China 'punishes 17 officials' after deadly village clash

[webfact]

China 'punishes 17 officials' after deadly village clash

{BBC) Chinese authorities have arrested an official and punished 16 others following a deadly clash earlier this month in Yunnan, state media say.

Eight people died, including four construction workers who were burnt to death, and 18 others were injured in the violence in Fuyou village.

Villagers were reportedly unhappy about a land deal involving the construction of a trade and logistics centre.

The arrested official was the village chief who state media said took bribes.

There have been several high-profile village clashes over land deals in recent years amid rapid development.

All land in China is state-owned and farmers often have little say when state-appointed local officials sell off large tracts of land to developers, some pocketing bribes in the process and paying inadequate compensation to villagers forced to relocate.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29751648


-- BBC 2014-10-24

[Thaddeus]

Six of them had either been suspended or fired, while the others were "still being dealt with".

Xinhua named the arrested official as Li Jiaming, the chief of Fuyou village council, who had "received bribes several times during the project's construction".

.......

Since President Xi Jinping took office in 2012, China has embarked on an anti-corruption drive aimed at not only catching high-level officials but also those in the lower ranks.

To quote Mr Punch.

"That's the way to do it"

[Publicus]

The kind of clash reported in the story is a regular and long term occurrence in the PRChina. The State owns everything so farmers have for 20 years been chased off their land into the hills.

Local and provincial governments throughout the PRC long ago set up their own development authorities outside of government, but owned and run by the governments, to grab land and to build buildings.

Xi Jinping wants more power than Mao and after two years at it Xi is almost there.

Most PRChinese dislike and distrust Xi's lust of power and they know his so called anti-corruption campaign has targeted his political opponents almost exclusively. Xi's so called anti-corruption campaign has not made housing affordable nor has it addressed gross environmental destruction to mention two serious and ongoing curses in the present day PRChina. .

The PRChinese don't want another strongman dictator which is what they know they are getting. The PRChinese increasingly want a collective leadership guided by leaders accountable and responsive to the people. They just don't trust one guy perched at the top of everything, nor do the increasing number of PRChinese want arbitrary decisions set down on them..

Xi's strongest supporters are among the 85 million member Chinese Communist Party which is cheering Xi on.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Publicus

[Publicus]

As pointed out, Xi Jinping's so called anti-corruption campaign has focused on his political rivals and personal antagonists, but it has also been dismantling the structures initiated and established by Deng Xiao Peng to prevent another Mao ever occurring.

While pursuing his power, Xi has done nothing to change the exploitative nature of the relationships between PRChinese who work the land and the local governments throughout the PRC that control the land, which means the violent protests of locals throughout the PRC have continued and have in fact increased.

Xi has done nothing to improve the affordability of housing or to deal with a labor market that puts university graduates in jobs as hotel doormen due to the paucity of professional jobs.

There are PRChinese who continue to like the strongman leader, but most PRChinese reject this in favor of a government that is accountable and that addresses their everyday concerns, which Xi and his faction are failing to do.

Most PRChinese have realized Xi is not seeking power to implement reforms, that Xi is building personal power to take the CCP-PRC back in time, not to reorient it to meet the needs of the present time.

China’s new strongman Xi has a dream

BY JEFF KINGSTON

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

President Xi Jinping is China’s most authoritarian leader since Deng Xiaoping, a strongman who has moved aggressively to assert and consolidate power while promoting a cult of personality.

Rivals have been dispatched, he has rooted out those in the ruling oligarchy that were planted there precisely to prevent him from becoming too strong, and he has mounted an anti-corruption campaign that makes the rich and powerful fear crossing him because they are all implicated in China’s kleptocracy.

But what does the new strongman want to do with all this power? Recent signs are not encouraging. On the western frontiers he has been stomping down on Muslim Uighurs and Buddhist Tibetans, stifling pro-democracy activism in Hong Kong and Taiwan, rattling sabers along the border with India and militarizing disputes with neighbors in the East China and South China seas. Meanwhile, in the heartland he has unleashed a Draconian crackdown on journalists, critics and activists.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/10/11/commentary/world-commentary/chinas-new-strongman-xi-dream/#.VEr3Q_mSxQc

Xi is now undeniably a strongman, more powerful than the last two presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao," said Willy Lam, a Hong Kong-based scholar on Chinese history and politics.

"After Deng Xiaoping came to power, he established the collective leadership system, with a specific division of labor within the Politburo Standing Committee. The general secretary of the Standing Committee usually does not interfere with other members' work, but Xi essentially broke this mechanism," explained Lam.

"People around Xi are busy working on a Mao-style personality cult. That's why you will find that Xi appears in the People's Daily and on CCTV more often than any other committee members," said China expert Lam.

Residents hold posters of the newly appointed chief of China's Communist Party Xi Jinping during a "Shehuo" performance to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, on February 22, 2013. (Stringer/Courtesy Reuters)

Edited by Publicus for spacing.

Edited October 25, 2014 by Publicus