Barnorama All Fun In The Barn
The local government has offered him 130,000 yuan (US$19,030) for his fields but he rejected the offer. Now he has to protect his land. Yang Youde, who lives on the outskirts of bustling Wuhan city, in central Hubei province, says he has fended off two eviction attempts with his improvised weapon, which uses ammunition made from locally sold fireworks.
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I am skeptical of this story. In China, when they evict you, they evict you! Look at all the hundreds of thousands of people forced to leave their homes along the Yangtze River. Police and the local soldiers would have showed up right after his first defense.
I’m not at all skeptical. These things happen with regularity in China. Sure the government won’t stand for mass resistance, but in many cases, it’s the local governments who are pushing people off their land with out the right to do so. There have been all sorts of cases where the farmers fight back with varying success. to add to it: I found this story to back it up: http://www.nanyangpost.com/news/china/4289.html
He makes it very clear that he’s resisting the local government and calling on the central government to aid him. He also makes reference to two other farmers who burned themselves in protest earlier this year when their land was taken, but says he’s not like them. At the end of the article he says, “Our family has 6 brothers and none of them have a criminal record–we are law-abiding citizens. Somethings are too illegal, I’m not willing to do anything like that. Fireworks, I don’t think they will be able to kill anyone.”