Villagers put up banners in front of the town government building.
Villagers set up a stove and cooked in front of the town government building.
Southern Rural News reported on November 14: "If you had been there at the time, you would have found it quite amusing too." Recalling the scenes that happened over twenty days ago at Jianggu Town Government in Sihui City, Guangdong Province, Little Xian still found it comical, "The town government lost face big time."
On October 15, which was the second day that two hundred villagers from Zhuodong and Zhuoxi villages went to Jianggu Town Government for a sit-in petition, Little Xian also followed the adults from the urban area of Sihui City to the petition site. He had never seen such a chaotic scene: on one side, the villagers were vigorously shouting "Give us back our forests," while on the other side, a leader from the Sihui City Petition Bureau was earnestly persuading them, but the two sides couldn't even get on the same wavelength. What made him feel more "amusing" was that the villagers set up stoves and pots in front of the town government building, cooking and eating.
This collective action by farmers, which left a somewhat "comical" impression on the younger generation, however, had a serious purpose in the eyes of Xian Jinyuan, the team leader of Zhuoxi Village Group: to pressure the government into returning the 1830 mu mountain land of Wengang Pit.
Divergent Ownership Claims
Representing the villagers of Zhuodong and Zhuoxi villages under the Jianghe Village Committee, Xian Jinyuan believed that this action was not only serious but also legitimate. The mountain land named Wengang Pit belonged to the ancestors of the Xian surname in both villages before the founding of the People's Republic of China. After the founding, since the forest land had not been redistributed, therefore, "it still belongs to our two villages."
However, around 2006, they learned from the women who had married into Tianxin Village that Wengang Pit had been contracted out by Tianxin Village to a boss named Ouyang Wensheng, and all the trees on the mountain had already been cut down, replaced by newly planted eucalyptus trees!
In fact, as early as 2001, Ouyang Wensheng had contacted the Tianxin Village Committee, requesting to contract this piece of forest land. Regarding why they only learned about the contracting of the forest land so late, Xian Jinyuan explained: Wengang Pit is about nine kilometers away from Zhuodong and Zhuoxi villages. Moreover, due to the country's long-term policy of closing the mountains for reforestation, the villagers rarely went to check, assuming that it was still being managed on their behalf by the state.
Deng Shengde, the director of the Tianxin Village Committee, provided another version: In the 1950s, during the land reform movement, Wengang Pit was incorporated under the jurisdiction of what was then called Tianxin Township, now known as the Tianxin Village Committee. Around 1984, when Sihui implemented the national forestry "three fixed" policy, Wengang Pit forest land was incorporated under the jurisdiction of Tianxin Township and its subordinate villages.
Tianxin Village presented the stubs of the mountain ownership and forest rights certificates issued by the government at that time, which were photocopied materials obtained from the Sihui City Archives Bureau. According to these stubs, the current Tianxin Village and its subordinate village groups collectively own 987.48 mu of Wengang Pit forest land.
These stubs bear the seal of the Tianxin Township People's Government across the seams, leading the Zhuoxi villagers to believe that this certificate is invalid. "It's like carving out a piece of land on someone else's territory, claiming it as your own, then distributing it to your children and stamping it with an official seal," the Zhuoxi villagers argued. They believed that forest rights certificates should be issued by governments at or above the county level, thus, "the stubs presented by Tianxin Village are all worthless papers."
Three Years to Reach a Decision
Neither side could convince the other. On December 10, 2006, Zhuodong and Zhuoxi villages submitted an application for confirmation of mountain and forest ownership rights to the Legal Affairs Bureau of Sihui City. In March 2007, the Legal Affairs Bureau transferred the application to the Forestry Bureau of Sihui City.
The Forestry Bureau of Sihui City sought testimony from an independent third party. Lu Zhou, who served as the chairman of the Jianggu District Peasants' Association during the land reform, provided testimony stating that during the land reform, Wengang Pit was confiscated by the local government and became the collective property of Jiangping Township. In 1958, it came under the jurisdiction of the Jianggu Commune, and in 1962, the Jianggu Commune assigned Wengang Pit forest land to Tianxin Brigade, which has managed and operated it until today. Deng Jinxi, a 74-year-old elder, had herded cattle at the Wengang Pit cattle ranch in the 1960s, and her salary was paid by Tianxin.
Regarding the claim by Zhuoxi villagers that the mountain ownership and forest rights certificate stubs were invalid, Huang Gui Chang, the director of the Mountain Dispute Resolution Office of the Forestry Bureau of Sihui City, pointed out that the seal of the Sihui County (which became Sihui City in 1993) government was stamped on the cover rather than across the seams, causing confusion among the villagers.
As a result, in August 2007, the Forestry Bureau of Sihui City issued a "Survey Report on the Controversy Over the Ownership of Forest Land Around Wengang Pit Reservoir in Zhuoshan Village, Jianggu Town" (Zhuoshan is a natural village composed of Zhuodong and Zhuoxi). This report supported the claim that Wengang Pit belonged to Tianxin Village.
However, the total area of forest land recorded in the mountain ownership and forest rights certificate stubs totaled only 987 mu. As for the remaining 800 mu, the Forestry Bureau was vague about the evidence. The bureau then collected 63 private mountain certificates from Tianxin Village, but Zhuoshan villagers discovered that only 3 mu of forest land within these certificates were located within the Wengang Pit range. Further investigation revealed that originally, the Xishan Village Group under the Tianxin Village Committee only had mountain ownership and forest rights certificates for 13.67 mu of forest land, but suddenly, during the village affairs disclosure in 2006, they gained over 800 mu of forest land. Upon inquiry, it was learned that at the time, the Xishan villagers opposed allowing Mr. Ouyang's timber transport vehicles to pass through their village. After mediation by the Forestry Bureau of Sihui City, over 800 mu of forest land in Wengang Pit was assigned to Xishan. This led the Zhuoshan villagers to suspect foul play.
