MCLC: former Wukan officials punished

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: former Wukan official punished
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Source: The Guardian (4/24/12):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/24/china-punishes-officials-embezz
ling-wukan

China punishes officials accused of embezzling Wukan village property
Villagers organised mass protests and held a standoff with police in late
2011 after accusing officials of stealing their farmland
By Associated Press in Beijing

Chinese authorities have punished 20 officials and former village leaders
after a community in southern China held mass protests over land disputes
that drove out local officials.

The official Xinhua news agency said the former Communist party chief of
Wukan village in Guangdong province and the former head of the village
committee were expelled from the ruling party and ordered to return nearly
$45,000 (£28,000) in what it described as illegal gains.

Six other former village officials and a dozen higher-level officials were
also punished, but no details were provided.

Protests in Wukan last year flared into violence in which villagers
smashed a police station and cars. After key activists were detained in
December, the villagers drove out officials and barricaded themselves in
for 10 days and held boisterous rallies.

The protests ended after provincial officials intervened and ceded to some
demands.

Xinhua said authorities found that the village's former officials had been
involved in illegal transfers of land-use rights, embezzling property that
was collectively owned, accepting bribes and rigging village elections.

In March, two of the protest leaders were elected to run the village
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/03/wukan-villagers-elections-prot
ests> in a much-watched election that reformers hoped would promote
democracy as a way to settle many of the myriad disputes besetting China.

Many experts, however, said it's far too soon to say if political leaders
will summon the will to replicate Wukan's experience elsewhere.