Hostage Taking Again in Same Township: Do Foshan's

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 032380

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STATE FOR EAP/CM AND DRL
PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/07/16
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI KCRM CH
SUBJECT: Hostage Taking Again in Same Township: Do Foshan's
Land Conflicts Have a Connection?

Ref: A) Guangzhou 32264; B) 05 Guangzhou 29647

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1. (U) Classified by Consul General Robert Goldberg.
Reason 1.4 (d).


2. (C) SUMMARY AND COMMENT: Approximately 1,000 villagers
in Foshan, Guangdong Province, stormed the local village
committee office on November 30, to protest illegal land
sales and to demand the release of 23 village
representatives detained the previous day, according to
Western and Hong Kong media sources. During their attack,
the villagers took hostage relatives of two local officials,
releasing them the next day. Eighteen villagers remain in
police custody and are likely to face charges of
"disturbing public order." Conflicts over land have been
more frequently reported of late in Foshan. One contact
suggests that local activists with experience from the 2005
Taishi incident and connections to the Rights Protection
Movement are helping to instigate conflicts. These
activists are likely to remain locally-based because of the
government's hostility toward and reprisals against
collective protests. END SUMMARY AND COMMENT.


3. (SBU) Villagers in Xichong Village, Lunjiao Township in
Foshan City (an hour southwest of Guangzhou) have been
complaining for almost a year to local officials about the
"illegal" sale of 1,000 mu (165 acres) of their farmland.
On November 29, according to media sources, local Public
Security Bureau (PSB) officials invited representatives of
the village to discuss their complaints with the land
developers. Police moved in and detained 23
representatives from among the group. Radio Free Asia (RFA)
reported that among those detained, five were new village
leaders who had been elected to replace allegedly corrupt
officials.


4. (SBU) On the evening of November 30, media sources said
that approximately 1,000 villagers stormed the local
village committee office to demand the release of the
detained village representatives. The villagers also took
the wife of a former village party secretary and the son of
a local official hostage, releasing them on December 1.
Meanwhile, on November 30, five of the older village
representatives were released by police; however, media
sources say the other 18 remain in detention. On December
1, the Lunjiao police station issued a statement, saying
that the 18 detained people had violated the criminal law
and will be sentenced later. Many suspect the charge will
be "disturbing public order." On December 4, the Consulate
contacted the Shunde Foreign Affairs Office (FAO),who said
they were unaware of the issue.

Background to Protest
--------------


5. (SBU) At the beginning of this year, angered by the
1,000 mu corruption scandal, villagers began to organize a
land investigation team to collect evidence of the illegal
land transaction for submission to the provincial
government. The Falun Gong backed Epoch Times reports that
the Foshan Land Resources Bureau has confirmed that part of
Xichong's land development was based on illegal
transactions. Unable to resolve the issue, in March the
villages began to blockade construction projects in the
area. The Epoch Times reported that in June one land
development company used a gang of thugs to disperse the
villagers and force the construction project to continue.
The RFA reported that on November 23, hundreds of villagers
surrounded a plastics factory built on farmland, demanding
to see land transfer documents. The factory refused to
cooperate and the protest was handled without incident.

Shunde: A District Headed for Problems?
--------------


6. (C) The Xichong incident is the latest example of
problems in Foshan. Foshan's southern districts of Nanhai
and Shunde have had numerous land conflicts, particularly
within Shunde's Lunjiao Township. The SCMP's Leu Siew Ying
(protect) told Congenoff she believes Foshan is an area
that is "heading for some serious problems." She recently
met with representatives from five villages - Beihai,
Xiashi, Licun, Xintang and Xichong itself - all located
about 10 minutes outside of Shunde's downtown. In the past
two years these villages had elected independent candidates

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to their village committees. However, after taking office,
the new leaders discovered that the old guard had taken
away accounting and land deed documents, preventing the
villagers from claming rights to local land. After at
least a year of trying to petition for change, the
villagers turned to non-peaceful means to protest their
injustices.


7. (C) On November 8, in Sanzhou village (Lunjiao
Township),villagers protested a similar land compensation
issue by detaining approximately 300 officials and foreign
dignitaries in the granary they had come to open (ref A).
On November 9, approximately 1,000 riot police used tear
gas and attack dogs to clear out the protestors (no arrests
or injuries have been reported). According to Leu, the
hostage tactics used by the villagers had a connection with
Foshan Triad members. A few months before the Sanzhou
incident, some Sanzhou villagers traveled to Guangzhou to
petition the provincial government but were attacked by
hired thugs before reaching the city. One of the villagers
attacked had a brother who is an influential member of the
Foshan Triads; the latter supposedly helped the villagers
plot their hostage taking.


