Inside Wukan: the Chinese village that fought back

For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt.

The last of Wukan’s dozen party officials fled on Monday after thousands of people blocked armed police from retaking the village, standing firm against tear gas and water cannons.

Since then, the police have retreated to a roadblock, some three miles away, in order to prevent food and water from entering, and villagers from leaving. Wukan’s fishing fleet, its main source of income, has also been stopped from leaving harbour.

The plan appears to be to lay siege to Wukan and choke a rebellion which began three months ago when an angry mob, incensed at having the village’s land sold off, rampaged through the streets and overturned cars.

Although China suffers an estimated 180,000 “mass incidents” a year, it is unheard of for the Party to sound a retreat.

But on Tuesday The Daily Telegraph managed to gain access through a tight security cordon and witnessed the new reality in this coastal village.

Thousands of Wukan’s residents, incensed at the death of one of their leaders in police custody, gathered for a second day in front of a triple-roofed pagoda that serves as the village hall.

For five hours they sat on long benches, chanting, punching the air in unison and working themselves into a fury.

At the end of the day, a fifteen minute period of mourning for their fallen villager saw the crowd convulsed in sobs and wailing for revenge against the local government.

“Return the body! Return our brother! Return our farmland! Wukan has been wronged! Blood debt must be paid! Where is justice?” the crowd screamed out.

Wukan’s troubles began in September, when the villagers’ collective patience snapped at an attempt to take away their land and sell it to property developers.

“Almost all of our land has been taken away from us since the 1990s but we were relaxed about it before because we made our money from fishing,” said Yang Semao, one of the village elders. “Now, with inflation rising, we realise we should grow more food and that the land has a high value.”

Thousands of villagers stormed the local government offices, chasing out the party secretary who had governed Wukan for three decades. In response, riot police flooded the village, beating men, women and children indiscriminately, according to the villagers.

In the aftermath, the local government tried to soothe the bruised villagers, asking them to appoint 13 of their own to mediate between the two sides – a move which was praised. But after anger bubbled over again local officials hatched another plan to bring the rebellious village back under control. Last Friday, at 11.45 in the morning, four minibuses without license plates drove into Wukan and a team of men in plain clothes seized five of the village’s 13 representatives from a roadside restaurant.

A second attack came at 4am on Sunday morning, when a thousand armed police approached the entrance to the village.

“We had a team of 20 people watching out, and they saw the police searchlights. We had blocked the road with fallen trees to buy us time,” said Chen Xidong, a 23 year old. “They banged the warning drum and the entire village ran to block the police.”

After a tense two-hour standoff, during which the villagers were hit with tear gas and water cannons, the police retreated, instead setting up the ring of steel around Wukan that is in force today. The village’s only source of food, at present, are the baskets of rice, fruit and vegetables carried across the fields on the shoulder poles of friendly neighbours.

Then, on Monday, came the news that Xue Jinbo, one of the snatched representatives, had died in police custody, at the age of 43, from a heart attack. His family believe he was murdered.

“There were cuts and bruises on the corners of his mouth and on his forehead, and both his nostrils were full of blood,” said Xue Jianwan, his 21-year-old daughter. “His chest was grazed and his thumbs looked like they had been broken backwards. Both his knees were black,” she added. “They refused to release the body to us.”

Mr Xue’s death has galvanised his supporters and brought the explosive situation in the village to the brink. “We are not sleeping. A hundred men are keeping watch. We do not know what the government’s next move will be, but we know we cannot trust them ever again,” said Mr Chen. “I think they will try to prolong the situation, to sweat us out.”

From behind the roadblock, a propaganda war has broken out. Banners slung by the side of the main road to Wukan urge drivers to “Safeguard stability against anarchy – Support the government!” Nearby, someone has scrawled, simply: “Give us back our land.”

The news of Wukan’s loss has been censored inside China. But a blue screen, which interrupts television programmes every few minutes inside the village, insists that the “incidents” are the work of a seditious minority, and have now been calmed. “It is all lies,” said Ms Xue.

Her brother, meanwhile, said life had improved since the first officials were driven out three months ago. “We found we were better at administration. The old officials turned out not to have had any accounts in their office, so they must have been swindling us. And we have a nightwatch now, to keep the village safe. We have all bonded together,” said Xue Jiandi, 19.

With enough food to keep going in the short-term and a pharmacy to tend to the sick, the leaders of Wukan are confident about their situation.

But it is difficult to imagine that it will be long before the Communist Party returns, and there are still four villagers in police custody.

