Over a thousand villagers broke into a local police station in central China on March 28 due to a land requisition conflict. The news was blocked by the Chinese authorities.
The villagers were from Gaoqiao Village in Yuhua District, Changsha City, Hunan Province, who had long been advocating for their rights due to land requisition issues, Gao Feng (alias), a villager from the neighboring Daqiao Village, told The Epoch Times on April 1.
According to Mr. Gao, on March 26, a villager fell to their death from a building during a conflict with the police; on March 28, the authorities mobilized a large number of police to seize the deceased’s body, which angered the villagers.
Rumor has it that over a thousand villagers stormed the police station, injuring police officers. Fearing the situation escalates, the authorities decided on the spot to compensate the deceased’s family nearly one million yuan ($138,300).
Mr. Gao stated that the authorities had completely blocked the conflict online, and no reports covered the scenes of villagers storming the police station. He also posted videos online, which were quickly deleted.
“This time, a thousand people stormed the Gaoqiao police station. This baton-playing police officer was beaten up the most. He’s been hospitalized.
Disputes Arose From Land Requisition
The conflict between the villagers and local authorities began 20 years ago, when the expansion of Hunan Gaoqiao Grand Market began. Villagers alleged covert operations and official corruption in the process.Hunan Gaoqiao Grand Market is one of the major projects of Hunan Gaoqiao Market Co., a key project supported by the provincial authorities and a national key market construction project. Having opened in 1996, it has become the largest national comprehensive wholesale market in the central-southern region and the third-largest comprehensive market in the country, covering an area of more than 1000 mu (66.67 hectares).
The market contains eight large-scale professional markets, including the Liquor and Food City, Modern Trade City, Hotel Supplies City, Cultural and Sports Products City, Agricultural and Sideline Products City, Tea and Tea Ware City, Health Care Medicine City, and Clothing and Home Textile City, as well as the Sino-African Economic and Trade Cooperation Promotion Innovation Demonstration Park.
According to a WeChat group chat of Gaoqiao villagers seen by The Epoch Times, the expansion of Gaoqiao Grand Market requisitioned 600 mu (40 hectares) of land from the village. The land requisition began in 2007, and villagers from several groups of the village moved their families away.
The Market adopted the tactic of “borrowing a chicken to lay eggs” in cooperation with Gaoqiao Village: It first used the excuse of joint ventures to cheat villagers into selling hundreds of mu of land for very little money. Then, it built several real estate projects, making billions of profits in just a few years.
A large number of villagers needed resettlement houses, yet the funds for building resettlement houses were insufficient. The Market claimed it would build resettlement houses on behalf of the villagers but used part of the project funds to offset debt.
The villagers also alleged that no village assembly was convened at the time for such a large-scale project, nor did it adopt an open, fair, and just bidding process. The Gaoqiao No. 2 resettlement area ancillary works were built to the lowest standard, but the settlement cost was much higher than that of other projects of the same quality.
The Market then forced Gaoqiao Village to sporadically transfer land, citing the debt owed by the Village. Villagers allege that illegalities and falsifications existed in the land transfer and listing procedures and that no village meeting minutes or votes on the land transfer were publicized.
Villagers are currently demanding a thorough investigation by the local authorities and a full disclosure of the housing allocation details.
“Fellow villagers, we are all peasants with low education level and single life skill. We only know how to grow vegetables and raise pigs, so we are cheated by them. They cheated us out of the only land we relied on to survive,” reads the group chat history in Chinese.
“Fellow villagers, it is time for us to wake up. We should take our own happiness into our own hands. We should not hope for it from others.”
Mr. Gao said that Daqiao Village is in a situation similar to that of Gaoqiao Village due to land issues, and he himself is also advocating for rights.
In 2007, communication was not developed, so the villagers were unaware. Now, with developed communication, villagers receive news very quickly, and they have only just begun to pay attention to land issues, he said. During the rights protection process, they discovered many hidden truths, but their rights protection efforts have been fruitless, only facing suppression.
The Epoch Times contacted Hunan Gaoqiao Market Co. but was not able to reach anyone by press time.
