From time to time, an online video will surface and go viral on the Chinese internet, usually with two sides clashing: villagers who refuse to leave their house, against baton-wielding police and housing demolition crews. These videos are often violent, sometimes with villagers being beaten, even killed. A housing official recently received a lengthy sentence for corruption—providing a glimpse into why such violence happens so often in China.
Ma Weirong, the former section chief of the construction industry management division at the Hangzhou City construction bureau in Zhejiang Province, was re-sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, with crimes of embezzlement, bribery, and abuse of power, Chinese news website Zhejiang Online reported on Nov. 21.