“I have just been to see my 25-year-old son,” Shen Shaorong, the mother of Zhang Jianding, one of the four, said as she cried on her knees. “He has been beaten to a pulp and his clothes were ripped. Please tell the government in Beijing to help us before they kill us all,”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8954315/Inside-Wukan-the-Chinese-village-that-fought-back.html

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BRUSSELS (AP) -- The president of the European Council said Friday that a new intergovernmental treaty meant to save the euro currency will include the 17 eurozone states plus as many as six other European Union countries — but not all 27 EU members.

The failure to get agreement among all the members of the European Union at a summit meeting in Brussels reflected in large part a deep split between France and Germany on the one hand and Britain on the other. France and Germany are the two largest economies in the eurozone; Britain does not use the euro as its currency.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said early Friday he would have preferred a treaty among all the members of the European Union. But that could not be achieved, he said, because the British proposed that they be exempted from certain financial regulations.

"We could not accept this" because a lack of sufficient regulation caused the current problems, Sarkozy said. The new intergovernmental accord should be ready by March, he said.

Still, German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the plan.

"I have always said, the 17 states of the eurogroup have to regain credibility," she said. "And I believe with today's decisions this can and will be achieved."

The summit meeting in Brussels was viewed as a critical step in the effort to save the euro. The currency is losing the trust of the international financial markets, who fear that some debt-laden euro countries may ultimately be unable to pay their debts.

That doubt means that the governments of countries viewed as in a precarious state must pay higher interest to borrow the money they need to carry on — and that, in turn, makes their budget deficits even worse and can be unsustainable in the long run.

EU officials believe that one way of regaining market trust is to beef up the financial governance overseeing the eurozone countries and their budgets. Any intergovernmental treaty will be an effort to ensure that national budgets are brought into balance and large debts are not run up again.

And the officials believe another way to regain the trust of investors is to have enough money on hand to guarantee that eurozone countries won't default on their debts.

Toward that end, Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, said some EU countries would provide up to euro200 billion ($268 billion) in extra resources to the International Monetary Fund, to be used to help countries in dire straits.

Sarkozy also said the EU's two bailout funds, meant to rescue countries having trouble refinancing their debts — the European Stability Mechanism, or ESM, and the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF — would be managed by the European Central Bank, though the details still need to be worked out.

The French president said work was proceeding on an "intergovernmental accord" among the 17 countries that use the euro plus as many as six others, not counting Britain, Hungary, and so-far undecided Czech Republic and Sweden.

The failure to get agreement among all 27 EU members came despite a marathon negotiating session. The 27 EU presidents and prime ministers began their talks at 7:30 Thursday evening and continued past 4:30 a.m.

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Brussels, Belgium (CNN) -- NATO and Russia remained at odds over the alliance's plans for a missile defense system in Europe after a foreign ministers meeting in Brussels Thursday.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said "differences remain" over the plans, but he rejected Russia's complaints that NATO was ignoring Moscow's concerns the missile defense system could be used against it.

"We listen and we have listened today," Rasmussen said after a meeting of NATO's 28 foreign ministers with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "We take Russian concerns seriously."

Rasmussen's tone was softer than his comments Wednesday, when he said Russia's threats to withdraw from the START treaty and deploy ballistic missiles on its southern border to counter the missile shield were reminiscent of a confrontation of a bygone era and reflect a "fundamental misunderstanding of the West's intentions."

"We do not consider Russia an enemy," he said Thursday after the meeting. "We consider Russia a partner."

Lavrov said after the talks that NATO was unwilling to compromise

"Unfortunately our partners are not yet ready for cooperation on missile defense," he said, adding the Moscow needed "clear guarantees" the missile defense system would not target its own nuclear deterrent.

"We stand ready for dialogue provided that legitimate concerns of all parties are taken into consideration," Lavrov said. "We can find a mutually beneficial solution, we still have some time but time is running out every day."

The Obama administration and its European allies have tried to ease Russia's fears over the project by insisting that the system is directed toward countering the missile threat from the Middle East from which Russia also needs protection.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attempted to make that argument again following the meeting.

"We will continue to press forward on missile defense; we'll be transparent. We have explained that our system cannot and will not threaten Russia, does not affect our strategic balance with Russia," she told reporters. "No other country will be given a veto over what threats we perceive are most salient. Ballistic missiles against the territory we are pledged to protect are not coming from Russia in our assessment but from other locations. It's not directed at Russia, not about Russia; it's Iran and others who are threatening to develop missile technology."

Since NATO approved the U.S.-designed system at last year's summit in Lisbon, Poland, Romania, Spain and Turkey have agreed to deploy parts of it.

