Wukan revolt a nudge to Xi Jinping to tackle graft
Communist Party's new leaders must tackle the issue of growing unrest at the grass-roots level
A year ago, the villagers of Wukan in Guangdong province forced their corrupt local leader to flee in a rebellion that shook the Communist Party and which serves as a warning to the country's incoming leaders.
At a congress starting on Thursday, the party will anoint a new chief for the next 10 years, whose regime will have to address growing anger over graft and challenges from a vocal band of dissidents and rights activists.
In the Wukan revolt, villagers defied the usually iron-fisted police and forced their long-standing party chief to flee after angry demonstrations denouncing shady land deals during his decades-long tenure. The crisis was defused in December when provincial authorities in Guangdong stepped in, agreed to untangle the complex web of land transfers to private developers, sacked the party chief and allowed villagers to hold elections.
The newly elected deputy head of the village has a message for Xi Jinping, the 59-year-old vice-president who is widely expected to be promoted to Communist Party general secretary this week and then state president next year.
"If they don't wipe out and punish corruption, then things are only going to get worse," Yang Semao said in Wukan, a small fishing and farming village of about 12,000 people.
"If they don't crack down on graft, then you are only going to encourage more people to be corrupt [and] the new government leaders will become corrupt," he said.