope the central government will show their concern over this so that we can go home safely,” he said.
But a duty officer at the police station where the arrests were made said he had to ask permission from his superiors, and gave no comment.
In a story which has been heard time and again across China, many farmers in Zhanhuang have been left without land or livelihood after it was taken over by local officials for development.
Filed under: China | Tagged: china_civil_rights, Newsdesk
