Neighbours of Chinese village protesting over land grabs are involved in similar disputes By Choi Chi-yuk in South China Morning Post, June 22, 2016

Residents of villages near Wukan in southern Guangdong province say they are involved in land disputes similar to their neighbour’s, but are not being heard because they lack financial support and competent leadership.
Liu Yongjiang, a resident of Xialongtan about 5km from Wukan, said officials in his village had made 200 million yuan (HK$236 million) by selling communal land, a hotel and two other properties that belonged to villagers.
Xialongtan’s case was similar to the unresolved land seizures that brought thousands of villagers in Wukan onto the streets on Sunday. Wukan’s dispute has festered for five years since the village last protested and the latest demonstrations have been met with the detention of Wukan’s village chief Lin Zuluan on allegations of bribery.
Liu said Xialongtan village residents were also involved in long-standing land disputes, but their momentum was lost three years ago when one of their petition leaders was jailed for causing disturbance.
He said people in Wukan could demonstrate because they were under less financial pressure than his village. He said Wukan residents were poor years ago, but some had gone to Hong Kong to make a living and provide financial support to their village.
“With the money, the basic living costs could be secured in case something adverse happened to fellow villagers involved in demonstrations,” said Liu. “Residents become bold and united when they have nothing to worry about.”
A Wukan resident said it took only four hours from the seaside village to Hong Kong by speedboat and 1,000 Wukan natives were now living in Hong Kong.
A resident in Longtou, just a few minutes drive from Wukan, said about 660,000 square metres of communal land had been sold by officials without villagers’ consent.
“Unlike Wukan, we’ve got neither financial nor competent people to lead the way,” said the resident.
The man in his 30s said local officials paid no more than 300 or 400 yuan per square metre to buy farmland from his fellow villagers – then sold it to property developers for 2,000 to 3,000 yuan per square metre.
“Quite a number of people in Wukan made a lot of money over the past few decades. When one gets rich, he or she will become powerful,” said the man.
He said protests could not happen without financing, as they involved huge amounts of money just to provide a single bottle of water to each demonstrator, not to mention legal fees.
He said a fellow villager had spent up to 300,000 yuan on petitioning other residents since 2013.
Liu of Xialongtan said a capable and clean leader was a vital factor in the success of mass protests. He said Wukan’s Lin Zuluan had both these characteristics, which had helped him in rallying the support of most of his fellow villagers. http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1978993/neighbours-chinese-village-protesting-over-land-grabs