Helsingin Sanomat journalist reports on unrest in Chinese provinces
Soldiers quell local farmers protesting Sichuan dam project
According to reports from a Helsingin Sanomat journalist, who was the only representative of the world’s media to gain access to one troubled region in Sichuan Province, in recent weeks there have been signs of increasing resistance and demonstrations in rural areas of China.
Demonstrations involving tens of thousands of disgruntled citizens have been held over burgeoning income disparities, corruption, and poor working conditions. The issue has become a major headache for the ruling Communist Party of China.
For the most part, the disturbances have taken place in remote areas well away from the public spotlight. In the rural town of Hanyuan in Sichuan Province, the government sent in the army earlier this month to quell large demonstrations that had turned violent.
Last Friday, Helsingin Sanomat’s Beijing correspondent Sami Sillanpää visited the area, as the only international journalist to gain access to a region whose recent doings the central government has sought to keep under wraps.
Though the worst of the trouble was over, a good many police officers were visible on the streets of the town, and soldiers in riot-control gear marched in front of their garrison.
The local residents are protesting against the construction of a nearby hydroelectric power plant. The damming of the Dadu River at Pubugou will force more than 100,000 people from their homes.
The demonstrations by local farmers, who are seeking a reduction in the height of the dam and a consequent reduction in the number of houses that will be submerged, eventually forced the central government to interrupt work on the project. Senior officials were despatched from Beijing after soldiers, by some estimates as many as 10,000 of them, had quietened the situation down.
Reports suggest that at least one person died in the riots and that hundreds have been arrested. Things came to a head after the local authorities reneged on a promise to begin work on the dam only after a deal on compensation had been accepted by the residents.
In the Chinese provinces, generating enough heat to attract the attention of Beijing is often the only way to get local grievances addressed. In this instance the people of Hanyuan County have succeeded exceptionally well. Following a visit by Party Secretary Zhang Xuehong, responsible for Sichuan Province, and by a high-level delegation from Beijing, it was decided to halt work on the dam and raise the level of compensation for those affected.
While the unrest was going on, several steps were taken to retain a news blackout: roads in and out were closed, and telephone connections were periodically cut off. The air of concealment was further heightened by the fact that the register-plates of State vehicles sent into the area were covered, according to local witnesses.
In spite of the improved offer for compensation, the local population remain opposed to the dam venture, which is seen in Beijing as a progressive move designed to strengthen economic growth in the region. There have been allegations that local authority leaders have received back-handers from the company set to build the dam, the Guodian Corporation.
The image of a stable China is easily dashed if one looks under the surface at rural areas and provincial towns and cities, where the bulk of the 1.3 billion population actually live.
According to a government newspaper report in the summer, there were 58,000 demonstrations in China in 2003, meaning that thousands of residents were on the streets in as many as 160 demonstrations each and every day. In most cases these go unreported, as they take place in remote areas from where details are scarce and unreliable.
Corruption, central government abuses, poor working conditions, and unemployment head the list of grievances. In the reforms geared towards a market economy the old social security net has been removed, leaving many rural dwellers without health care, for instance.
Income disparities between the cities and the Chinese countryside are some of the most dramatic in the world, according to one Chinese study, and many farmers are angry at losing their land to expanding cities, highway projects, and new industrial areas.
Links:
Sichuan Province (Wikiverse)
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 15.11.2004 - TODAY |
Helsingin Sanomat journalist reports on unrest in Chinese provinces
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