Thousands of residents of a Chinese village under police blockade rallied Thursday to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and the death in custody of a local leader. The people of Wukan – a fishing village in the wealthy southern province of Guangdong with about 13,000 inhabitants – accuse corrupt local officials of stealing communal land without compensating them.
Wukan has been the scene of repeated and at times violent protests over land seizures, a hugely contentious issue in China, where authorities are accused of colluding with developers in lucrative real estate deals. Local anger boiled over with the death Sunday in police custody of a village leader tasked with negotiating with authorities over the row.
