{"id":13876,"date":"2017-01-28T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T02:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=13876"},"modified":"2016-12-28T14:53:53","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T06:53:53","slug":"china-show-trial-of-wukan-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2017\/01\/28\/13876\/","title":{"rendered":"China: Harsh sentences for Wukan protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jail terms of up to ten years imposed on nine protesters\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vincent Kolo, chinaworker.info<\/p>\n

The \u2018Wukan model\u2019, once held up as a beacon of local democracy under a totalitarian state, has well and truly been killed off by the Chinese dictatorship (CCP).<\/p>\n

The sentences handed down against nine defendants on 26 December by a\u00a0court in Haifeng County in southern China, are very harsh. There can be no mistaking the political message they are intended to send out\u00a0as\u00a0a warning to all those who would challenge CCP rule. Instead, the fate of the Wukan protesters will arouse massive sympathy in China and abroad.<\/p>\n

The court\u00a0imposed jail terms varying from two to ten years on the nine, who were arrested after protests in September. Those sentenced are Wei Yonghan, Yang Jinzhen, Hong Yongzhong, Wu Fang, Zhuang Songkun, Cai Jialin, Li Chulu, Chen Suzhuan, and Zhang Bingchai. They\u00a0faced charges of staging an unlawful assembly which \u201cseverely disrupted social order\u201d and for disseminating false information, according to a statement on the website of the People\u2019s Court of Haifeng. Specific details of the sentences have not been released. This case provides\u00a0a snapshot of the worsening repression \u2013 the worst for 25 years \u2013 under China\u2019s \u2018core\u2019 leader, Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

Since mass protests\u00a0erupted in this village in Guangdong province in 2011, against land grabs and the corruption of the old village leaders, Wukan has generated global headlines. It was seen as an important test case for democratic development in China. In December 2011, after a wave of repression against the villagers\u2019 demands, and the brutal death of a protest leader in police custody, a landmark agreement was struck between the representatives of the protest movement\u00a0and the CCP leaders in Guangdong province. This allowed local elections to take place to a seven-seat village council. A key figure in this process was Lin Zuluan, a local CCP official who supported the protest movement.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Solidarity with Wukan: Protest in Hong Kong.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Crackdown<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lin was elected to lead the village council over\u00a0the five years since then. But in reality\u00a0the elected Wukan council was powerless and its efforts to reverse the land grabs and to settle other\u00a0outstanding issues from the 2011 protests were frustrated and blocked by higher-level authorities. This triggered new protests in Wukan this summer, and the arrest and subsequent legal frame-up of Lin Zuluan, now aged 72, on corruption charges.<\/p>\n

Lin was given a 37-month prison sentence in September, which became the trigger for a new round of protests and a fierce crackdown by the authorities. His real crime was to have supported the resumption of mass protests. Lin lodged an appeal against his sentence and withdrew his\u00a0\u2018confession\u2019 to accepting bribes. But unsurprisingly, the appeal court in October upheld the original sentence.<\/p>\n

Lin had made a televised \u2018confession\u2019 as many other political detainees have done in China in the recent period. This was clearly made under duress, with the authorities holding and threatening to press charges against Lin\u2019s grandson. His family also say a trade-off was offered (also common practise), promising Lin a suspended sentence if he confessed. This deal was shown to be yet another trick by the authorities.<\/p>\n

The trial of the Wukan Nine and the severe jail terms imposed upon them are part of a wider crackdown against Wukan and its legacy as a symbol of struggle against the CCP regime. The Guangdong provincial CCP chief, Hu Chunhua, is believed to have ordered\u00a0the crackdown in the hope this will boost his prospects\u00a0for promotion in a crucial national leadership shake-up due late next year. Unlike his predecessor as provincial chief, who brokered the 2011 Wukan deal under\u00a0very different political circumstances, Hu\u2019s hardline stance undoubtedly chimes well with Xi Jinping\u2019s doctrine of \u2018zero tolerance\u2019 towards any\u00a0opposition. This has seen widespread repression\u00a0against NGOs and rights lawyers, labour activists and even the abduction of\u00a0dissidents overseas and in Hong Kong, previously off limits to the Chinese regime.<\/p>\n

Socialists and chinaworker.info<\/strong> have followed the Wukan struggle closely because it holds many important lessons: inspiring examples of grassroots organisation and resistance, but also warnings against entrusting the fate of any struggle to \u2018honourable compromises\u2019 with the CCP regime. Wukan shows that a dictatorial regime cannot be \u2018reformed\u2019 into a democratic one, it must be replaced through the actions of a mass democratic movement led by\u00a0the working class. This is also confirmed\u00a0by the cruel treatment of Lin Zuluan, who is no radical, but rather a \u2018pragmatist\u2019\u00a0who stands for limited reform within the CCP system.<\/p>\n

These lessons are critical for the coming struggles in China, when the dictatorship will be confronted not by one heroic village, but hundreds and even thousands of similar mass eruptions.<\/p>\n

More on Wukan:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wukan 2.0 \u2013 new mass protests in Chinese village<\/a><\/h3>\n

Chinese regime turns Wukan into \u201cwar zone\u201d<\/a><\/h3>\n

China: The Wukan uprising and its lessons<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jail terms of up to ten years imposed on nine protesters\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":13877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[132,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-china","8":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\nChina: Harsh sentences for Wukan protesters - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2017\/01\/28\/13876\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China: Harsh sentences for Wukan protesters - 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