NATO asked Russia to participate in the system but negotiations have been deadlocked over Russia's demand for a legally binding treaty guaranteeing the shield would not be used as a deterrent to Moscow's own systems.

Rasmussen said he hoped a political agreement with Moscow could be reached before a summit between NATO and Russia in Chicago next May. That is when NATO is expected to declare an interim operational capability of the system.

Last month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to withdraw from the START treaty on nuclear weapons reductions and deploy ballistic missiles in its exclave of Kaliningrad on its border with Europe if NATO moved ahead with the plans for missile defense.

Tensions increased last week when Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, suggested Moscow would close transit routes that send vital supplies to troops in Afghanistan.

More than half the supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan now arrive from Afghanistan's northern border with Russia and Central Asia. The so-called Northern Distribution Network has become even more important to the war effort in Afghanistan now that Pakistan has shut down its border crossings into Afghanistan following a U.S. air attack killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers late last month.

U.S. officials have said that Rogozin has indicated that his remarks were taken "out of context," but he has yet to clarify his remarks.

Rasmussen said such threats to close the supply routes were an "empty threat" because stabilizing Russia was "clearly in Russia's self interests."

Moscow "knows from bitter experience that instability in Afghanistan has negative repercussions in Russia as well," he said, referring to the Soviet occupation of the country in the 1990s.

Tensions remained high with Russia over comments by Hillary Clinton this week voicing "serious concerns" about recent Russia's parliamentary elections and calling for an investigation into allegations of fraud and vote-rigging. Russia's Foreign Ministry described Clinton's comments as "unacceptable" and Medvedev said Russia's political system was "none of their business."

NATO ministers also discussed Afghanistan and plans to gradually transfer security control to Afghan forces before foreign combat troops plan to withdraw by the end of 2014, as well as tensions with Pakistan over last month's attack. The United States has expressed condolences for the attack and is leading an investigation into the incident.

Rasmussen on Wednesday expressed regret for the attack and called for renewed cooperation between NATO and Pakistan in Afghanistan.

"I fully agree that at the end of the day we need a positive engagement of Pakistan if we are to ensure long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan," he said.

The NATO meeting follows Monday's conference in Bonn, Germany, where some 100 nations and international organizations pledged to keep supporting Afghanistan beyond the 2014 withdrawal.

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THE LEADERS of Germany and France today declared a federalised Europe is the only way to solve the sovereign debt crisis gripping the continent.


German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy demanded closer integration - including total central control of countries' nationalbudgets - be permanently enshrined in law in a brand new EU treaty. 

After meeting in Paris, they announced that an unprecedented bilateral agreement between the two countries will be sent to the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, on Wednesday.


It will then be discussed at an EU-wide summit on Friday, with a view to officials drafting the new treaty and putting it to all the nations of Europe. 

But although both Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy said they wanted all 27 European Union countries - including Britain - to sign up, they made clear the 17 eurozone members would simply go ahead on their own anyway. 

Mrs Merkel said: "It's a historic choice.


"We both believe that the most important thing is friendship between France and Germany.


"We had decades of terrible war and 70 years of peace - we need to understand each other and accept our differences.

"This is proof of our absolute determination that the stability of the euro is preserved. 

"We have come to a close agreement, there is close cooperation between France and Germany.


"The objective is not that either country does better than the other but that the euro emerges stronger and that there is less unemployment. 

"The future must be of convergence and co-operation. We need to be a solid union that will have its place in the world in the future."

Mr Sarkozy added: "We want to make sure that the imbalances which led to the situation in the euro zone today cannot happen again.


"Therefore we want a new treaty, to make clear to the peoples of Europe, members of Europe and members of the eurozone, that things cannot continue as they are.

"We want to have a better alignment with Europe so that all the budgets of the 17 eurozone countries will contain a constitutional idea - the national budget should be aligned towards the eurozone. 

"France and Germany stand shoulder to shoulder. We are in total agreement that eurobonds are no solution to the crisis. We will not pay for others debts without controlling them."

The two leaders have felt the heat from other heads of state to solve the crisis.

Merkel added: "We don't have time. We are conscious of the gravity of the situation and of the responsibility that rests on our shoulders."

In Britain, David Cameron has come under pressure to call a referendum on the EU if the 27 member states were to have a treaty. 

Iain Duncan Smith said yesterday that the British people should be given a say on Europe if any major change in EU rules were to take place.

But the Prime Minister stood firm, making clear that a new treaty to sort out the eurozone crisis would not necessarily trigger a referendum.

Speaking at a press conference in London, he said: "Clearly, there are negotiations going on in Europe. I will be part of those negotiations on Thursday and Friday.


