A Hong Kong businessman yesterday claimed that he was being blackmailed by a group of villagers in Guangdong, who dug up his ancestors' bones and were holding them for ransom.
Cheng Pak-heng, who rushed from Hong Kong to Jieyang county in Guangdong yesterday, said he was shocked and demanded local police intervene.
'Chinese people have a long history of ancestor-worshipping. It is a great act of disrespect to dig up someone's grave. I have never done anything bad to the villagers. How could they do this to me?' he said.
Mr Cheng, a Jieyang native who moved to Hong Kong years ago, said the villagers had destroyed five graves belonging to his family and dug up a pair of bones. The bones are now held at a local shrine. The villagers are said to have asked Mr Cheng for 300,000 yuan for them.
About two years ago, local authorities asked him to move the family graveyard in Jieyang to make way for a highway. He then bought a piece of land for 800,000 yuan at the nearby village of Aoshangcun and moved the graves there.
But a few weeks ago, the villagers called him and claimed the village head had pocketed 400,000 yuan and did not give all of the money to them. They refused to honour the deal and accused Mr Cheng of illegally moving his family graves to their farmland.