ChinaFile Recommends
09.23.16Provincial Boss Ordered Crackdown on China's 'Democracy Village' with Eye on National Power
Reuters
Wukan is Hu Chunhua's tryout for the Politburo Standing Committee
Media
09.14.16
The Chinese Democratic Experiment that Never Was
Protesters in southern China are up in arms. They feel that Beijing’s promises that they’d be able to vote for their own local leaders have been honored in the breach. They’re outraged at the show of force in the face of peaceful protest, and...
Media
06.22.16
‘Wukan,’ Once a Byword For Chinese Democracy, Now Censored
A fishing village in southern Guangdong province, once a standard-bearer for small-time democracy in China, has now become a political disaster—and the most-censored term on Chinese social media.In September 2011, amid protests over land sales in...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.22.16Skepticism in China After Wukan Confession
Wall Street Journal
Chinese protesters are not convinced by Mr. Lin’s video confession.....
ChinaFile Recommends
06.22.16Chinese Official Whose Arrest Stirred Protests Confesses To Taking Bribes
New York Times
Mr. Lin is detained on suspicion of recieving bribes and abuse of power....
Video
04.05.13
Censored: A Chinese Journalist’s Inside View
from Committee to Protect Journalists
Journalist Liu Jianfeng worked at the China Economic Times newspaper in Beijing for fifteen years. Eventually, frustration with the nation’s state-controlled media system and pressure from his colleagues prompted him to quit. He then did brief...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.25.12Still a Model? Revisiting the Rebel Village of Wukan
WSJ: China Real Time Report
A little over a year ago, residents of the small southern Chinese fishing village of Wukan ransacked the offices of the local government in protest over a land grab by local officials. The death in police custody of one of the protest leaders a few...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.20.12Chinese Villagers Threaten Fresh Protests
Financial Times
Zhang Jiancheng was a rebel with a cause. His detention with four other protesters in December sparked a stand-off in the southern Chinese village of Wukan, where 13,000 people faced down police in an 11-day siege.After the provincial...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.16.12China’s Microbloggers Take On Re-Education Camps
Bloomberg
Over the last two years, as China’s microblogging culture has expanded, observers inside and outside the country have found hopeful signs that the Communist Party is starting to respect and respond to public opinion voiced online. The most notable...
Earthbound China
05.11.12
From Protester to Village Head
In September 2011, residents of the village of Wukan in Guangdong province began protesting the illegal seizure and sale of their land by local Party cadres. The protestors demanded fair compensation for the land that had been taken, but officials...
Earthbound China
05.11.12
Wukan Election Photos
While village elections are widespread in China, it’s rare for the Party not to exert pressure over the selection of candidates. When the Guangdong province village of Wukan held elections in February and March 2012, however, they were notably free...
Earthbound China
05.10.12
Wukan Struggle
While village elections are widespread in China, it’s rare for the Party not to exert pressure over the selection of candidates. When the Guangdong province village of Wukan held elections in February and March 2012, however, they were notably free...
Photo Gallery
05.09.12
Wukan Daily Life
While village elections are widespread in China, it’s rare for the Party not to exert pressure over the selection of candidates. When the Guangdong province village of Wukan held elections in February and March 2012, however, they were notably free...
Reports
04.30.12
Guangdong Leads Calls to Break up “Vested Interests” and Revive Reform
He Jianan
China Leadership Monitor
In September 2011, a protest in a Guangdong village threatened to embarrass the province and its party secretary, Wang Yang, who is a candidate for membership on the powerful Politburo Standing Committee when the 18th Party Congress meets later in...
Earthbound China
04.18.12
What Wukan Means
It began, in the early stages, as a secret mobilization. Then came the protests, marches of ever-larger numbers, direct confrontation, occupations, blockades, anarchy, media exposure, a case of accidental death, the involvement of higher levels of...
Caixin Media
03.19.12
An Insider's Account of the Wukan Protest
For months, thousands of villagers in Wukan, Guangdong Province, staged large protests over illegal land seizures, rigged elections and official corruption. The unrest started in September, and as the months wore on they attracted nationwide, then...
Sinica Podcast
03.09.12
The Mirror of History: China Through the Looking Glass
from Sinica Podcast
Sinica is coming out a bit earlier than usual this week: We were lucky enough to catch Jeffrey Wasserstrom on Monday during a well-timed visit to Beijing, and dragged him into the studio to get his views on the recent elections in Wukan, what is...
Sinica Podcast
01.13.12
Year-End Roundup
from Sinica Podcast
It was the year of the housing market (up then down), Ai Weiwei’s imprisonment, Wukan, the Wenzhou train crash, air pollution, gutter oil, tainted milk, clenbuterol, China bulls and bears, government transparency, the soaring price of Maotai, Guo...
Sinica Podcast
12.31.11
The Wukan Uprising
from Sinica Podcast
For the last few days, international attention has focused on the small fishing town of Wukan in southern China, where villagers are in open revolt. Simmering tensions caused by corruption and illegal land sales have escalated into an armed uprising...
The NYRB China Archive
12.22.11Do China’s Village Protests Help the Regime?
from New York Review of Books
Over the past two weeks, the Western press has focused on a striking story out of China: a riveting series of protests in Wukan, a fishing village in the country’s prosperous south. The story is depressingly familiar: Corrupt cadres sell off public...