"If there is a treaty at the level of 27, and if that passed powers from Britain to Brussels, there would be a referendum," said Mr Cameron.

"If it didn't pass powers from Britain to Brussels, I would still want to make sure that British interests are pursued.

"There are very important things we want to safeguard, not least the single market, not least the importance of financial services, and other issues too.

"But there may well be that there isn't a treaty at the level of 27 and that won't be agreed. If that's the case a different set of circumstances will appear."

Mr Cameron added: "While we are not in the euro and while we are not going to join the euro, what is happening on our doorstep makes a difference to us.

"We want these countries to resolve the eurozone crisis. It is having this chilling effect on our economy and the longer this crisis goes on, the worse that effect is.

"We want them to solve their problems, we are helpful and constructive. It's very important that they don't just address treaty mechanisms and they don't just address debt problems, they go to the fundamental heart of it, which is the competitiveness problems that some countries have inside the euro about being able to compete.

"If we don't start to solve those problems, the crisis will come back in different forms."


http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/288027/Germany-and-France-declare-The-time-has-come-for-a-Federal-Europe-

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South Korea has launched an internet television channel to inform its young people about North Korea and the potential consequences of reunification.

For many South Koreans, especially those born long after the 1950-53 Korean War, the issue of reunification is the last thing on their minds.

"It's not easy to get kids in high school and college interested in North Korea," says Lee Sung Shin, from the South's Unification Ministry.

"South Korean life is very competitive and young people are busy with school or searching for jobs. They don't have time to think about unification."

But the government wants young people to find the time to consider these issues.

The "unification channel" shows news bulletins, press conferences and some light entertainment

Its new online TV channel, which the media has dubbed the "unification channel", features news reports and press briefings, but also entertainment programming that targets a younger audience.

For example, there is a 20-part sitcom about a South Korean family living near the demilitarised zone (that separates North and South Korea), who adopt a young North Korean refugee. There are also pop quizzes about reunification-related issues.

Some experts on South Korea's relations with the North say they support the government's initiative.

"North Korea is increasingly seen as a distant country, an irrelevant place," says Andrei Lankov from Seoul's Gookmin University. "Pretty much nobody among the younger generation is seriously interested in unification," he says.

The problem with that, says Mr Lankov, is that the political system in the North could collapse quickly, and everyone in the South needs to understand the implications for them.

"Unification will come and not as a result of negotiations between the two governments, but as a result of a revolution in North Korea," he says. "The current generation will have to deal with the consequences of this change."

Other experts agree that the fall-out from any collapse in the North would have a serious impact on all South Koreans and that the responsibility for navigating any resulting reunification may fall to young people.

"I think if I were a South Korean teenager, it would be reasonable to expect that North Korea, as we know it today, will cease to exist in my lifetime" says Professor Steve Tsang, director of the China Policy Institute at Nottingham University in the UK.

Students at the Women's University in Seoul say they are engaged with the issue. Lindsey, 21, says the likely economic impact of reunification matters to her.

She says she doesn't know how the South Korean government could afford to help lift North Korea out of poverty. "Everyone in North Korea, almost everyone, is poor," she says, adding that South Korea has its own poor people to look after.

Andrei Lankov says Lindsey is right to focus on the financial impact. He says recent estimates by several think-tanks put the cost of reunification at around $100bn (£63bn).

Several students mention their government's proposal to create a so-called unification tax that would set aside money to help pay for integrating the two economies.

"The government's unification channel should explain how that money would be used," says 24-year-old Hwa Seung-hyun.

She is not sure she will actually watch the channel. But her classmate, 21-year-old Mirae, says she will take a look.

"I'm interested because I study history and I think reunification is most important in Korea. I think it's the duty of our generation," she says.

Mirae says she will try to persuade her friends to watch the channel - which is just what the South Korean government wants to hear.

'Very unhappy'

For older South Koreans, the picture tends to be a little different.

Many, says Prof Tsang, believe the Koreans are one people and that the division between North and South is both unnatural and temporary.

The current official effort to rally greater interest and discussion on these issues may be driven by other motives too, he says.

"China has been seen recently as throwing its weight about in the region. Among some South Koreans, there are lingering doubts as to whether the Chinese might have ambitions towards North Korea, should North Korea collapse."

Prof Tsang says he is referring in particular to China articulating in recent times a "new historical view" that a large swathe of territory in the North is more Chinese than it is Korean.

"South Koreans are very, very unhappy about that," he says. "You have some South Koreans who feel very strongly that this Chinese articulation might indicate, potentially, some Chinese ambition towards the northern part of the Korean peninsular in the future."

