The following video clip is spreading through Chinese cyberspace right now. The clip shows the village head together with a group of thugs beating up villagers who refuse to leave their homes which will be demolished for a construction project. In one post, the caption reads: In Yingbei Village 樱北村， Kuiwen District 奎文区, Weifang City of Shandong Province, the village head Gao Zhigang led thugs to beat up villagers. Where are the higher-ups stopping such violent evictions? Can’t we small people have a place to live?
The explanatory screens:
1) With the formal promulgation of the Property Rights Law on October 1, 2007, the useage rights of residents to their homes became sacred and inviolable.
2) However, in Yingbei Village, Weikuiwen District, Shandong Province, many people, as they were beaten and cursed, lost their homes.
3) In order to renovate the old village, the village chief Gao Zhigang, without having achieved a consensus of a majority of the people in the village, led his son, gang members and others, to force demolitions of homes.
4) May 28, 2008
5) They beat up some poor old people.
6) (at time 1:25) forced them out of their own homes
7) (at time 1:54) they beat up young people who dared to defend their homes.
8) (at time 2:34) beating them over and over again.
9) (at time 3:53) the young people were beaten unconscious
10) (at 4:04) Not that nobody cared, but nobody dared to care
11) (at time 4:44 Send to the hospital for emergency treatment
12) (at 5:32) The local government blocked any information of this incident. The peasants had no where to turn. In today’s society, peasants still suffer from this kind of oppression!
13) (at 5:44) We hope everyone can pay attention to this matter – pay attention to how the power and violence are abused in this harmonious society
Violence in demolition projects is common in China. For example, on July 4, Beijing News reported “A Man Was Beaten to Death in Front of a House About to be Demolished.
