When encroaching developers came to demolish their property, villagers in the Chinese province of Shandong fought back with what online comments are calling a “mortar.”
A 70-second video posted on Sept. 11 to Sina Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, shows men firing dozens of projectiles at a team of construction workers and their excavators. Some workers can be seen taking cover as the burning-hot rounds whizz by.
Chinese land developers, who often enjoy connections to powerful political or business contacts, are notorious for forcibly expropriating the rural poor from their property while providing little compensation. In the rapid growth-driven Chinese economic landscape, whole communities can be razed to make way for new projects.
Details of the feud and of the makeshift firearms used in the Sept. 11 video are unclear, but it’s not the first time developers have encountered armed resistance.
