Civil unrest in China

Chinese police besiege town and cut of food supplies in bid to quell riots

Thousands of Chinese riot police have besieged a village in the south of the country, cutting off supplies of food and water in a bid to quell a series of riots.

The local government brought the village's simmering anger to a boil by admitting that Xue Jinbo, a 43-year-old butcher who had represented the villagers in their negotiations with the government, had died in police custody of 'cardiac failure' 

the Telegraph,

13 Deecmber, 2011

For months, the 20,000 villagers who live in Wukan, near Shanwei city in Guangdong province, have protested first at having nearly £100 million of their land seized and sold off by the local government, and then at the brutal tactics used by police to regain control of the village.

The latest protests began on Sunday, when police attempting to arrest a villager were repelled by villagers armed with sticks. The police fired tear gas before retreating.

At the same time, the local government brought the village's simmering anger to a boil by admitting that Xue Jinbo, a 43-year-old butcher who had represented the villagers in their negotiations with the government, had died in police custody of "cardiac failure".

Mr Xue was taken into custody last week and accused of inciting riots. Mr Xue was widely believed to have been tortured, perhaps to death, and his family were rumoured to have found several of his bones broken when receiving his corpse.

On Monday, around 6,000 people attended Mr Xue's funeral and photographs of the massed crowds paying their respects circulated on the Chinese internet. "We're very pained and angry at his death," said one villager who declined to be named. "He didn't commit any crime. He was just a negotiator speaking with the government, trying to get our land back. He was defending farmers' rights."

Meanwhile, more photographs showed thousands of Chinese police massing on the roads surrounding Wukan and villagers said that a blockade had been imposed. Villagers using the internet inside the cordon claimed that supplies of food, including rice were running low. "A lot of policemen are assembled outside the village," wrote one villager on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, who named himself as Charles Suen.

"The villagers are having a meeting and are preparing to break out this afternoon to petition the government again," he added.

"People cannot come in and we can't go out. We will not survive if the situation keeps going, as we have no food," said another villager to Agence France Press by phone. "We normally have to buy food from outside, but we are blocked, so we cannot buy it," he added.Last week, officials in the village were taken hostage for a few hours by angry villagers and the police set up roadblocks at the village entrance in response.

The clashes in Wukan began in September, when a government office was damaged by an angry mob. Around 400 police responded with brute force, beating some residents and allegedly killing one child.

In November, 4,000 villagers complained again, publicly, that no one had investigated the land grab at the heart of their unrest. The non-violent protests were allowed to unfold without an official response, a move that was praised at the time by observers. But the matter remained unresolved.

Zhou Yongkang, China's security chief, has warned that as the country's economy begins to slow down, protests are likely to flare up and officials should deal with complaints promptly to "remove" sources of potential conflict.