By William Walker.
Protests began in the Chinese village of Wukan, Linfeng City at the end of September following a long-running land dispute between officials and residents, and have intensified to the point that Chinese search engines in the country return ‘no results’ when looking for information on the subject.
The ‘spark’ of the protest has similarities in the student riots in France at the start of this century and the Summer riots in the UK, following the death of a protester who was being held in police custody. Reports suggest that the 20,000 strong protest has forced the ruling communists out of the village.
China’s seemingly infinite weapon, however, is information; or the lack thereof. The Great Firewall of China (which limits access to what can and cannot be accessed online in the country) has been much criticised in the world’s media as a fundamental breach of basic civil liberties, with an international community who enjoy greater press and internet freedom looking across disparagingly.
Blocking websites and restricting access to certain hutongs of information is standard operating procedure in China – indeed, during the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre (itself a heavily censored issue) basic amenities such as Hotmail and Yahoo are deemed too contentious to allow access to. ‘Blocking’ an entire village is unprecedented, however, and some wonder how effective such tactics really are, considering how technologically-savy the populace have become: banned Facebook still enjoys around 700,000 users in China.
As the Chinese begin to enjoy greater wealth and greater opportunities it is inevitable that they will also have greater demands. Some believe that state interference has gone too far in China, and has become untenable. Ironically, it was the very issue of ‘land grabs’ that so angered the pro-Maoist Communists during the first half of the 20th Century, provoking them into a nationwide revolution. Considering the fervour of recent global protest it is not preposterous to suggest that history could be destined to repeat itself.
