Beijing Holds Peasant-Shooter

I reported earlier that Chinese paramilitary forces had fired on villagers in Dongzhou in Guangdong Province who were protesting the central government's taking of their land for a wind generation power plant. Now, an interesting twist.

The NYTimes reports that the man commanding the troops (exactly whose troops, no one's saying) is being held.

Guangdong's provincial government issued a statement Sunday saying that the "wrong actions" of the commander, who was not identified by unit or rank, were to blame for the deaths. The statement said he had been detained by civilian authorities in the area.

There are only two options here. Either the man didn't follow protocols and is being held, or he did follow protocols and is being held. My guess is on the latter.

There were at least 70,000 uprisings in China last year, by the central government's admission. There were probably more. There must be real fear in Beijing that they are losing their peasants, a situation that would be far more difficult to control than having a few thousand college students protesting in the capital.

A broad rural revolt against the central government, which basically takes from the countryside and gives to the wealthier cities, would be enough to end a government; not necessarily communist rule, but certainly the current leadership.

Faced with the growing prospect of such a revolt, it looks like Beijing needed a scapegoat, and found one.

h/t memeorandum