Lu Banglie, a Chinese provincial legislator who had helped villagers in Taishi, southern Guangdong Province, attempt to oust a local mayor involved in a land-deal corruption scandal, was dragged from a car by dozens of men, and severely beaten after attempting to enter the village Saturday. Described as one of China's most prominent Democracy activists, he is missing, and feared dead. The imagery of mass Chinese protests since Tiananmen Square in 1989 has permeated the hinterlands. The Taishi corruption case and related local protests are but one example of growing reform expectations among Chinese as economic liberalization in their nation continues to outpace social and political liberalization. BBC has more on that, and the savage attack against Lu, here.

Mr. Lu is a delegate to one of China's provincial legislatures. He had recently been involved in helping local people to try and remove the elected chief of the village of Taishi, in southern Guangdong province. The chief is accused of embezzling public funds in a deal involving the sale of a large tract of village land. Since the people of Taishi launched their campaign to remove their chief in July, the village has become a test case for local-level democracy in China.

...Earlier this month, Guo Feixiong, a lawyer who was helping villagers in the dispute, was arrested. Protests by villagers over issues such as land seizures, corruption and pollution are becoming increasingly common in China. Last year the government documented more than 70,000 demonstrations involving more than three million people, and according to the BBC Beijing correspondent, Daniel Griffiths, the authorities are worried that rising discontent might threaten their grip on power. The violence in Taishi coincided with a four-day meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee in Beijing, where one of the topics on the agenda is the social unrest fuelled by the growing gap between rich and poor.

The Chinese Communists and the BBC manage a condescending jab at the close there, intimating that all the unrest unrest is mainly fueled by the inequities of the capitalism which China has had to embrace for it's own global survival. They have it somewhat backwards, methinks. It's not so much about class divisions as modern notions of ethical governance among the great unwashed. Oh, sure, there've been the occasional mass killing campaigns by the Chinese Communists when the natives got uppity, so it's not as though the Chinese people could be described as passive. More just beaten down by circumstance.

But now, with economic liberalization in a post-Tiananmen Square political culture, Chinese have higher expectations than in recent decades. Give them land seizures, corruption and pollution, and they'll give you principled and persistent protest, and sacrifice their lives if need be. Some are rather stubborn that way, in fact. I wonder if a real "people's revolution" could be in the offing for China? Maybe I'm dreaming. But the Communists can't hold onto power indefinitely, can they? China is a very different nut for the Reds to crack, than, say, North Korea, or Cuba. There are just too many people to effectively surpress, and the cultural norm of political submission is sharply eroding.

The Guardian reports Lu was beaten by a hired mob, and seen lying unconscious afterward. Lu - whom the paper describes as "a leading Democracy activist" in China, and "one of the new breed of peasant reformers elected without the party's support" - may well be dead, according to the Guardian.

UPDATE, 10/12/05: He's alive, recovering, and vowing to press on. The Guardian has more.

TECHNORATI TAGS: CHINA, BEATING, CORRUPTION, PROTESTS

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at October 10, 2005 12:18 PM