There really wasn’t much information about this video we posted on February 26 purporting to depict locals and out-of-towners fighting in a land dispute in Jieyang, Guangdong province. The local village chief, Li Baoyu, was detained, but little else was known.
On Saturday, the Jiexi county government finally released more information. First, “Li’s nomination as the director of the village committee had also been also revoked,” according to Global Times. That’s because he was responsible for hiring thugs from neighboring villages to attack those in Shangpu, whose residents resisted a land deal that would enrich an investment company via the village committee (i.e. the company would bribe the committee members). In the resulting melee, part of which we’ve reposted above, 29 cars were destroyed, including two that were burnt.
In addition to Li, nine others were arrested.
Please note the phrasing that’s used in the following GT paragraph:
Meanwhile, both the head of the Mianhu township and the local Party chief have also been deprived of their posts for “incompetent handling” of the mass incident. Another 21 suspects are still at large, said the statement, which added that the land contract signed on January 17 had now been nullified.
“Incompetent handling.” That’s a sharp slap, isn’t it?
Of course, villagers remain unhappy.
A local villager, who only gave his surname as Li, told the Global Times Sunday that the dismissal of local officials is “meaningless,” and only a move by the county government to patch up the incident quickly.
Li said that villagers want Li Baoyu and the thugs he hired to be severely punished, adding that another attack took place on Saturday night.
We’ll see if video of this recent supposed attack surfaces.
10 arrested after village land clashes in Guangdong (Global Times)
