CHINA IS preparing to offer compensation to victims of illegal land grabs in Wukan, Guangdong province, as the government tries to head off the prospect of a march on Communist Party headquarters in the fishing village.
Villagers in Wukan have been in a stand-off with authorities for 10 days over land grabs and the unexplained death of their representative, butcher Xue Jinbo, while he was in police custody.
The rebellion in Wukan has garnered a lot of attention in China and forced the Communist Party to come up with a response in a bid to ensure stability as the country enters a key year which includes the start of a leadership change.
A report in the Southern Daily newspaper said the local government had offered to negotiate with the developer to return 404 acres of land and to compensate villagers.
Zheng Yanxiong, the Communist Party boss of Shanwei, which administers Wukan, said the government would guarantee the villagers’ interests.
A group of local government officials also met with leaders of the protest in Wukan to discuss their demands, including the release of villagers taken into police custody.
The villagers are keen to establish whether Mr Xue did indeed die of a heart attack, as the government claims, or if he was tortured while in custody.
In a separate development in Guangdong province, thousands of people besieged a government office in the town of Haimen and blocked a highway to demand a halt to a planned coal-fired power plant because of concerns about pollution.
Riot police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the protesters at the highway, while the demonstrators replied with rocks, bottles and bricks.
There have been regular protests in China regarding graft, pollution, wage disagreements and land grabs by corrupt officials in recent years.