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Viewing cable 07GUANGZHOU353, Dongzhou Protests Flare Up Again

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07GUANGZHOU353 2007-03-19 09:16 2011-08-23 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Guangzhou
VZCZCXRO8761
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHGZ #0353/01 0780916
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 190916Z MAR 07
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5895
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000353 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN 
STATE ALSO PASS USTR 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD EINV CH
SUBJECT: Dongzhou Protests Flare Up Again 
 
REF: A) Guangzhou 322; B) 06 Guangzhou 15624; C) 06 Guangzhou 11684 
 
(NOTAL); D) 05 Guangzhou 32000 (NOTAL); E) 05 Guangzhou 31940 
(NOTAL) 
 
THIS DOCUMENT IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  IT SHOULD NOT BE 
DISSEMINATED OUTSIDE OF U.S. GOVERNMENT CHANNELS OR IN ANY PUBLIC 
FORUM WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONCURRENCE OF THE ORIGINATOR.  IT SHOULD 
NOT BE POSTED ON THE INTERNET. 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  Just days after Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua 
announced the closure of the December 2005 Dongzhou incident, 
Western media reported renewed protests by Dongzhou area villagers. 
Local government-hired thugs, backed by local police, fought with 
villagers who continued to protest new land encroachments by coal 
and wind power plants in the Honghaiwan (Red Sea Bay) Development 
Zone as well as a lack of compensation for additional land use.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
Continued Land Encroachment Leads to Protests, Violence 
--------------------------- --------------------------- 
 
2.  (U) Despite Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua's announcement of 
the closure of the December 2005 Dongzhou incident at a press 
conference in Bejiing on the edges of the meetings of the National 
Peoples' Congress, Radio Free Asia and other western media reported 
renewed protests by Dongzhou area villagers and violence against 
them by government-hired thugs.  Villagers continued earlier 
protests against the taking of land and inadequate compensation.  In 
the latest series of incidents, local villagers marched this past 
weekend to the power plants to request a meeting with management. 
Villagers described their numbers as more than had been present 
during the December 6, 2005 protests.  Plant management refused to 
meet the villagers but sent several dozen riot police instead. 
Villagers peacefully disbanded after hanging banners by the gate 
calling on the Party in Beijing to resolve the problem. 
 
3.  (U) On Sunday, March 11, villagers from Shigu, among them women 
and elderly, began a sit-in to prevent workers from the coal-fired 
power plant from running water pipes across village land, since no 
compensation had been paid, nor had there been any communication 
with villagers from plant management.  Thugs, reportedly hired by 
the local government and numbering more than 100, then attacked the 
villagers with wooden sticks, injuring more than 20.  Thugs then 
surrounded the village to prevent them from obstructing power plant 
workers from laying water pipes.  Villagers from six area villages 
totaling between 1000-2000 came to battle the thugs.  After thugs 
were injured, local officials arrived with police.  Radio Free Asia 
reported that enraged villages subsequently burned several vehicles 
and equipment belonging to the contractors.  With the destruction of 
the equipment including backhoes, work was halted. 
Inadequate Compensation/Unpunished Police Causes for Anger 
----------------------- ---------------------------------- 
4.  (U) Local residents are angry about inadequate compensation and 
on-going efforts by the power plants to complete their construction 
as well as inaction by authorities to deal with police who killed 
villagers in December 2005.  Villagers complained that the 
commanding officer and local officials had still not been held 
responsible for the deaths, which the authorities said were caused 
by police officers shooting after being attacked by a mob with 
homemade explosives. 
5.  (U) Villagers said they had thus far received only RMB 150 (USD 
19) annually per person in compensation for land taken to develop 
the coal-fired and wind power plants in the Honghaiwan Development 
Zone.  Some villagers would not accept the money when it was 
offered.  Villagers also said that workers from the coal-fired 
station were continuing to encroach on their land with the 
installation of pylons to carry electricity away from the plant, and 
by the construction of pipelines for water intake. 
6.  (U) According to the villagers, since the shootings of December 
2005, local officials had taken to appearing less in public, 
preferring to get gangs of thugs stationed outside the village to 
attack local residents on their behalf.  One villager was quoted as 
saying that nothing had been resolved with officials and that the 
villagers now had to place a guard over the village at night to 
protect it from local thugs. 
 
Comment: 
A Problem Unresolved is a Problem that will Resurface 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
7.  (SBU) Although Governor Huang Huahua announced the closure of 
the Dongzhou incident, it is clear that the villagers, who had been 
protesting regularly for months prior to the December 2005 
shootings, do not consider the matter closed.  Neither the power 
plant nor the local government has taken steps to resolve the case 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000353  002 OF 002 
 
 
by offering additional compensation; neither plant nor government 
officials contacted farmers before ordering the installation of 
pylons and pipelines on village land.  When one considers that land 
use rights for some of the land on which the power plant is built 
were "purchased" for USD 19, it is understandable that villagers are 
still upset.  The Dongzhou case is still open despite government 
attempts to close it. 
ROCK