8. (C) Another incident that has attracted outside
attention is the secret arrest of seven villagers (who were
protesting illegal land seizures) in Nanhai's Sanshan
village in June. On September 18, the villagers' court
hearings began, sparking interest among Chinese dissident
circles. Leu also mentioned that villagers near the Wusha
Industrial Park (10 minutes east of Shunde's downtown) are
discussing preparations to blockade the area and possibly
take government officials hostages.

Foshan's Problems: Land, Corruption and Protest
-------------- ---


9. (C) Joe Zhou (protect),a Guangzhou-based businessman
with many connections in Foshan, said that Shunde is a
troubled area. On the one hand, the area is booming with
economic growth as municipal leaders tout a plan of "two
homes and one flower" (liangjia yihua) - meaning a
development focus on the products of household furniture
and household electronic appliances, leading to prosperity.
On the other hand, the area faces a land shortage. A few
years ago one mu (0.165 acres) was worth 200,000 RMB (USD
25,000),today the figure is "much higher."


10. (C) Zhou also recently had dinner with the head of
Foshan Public Security Bureau (PSB),who said he was
worried about two major issues: corruption and protests.
The Foshan PSB official said that the city has many
corruption scandals waiting to happen. According to Zhou,
the previous Party Secretary of Shunde (now Party Secretary
of Guangdong's Qingyuan) was very successful at attracting
investment and was sent to Qingyuan in order to improve the
city's development. The Party Secretary initially did not
want to leave Shunde and was only persuaded after Party
leaders threatened him with serious corruption charges.
The PSB official also expressed his fear of protests. Zhou
said that Foshan recently had a 3,000 person urban protest
over the requirement of an identity card worth USD 50.
While the protest was not widely published, the police felt
"powerless" against the crowds. Zhou said that the PSB
fears rural protests because the problems cannot be
eliminated through quick police changes.

Connections to Panyu's Taishi
--------------


11. (C) On December 5, the SCMP's Leu told Congenoff about
how the 2005 Taishi incident (ref B) rose to international
attention and its connection to current protests in Foshan.
Taishi is located in Guangzhou's southern Panyu district,
an area of rapid economic growth with scarce land; it
borders Shunde to the east. Leu said the connection
between the 2005 protests in Taishi and the current Shunde
protests is a local Panyu activist named He Jinchao
(protect). In 2005, He went to Beijing to petition Central
Government leaders about problems in the Panyu area. There
he met villagers from Taishi and met with representatives
from the EARI who were frequent visitors to Beijing's
"petitioner village." According to Leu, He was then put in
touch with members of Gao Zhisheng's law firm, including
Guo Feixiong. After hearing He's description of the Taishi

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incident, Guo went to Taishi to defend the villagers.
While in Beijing, He also learned how to contact
international media sources - which he later passed onto
the Taishi villagers. He Jinchao was held once in 2005 for
105 days (related to the Taishi incident) and once in June
of this year for 15 days (Leu wrote a July 9 story about
the latter incident).


12. (C) Additionally, Leu described how the ideas and
works of activists are spreading into Foshan. Leu noted
that with the reassignment of Panyu's former Party
Secretary Li Xuhun to Huizhou, Mayor Zhang Guanglin had

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become more active in reducing the number of protests.
Consequently, some activists were now focusing on Foshan
where Leu said that He Jinchao is "very active," advising
villagers on their rights and informing international media
about the situation. Reportedly Zhao Xin, leader of the
Empowerment and Rights Institute (a Beijing-based rights
group),was also drawn to Foshan because of He's influence.
Leu noted that two other incidents related to land and
corruption in Panyu that she has reported were inspired by
local activists, who researched PRC law and discovered
legal means to petition for their rights. Mobile phones
and personal travel remain the best form of communication,
as few villagers have access to the internet. Because of
Shunde's proximity to Panyu, and the villagers' relative
wealth (villagers have motorcycles and cars),Leu assumes
that Shunde villagers either visited Panyu villagers during
moments of crisis, or have been visited and advised by
Panyu's activists themselves. Leu said that the Panyu
activists have discarded the idea of founding a formal
organization as too dangerous.

Comment: All Politics is Local
--------------


13. (C) In the coming months, Foshan will continue to be an
area of increased rural unrest, unless the Guangdong
government can resolve villagers' complaints. The
Provincial government has taken some steps to establish
criteria for land compensation but otherwise does not seem
to be intervening in district or village-level conflicts
until they turn violent. At that point, the government
steps in to support the bureaucracy and to arrest or
intimidate protestors. The ideas and tactics of the Rights
Protection Movement appear to have trickled down to local
villagers, who are themselves becoming small scale
activists and "connectors" between villages. Such
activities are likely to remain locally-based because of
the government's hostility toward and swift resistance
against collective protest. The use of hostage taking,
while counter-productive in the long run, is becoming more
prevalent as well: used in Foshan in various places in the
past, and twice in Dongzhou, where at least three villagers
were killed in December 2005.

GOLDBERG