The villagers of Dongzhou appear to have been defeated. The Honghaiwan Power Station was inaugurated today with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. Some of the villagers tried to get close to the plant, clashing gongs in protest, but the police cordon around the area held. Here are some interviews by RFA’s Mandarin service(ZH) with local residents:
Dongzhou villager surnamed Huang (woman):
“The wife of one of the detained people went to protest today and was beaten by some of the officials, and kicked savagely. She has been taken to hospital.”
Woman surnamed Chen:
“There were so many people there protecting it that the ceremony is now complete. The villagers aren’t going to let it go at that, though. We heard the clashing of cymbals against this morning. But it’s no use. We can’t tell anyone about it. The authorities have cordoned off the village and they won’t let anyone in. The main crossroads is blocked too.”
Villager (male) surnamed Wu:
“There has been no progress whatsoever in the talks about compensation. It is a state of cold war now. Perhaps they know that they are in the wrong and they know that there’s no point in using further force, because the villagers are so united right now. They don’t dare to give us further trouble.”
Villager A Qi: “Work has yet to resume on the project. They are using every form of trickery to persuade villagers to sign. They have called representatives from every household to a meeting. Every time they go they have to sign something and they are given 30 yuan. Then they dress it up to mean that the villagers are signing to say that they agree to the pylon project. I heard they were going to resume work on the pylon in the next few days.”
The police presence, which has been strong in Dongzhou since a renewed standoff in October, remained until the ceremony was over.
After the completion of the power station, villagers continued to blockade construction of a pylon crucial for the distribution of power to the electricity grid.
The blockade lasted only a few weeks, beginning on Dec. 11, however, and was eventually dispersed by thousands of riot police using tear gas. Eight villagers were detained.
A villager surnamed Chen said the pylon was now also ready to begin operation.
The police were gradually leaving Dongzhou now that the power plant was open, she said. The authorities had stopped their propaganda broadcasts by megaphone from patrolling vehicles.
“The propaganda vehicles didn’t stop until today. There weren’t any police left by the afternoon. They had all left.”
RFA was one of the first media to report the deadly shooting of Dec. 6, 2005:
‘All Hell Broke Loose’: RFA Reporter Visits Dongzhou
Chinese Police Fire on Protesters, Killing At Least Two
Roland Soong has translated a huge amount of background material on the Dongzhou incident into English.
Images: GMRQ
Filed under: China, East Asia, Newsdesk, cantonese, china_civil_rights, china_civilrights, china_property, china_rights, china_unrest, east_asia, freespeech, governance, guangdong, human_rights | Tagged: china_civilrights, china_land, china_unrest, dec6, dongzhou, shanwei_incident