For its part, North Korea's ire is directed at Seoul.

Pyongyang has reacted angrily to South Korea's efforts to get more young people engaged in the issue of reunification. The North's official media has called the new online TV channel "psychological warfare" and declared its launch an "act of aggression".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15537467

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Half of City to Evacuate for Bomb Disposal

Unexploded ordnance from World War II frequently turns up in German communities, and sometimes authorities are forced to evacuate small areas to dispose of the dangerous explosives. But a large bomb that recently surfaced in the Rhine River has sparked security measures of historic proportions in the central German city of Koblenz.

Three meters (10 feet) long and weighing 1.8 tons, the aerial bomb was recently spotted after a particularly dry November lowered water levels along the busy river. Now preparations are underway for a massive evacuation set for Sunday.

Some 45,000 residents -- nearly half of the city's total population of 106,000 -- will be forced to leave the area. That includes two hospitals, seven retirement homes and the jail. To aid in the operation, the city has organized some 900 people and 350 vehicles to ferry residents to safety.

More Discoveries Expected

Authorities are building a temporary dam of some 350 sandbags around the bomb, currently covered by about 40 centimeters (16 inches) of water. A crane commissioned to build the dam was put in place on Tuesday, fire department spokesman Manfred Morschhäuser told the German news agency DAPD. The area will then be pumped free of water so the bomb can be defused.

In the meantime, the fire department has established a telephone hotline. "Several hundred callers are getting in touch each day with their questions and problems," Morschhäuser said.

Each household included in the evacuation will be notified via flier, he said. "And on Sunday we'll go ringing from house to house," he added. Emergency workers need a 1.8-kilometer (1.1-mile) radius buffer zone to ensure safety.

Further bomb discoveries along the riverbed are expected to continue due to the low water levels, authorities said.

-- kla, with wires

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,800947,00.html

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Australia ranked the least corrupt country in the G20

AUSTRALIA is the least corrupt country in the Group of 20 industrialised nations but New Zealand is top of the global list overall, in a year marked by anti-government protests in Europe and the Middle East.

Transparency International, a global organisation leading the fight against corruption, says its annual league tables show New Zealand in first position as the least corrupt country in the world.

Denmark and Finland tied at second place, coming in before Sweden at number four and Singapore at number five.

Australia remains in joint eighth position with Switzerland.

In 2010, Australia's trans-Tasman neighbour was ranked joint first with Denmark and Singapore, which now stand at second and fifth respectively.

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index scores 183 countries and territories from zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean) based on data from 17 surveys that look at factors such as enforcement of anti-corruption laws, access to information and conflicts of interest.

Two thirds of ranked countries scored less than five.

New Zealand, which is not part of the G20, scored 9.5 compared to 9.3 last year, while Australia achieved 8.8, up from 8.7.

At the other end of the scale, joint last were North Korea and Somalia, both scoring just one point.

Transparency International warned the protests seen around the world in 2011, mainly fuelled by corruption and economic instability, show citizens feel their leaders and public institutions were neither transparent nor accountable enough.

"This year we have seen corruption on protesters' banners, be they rich or poor," the organisation's chair Huguette Labelle said while releasing the report in Berlin today.

"Whether in a Europe hit by debt crisis or an Arab world starting a new political era, leaders must heed the demands for better government."

Australia's number-one trading partner China was ranked 75th in the world with a score of 3.6, while its number-two trading destination Japan was 14th with a score of 8.0.

The largest economy in the world, the United States, was 24th with a score of 7.1.

20 least corrupt countries:

1. New Zealand

2. Denmark

2. Finland

4. Sweden

5. Singapore

6. Norway

7. Netherlands

8. Australia

8. Switzerland

10. Canada

11. Luxembourg

12. Hong Kong

13. Iceland

14. Germany and Japan

16. Austria,

16. Barbados

16. United Kingdom

19. Belgium 

19. Ireland

20 most corrupt countries

1. Somalia

1.North Korea

3. Burma

3. Afghanistan

5. Sudan 

5. Turkmenistan

5. Uzbekistan

8. Haiti

8. Iraq

10. Burundi

10. Equatorial Guinea

10. Venezuela

13. Chad,

13. Libya

13. Angola

13. Democratic Republic of Congo

17. Cambodia

17. Guinea

17. Kyrgyzstan

17. Yemen

http://www.news.com.au/business/australia-least-corrupt-country-in-g20/story-e6frfm1i-1226211210544?from=igoogle+gadget+compact+news_rss

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