Ekskluderingen af to ledere i landsbyen Wukan sker på baggrund af befolkningens beskyldninger om underslæb, bestikkelse og valgsvindel – uklart om sagen signalerer en generel skærpet holdning.
Former officials from a Chinese village that staged (forårsaget) a high-profile rebellion over local corruption have been punished, Chinese state media says, according to BBC online Tuesday.
Two officials from Wukan had been expelled from the Communist Party over illegal land deals, and 18 others punished. The protests in Wukan in late 2011 attracted enormous public attention.
Villagers drove the leaders out because of land seizures for which they said they were not properly compensated. The stand-off, reported around the world, only ended after the intervention of senior Guangdong provincial officials.
In what was seen as a concession from the authorities, a new vote was held for new village leaders. Protest leader Lin Zhulan won by a landslide.
Bestikkelse
Authorities had found that Wukan’s former officials “were involved in illegal transfers of land use rights, embezzling collective properties, (begået underslæb mod offentlig ejendom) accepting bribes (bestikkelse) and rigging village elections”, Xinhua reported.
There are thousands of protests over land grabs in China each year but the stand-off in Wukan was particularly high-profile because of its longevity and scale.
China has allowed villagers to elect councils with power over local issues since the 1980s, but such elections are often subject to interference.
The granting of fresh elections in Wukan was seen as a surprising concession from the Guangdong authorities, led by ambitious Communist Party head Wang Yang.
