Known for its delicate, white, and smooth sand, Silver Beach in Guangxi province is considered China’s best beach. The White Tiger villagers have lived at and made their living off the beach for generations.
Times had been good for the village. China’s booming economy brought tourists and the village bustled with businesses to serve them—motorboat services, restaurants, hotels, and so on. With their growing prosperity, the villagers built handsome new homes, fully paid for, one after another.
Most of those homes have now been demolished, or soon will be.
In 2006, the Beihai City government acquired a total of 3,900.22 acres of land from White Tiger Village as part of a project called the Phase II Mid-District Reconstruction Project in Silver Beach.
According to China’s Land Management Law, the acquisition of more than 1,050 acres of land must be approved by the State Council. The Beihai City government got around the law by obtaining approval for smaller parcels from the Guangxi Provincial government with six separate applications submitted over three consecutive days.
The former mayor, Feng Kun, signed the land acquisition agreement with Beihai City Land Reserve Center in 2006 without the knowledge of the villagers.
Village Democracy
The villagers were furious upon learning the news and in the September 2009 election, Xu Kun was elected as the new mayor. In China, elections are only allowed at the level of village mayor.
Because of Xu Kun’s election, White Tiger Village suddenly became the most famous autonomous village in China. All major decisions were settled by the villagers themselves through a general assembly.
When Xu Kun first took office, he did two things according to the assembly’s decisions.
He commissioned the Silver Beach County’s Auditing Department to audit the financial revenues and expenditures by the former village committee.
He also submitted all the former village committee’s previous accounts to the Silver Beach County government in order to understand the specific compensation and transactions involved in the land acquisition.
While waiting for the results from the Auditing Department, the County government destroyed the box of records, which caused some of the account information to be lost.
To safeguard the villagers’ interests, Xu Kun taught himself how to use a computer and published on the Internet all the illegal acts committed by the government in the process of acquiring the village’s land.
Xu Kun became known as the village mayor who uses the Internet the most, as well as the most conscientious village official in China today.
Mayor Arrested
Xu Kun’s success in publicizing the village’s plight drew the attention of local officials.
On May 14, Xu Kun was dining in a hotel with a friend. Under the pretense of checking his ID, Xu Kun was taken away by the police.
A month after the arrest, the charge of “authorities suspected of illegal business” was placed against Xu Kun. Two other village representatives, Zhang Chunqiong and Guo Sefu, were also arrested on the same charge. To date, all three are still in prison.
Xu Kun’s wife, Feng Guangmei, said that the so-called illegal business involved the construction of a public parking lot in the village. She has not heard from Xu Kun for a long time.
Feng Guangmei said that the villagers had refused to move because of the low compensation that was offered. In addition, the land acquisition was not for the public good but for commercial purposes—building mansions, golf courses, and yacht clubs.
The government has set aside a new settlement ground, and the villagers are required to buy the land from the government and then to build their own houses. The price for new land is 900 yuan (approximately US$156) per square meter, whereas the government only offered the villagers compensation of 800 yuan per square meter.
The Beihai City Procuratorate and Court treated all cases filed by the villagers contesting the land expropriation with the policy of “No filing, no judging, and no implementing.”
Subjected to various tactics of oppression and harassment, the majority of the village’s 500 families have moved since 2007. 60 families hang onto their homes in a landscape that looks like a battlefield.
‘To Die Is No Big Deal’
Those who have remained are ready to fight.
To protect their homes, villagers started to make sling shots and Molotov cocktails. Xu’s lawyer, Zheng Jianwei said that he worries the White Tiger Village will become a burning village.
“Recently, I went to the White Tiger Village and noticed people dressed in camouflage suits sitting in big vans waiting. I also noticed many villagers were making sling shots with knives outside their houses. Some told me that many villagers have already stored large amounts of gas in their homes, waiting to do battle with the demolition army.”
The pressure on those remaining continues to increase.
On Sept. 28, villager Gao Jianbo tore down a notice posted by the Yinhai Court House of Beihai City. Yinhai Court House sentenced Gao to 15 days in detention for “destroying a public notice.”
On Oct. 5, on the pretense of negotiations, local officials along with dogs, armed police, fire trucks, and medical personnel asked villagers to open their doors but were refused.
[xtypo_dropcap]T[/xtypo_dropcap]wo days later on Oct. 7, the same demolition army entered the village and surrounded the house of Feng Wenjian. Feng’s daughter said that their house was surrounded at 1 a.m. by several trucks and several dozen people.
About 5 p.m. that day, the house the Feng family had called home for ten years was leveled by 3 construction trucks.
Ms. Feng cried: “Now we don’t know where to sleep tonight. My mother Zhang Chunqiong is almost 60 years old. She went to protect our village office building from being leveled, but was beaten and arrested.”
The home of Xu Kun’s father was surrounded by hundreds of armed police. Xu Kun’s father placed many bottles filled with gas outside the building and stood ready to light a fire. Xu’s brother said that two fire trucks left just after sunrise. “Maybe they thought it’s not appropriate to be here and so they left,” he said.
61-year-old He Xianfu’s family home, which had occupied about 600 square meters, was demolished. He has placed a huge banner over the big pile of rubble, where he has been on guard ever since. The banner says: “Government demolition is illegal; return to me my home. I am homeless now; return to me my property.”
On Oct. 8, using gas and firecrackers, 57 year old Li Bingfeng fought off the demolition army.
Li recalled, “I thought then and there, to die is no big deal. If I have to, I would die together with them.”
When the demolition army arrived at her door step, she took out the firecrackers, gas and a gas stove. She said she lit the first firecracker and told the demolition troops, “This first firecracker is for the government. The second firecracker is to warn you folks not to follow the government in doing illegal deals. The third firecracker is to burn the gas and we all die together.”
Upon hearing this, the demolition troops backed off and left in 30 minutes.
Also on Oct. 8, the homes of Xu Kun and He Xianfu, a representative of the villagers, were destroyed.
On Oct. 22, Feng Guangmei said, “The local government is appointing the deputy secretary of the village Party Committee to replace Xu Kun. No one knows what will happen next. Three out of the eight houses on the list of forced demolition are still standing. In addition, there are about 60 homes left in the village.
“These last couple of days, the government demolition army has been quietly preparing the next round of battle. It will start soon. Li Bingfeng already told me that she is ready. Villagers will not back off. They are determined to fight till the end.”
