1,000 Chinese students ‘told’ to show up at construction site as college and villagers clash over farmland development
About 1,000 Chinese fine arts students were reportedly told by college officials to gather at the scene of land dispute between college staff and local villagers, mainland media reports.
They say they were asked to go to an area of village land near their college in the city of Xinle in Hubei province – without being told why – just as residents clashed with college staff while trying to stop construction workers accessing the site on Monday, the news website Chinanews.com reported.
Four college security staff were injured during the clash but no students were hurt, the report said.
More than 50 village families are opposed to the college’s construction plans, the report said.
They claim their former farmland was rented to the college a few years ago without any clear time limit and that the college does not have the right to build on the site.
One student said in a social media post that they were sent a notice on Sunday night telling them to meet at the site on Monday morning, but were not told why.
However, the college denied it had instructed them to gather there.
It said the students turned up there by themselves after noticing the dispute, the report said.
A villager told the website that as the farmland had only been leased to the college, it could not be built on.
However, Zhen Zhongyi, dean of the college, said it had the right to use the land as it wished according to an order issued earlier this year by the Xinle City People’s Court.
