Visit to Chinese Anytown Shows a Dark Side of Progress - New York Times

Visit to Chinese Anytown Shows a Dark Side of Progress - New York Times:

"In a series of interviews on Tuesday, people here made it clear that there was a broad awareness of the events in Dongzhou and of the discontent simmering in much of rural China. But they are fatalistic about their power to win redress for their grievances against the government.

'We live in this society and we just have to accept this reality,' said a villager named Shen, who like several others who agreed to speak, gave only his family name, for fear of retribution from the authorities. 'We have no land left. Our land has already been taken away with a compensation of only 700 yuan per person every year.' That amount is the equivalent of about $90.

The strands that come together in Panlong are so typical of rural protests as to be very nearly generic.

There are small people dispossessed of their land to make way for industries or development projects.

There are fruitless efforts to seek help, from city hall to the provincial administration and all the way to the capital. There is environmental destruction on a huge scale and the loss of long-held livelihoods.

When a spark ignites the people's discontent, there are police state tactics to suppress the protests and enforce a silence over the details. Ultimately there are brass knuckles, jail and, lately, death for those who refuse to take the hint and desist."