New Chief For Wukan Village/ENG

The appointment of a Chinese village protest leader to a key post is hailed by the people.

One of the protest leaders in the rebellious Guangdong village of Wukan has been appointed head of the village by China's ruling Communist Party, displacing the local businessman who ruled its affairs for more than four decades.

Lin Zuluan, who has been a Party member since 1965, was named village Party chief on Sunday, in an official endorsement of protesters' demands during last month's rebellion, in which he played a key role.

Fellow protest leader Yang Semao confirmed official media reports on Monday, adding that preparations for elections to the village government were also under way.

"The preparatory working group has already begun working on every aspect of the elections," Yang said. "I am a deputy head of the group, which is being organized by the government."

Lin replaces local businessman Xue Chang, who is currently under investigation for corruption. His appointment follows initial fears that provincial Party bosses would foist a list of approved candidates on Wukan villagers instead of endorsing leaders they had already chosen.

Yang gave no details of the official candidates' list for the elections, but confirmed the poll would be democratic. "Yes, of course, it will be a democratic election, one person, one vote," he said.

Lin's appointment was announced to thunderous applause at a Party meeting attended by more than 400 villagers on Sunday, local sources said.

Lin promised the meeting he would conduct village affairs with probity and democratic openness, with no underhand deeds or cover-ups.

He also assured the villagers that he would bring peace and stability to Wukan.

Lin, who takes office formally after the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of this month, also promised to accept the supervision of the Party and the people, and to prepare the village for forthcoming elections.

Struggle
A Wukan resident surnamed Zhang welcomed Lin's appointment, saying it was the result of a struggle on the part of the whole village.

"He has always been our leader in our defense of our rights," he said. "He is a very responsible, reliable, and trustworthy village representative."

Zhang said Lin, who was widely shown in photographs and video footage addressing a chanting crowd gathered in Wukan at the height of the standoff, had already been the target of official harassment.

"He was a wanted man, on trumped-up criminal charges, but he still wasn't afraid," he said. "He continued to stand up for ordinary people, and we aren't afraid of threats and intimidation either."

Violent protests by the Wukan villagers last month against unscrupulous land grabs and rigged elections sparked an unusual set of government concessions, including extending recognition to protest leaders.

However, villagers said they were still waiting for police to return the body of Xue Jinbo, a protester in his 40's who died in police custody at the height of the December standoff at the barricades between local people and thousands of armed police.

An official autopsy said Xue had died of a heart attack, but relatives who identified his body said it was covered in bruises from head to foot.

Xue Jinbo's daughter Xue Jianwan said the authorities were trying to force the family to "admit" he died of illness before they would release the body.

"We are not going to accept this, because we all know my father didn't die of an illness," she said in an interview on Monday. "They told us that my father was helping them with their enquiries when he suddenly died."

"They are putting all the blame on my father and getting away with criminal responsibility themselves," she said.

Promise
Last month, Xue's death in police custody and widespread popular anger over the refusal to return his body threatened to escalate the already tense situation until provincial officials intervened, promising a re-election of the village committee and the return of Xue's body.

They later concluded publicly that the Wukan villagers' complaints about their local officials were "legitimate," news which spread rapidly online and inspired a wave of land protests and industrial action as far away as the southwestern province of Sichuan.

Thousands of people had rallied in the besieged Wukan village, which lies between the cities of Lufeng and Shanwei in the eastern part of Guangdong, to mourn Xue's death and to call for a probe into graft.

The village was encircled by security forces for more than a week after residents fought off thousands of riot police using barricades and home-made weapons, with similar protests erupting in nearby villages around the same time.

The standoff in Wukan prompted widespread support from netizens, before the village and associated keywords were listed as "sensitive" and stopped showing up in search results.

The requisitioning of rural land for lucrative property deals by cash-hungry local governments sparks thousands of "mass incidents" across China every year, with officials warning that the problem could threaten the Communist Party's grip on power.

Food
According to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, rural land grabs could affect China's ability to grow enough food.

"Every year, several million hectares of land are being requisitioned," Wen said in a speech last month, published on Monday in the weekly Communist Party magazine Qiushi.

"From today onwards, the pressure to protect arable land will become very high, as industrialization and urbanization advance."

"Land contracts, land-use rights, and collective land distribution rights are the legal assets bestowed to farmers by law," Wen said in a Dec. 27 speech.

Reported by Fung Yat-yiu for RFA's Cantonese service, and by Xin Yu for the Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.