After gathering more evidence, Zhuodong and Zhuoxi villages resubmitted a written application for confirmation of ownership to the Legal Affairs Bureau of Sihui City in July 2008. However, it wasn't until August 12, 2009, that the Sihui municipal government issued a decision document determining that Wengang Pit belonged to Tianxin Village. In response, the Forestry Bureau explained that they spent time collecting and perfecting evidence as much as possible. However, the villagers of Zhuodong and Zhuoxi were highly dissatisfied, believing that the government was deliberately delaying the process.
The Zhuoxi villagers insisted that the mountain ownership and forest rights certificate stubs issued by Tianxin Village were self-stamped by Tianxin. Although the cover bore the seal of the Sihui County government, no date was filled in below the seal. "This might have been stamped later," speculated Xian Dongsen, a villager engaged in business outside the village.
Hundreds of Villagers Petition
The decision document issued on August 12 was delivered to Xian Jinyuan, the group leader of Zhuoxi Village, on August 18. That evening, Xian Jinyuan gathered all the villagers and read out the decision on the rice-drying field in the village. The villagers were highly emotional, especially the elderly, who even declared "to live and die with Wengang Pit." The elders proposed going to Wengang Pit to cut trees and block roads, and claimed to organize over a hundred people to appeal to the provincial government.
Xian Jinyuan remained clear-headed and suggested waiting until after the National Day holiday before taking any action, which was agreed upon by the villagers.
On the evening of October 13, an eighty-year-old man in Zhuoxi Village celebrated his birthday, and dozens of tables of food gathered all the villagers together. During the feast, the dispute over the Wengang Pit forest land was brought up again, and the emotions of the villagers surged once more. They decided to go to the town government for a sit-in petition the next morning at eight-thirty.
On the morning of October 14, over a hundred villagers from Zhuodong and Zhuoxi rushed to the Jianggu Town Government, two kilometers away. After entering the courtyard of the town government, they sat down on both sides, leaving only one passage for the town government staff to enter and exit. The villagers also hung prepared banners on both sides of the entrance of the town government building, reading: "Severely punish the real culprits of deforestation, return our eighteen hundred mu ecological forest in the Wengang Pit reservoir;" "Determined to live and die with Wengang Pit."
Xian Guanghou, a respected elder from Zhuoshan, who worked at the Zhuhai Procuratorate before retirement and was well-versed in law, called the villager representatives from Zhuhai and warned them of four points: do not destroy property, do not obstruct official duties, do not affect traffic, and do not harm people. The Legal Affairs Bureau and the Petition Bureau of Sihui City also called Xian Guanghou, asking him to return home and persuade the villagers to return to the village.
On the evening of October 14, the villagers returned to the village, unanimously agreeing that eating fast food in the town was too expensive, and it was more economical to cook themselves. Therefore, on October 15, they carried gas barrels modified into stoves, along with pots and pans, and by noon, they were cooking and stir-frying in front of the town government building. Some Zhuodong and Zhuoxi villagers working in Sihui also joined the sit-in protest, increasing the number of petitioners to over two hundred. The unique sight of setting up stoves in front of the town government attracted many passersby to watch.
In the afternoon of October 15, Director Wei of the Sihui City Petition Bureau came to dialogue with the villagers, persuading them to return to the village and promising to resolve the forest land dispute issue properly.
On the 16th and 17th, which were Friday and Saturday respectively, and on the 18th when someone in Zhuoxi Village held a banquet to celebrate their birthday, the villagers did not take any actions. On October 19, the villagers continued to head to the town government, and some Zhuoshan villagers working in Guangzhou and Foshan also joined the sit-in protest. According to Zhuoxi villagers, the number of people sitting in that day was about three hundred, which was confirmed by a Li-surnamed staff member of the Jianggu Town Government. When he tried to push his motorcycle out of the town government compound at the end of the workday, he was stopped by the villagers. Although he sympathized with the villagers' plight, he believed that the villagers' actions would obstruct official duties.
In the afternoon of October 19, Secretary Liu Biao of Jianggu Town and relevant personnel from the Sihui City Petition Bureau convened fifteen villager representatives to negotiate on the second floor of the town government building. Director Wei of the Petition Bureau once again mediated with the villagers, promising that the Legal Affairs Bureau of Zhaoqing City and the Legal Affairs Bureau of Sihui City would jointly restart the investigation into the ownership of the Wengang Pit forest land. At five o'clock in the afternoon, the villagers finally agreed to go home.
On October 23, relevant personnel from the Legal Affairs Bureau of Zhaoqing City came to Zhuoshan Village for investigation, attempting to persuade Zhuoshan and Tianxin to divide the forest land, which was firmly rejected by the Zhuoshan villagers. The Zhuoshan villagers stated that if the mountain forest was not returned, they would "take more radical actions."
■ Editor’s Postscript
Use Facts to Persuade the Villagers
Collective actions by farmers, amidst the pervasive anti-official sentiment today, are often labeled with tags like "resistance" and "courage." However, the incident of Zhuoshan villagers sitting in and petitioning at the town government remains a difficult case to draw conclusions from. On one hand, the villagers' petitions were restrained within relatively rational limits. Despite setting up stoves and cooking in front of the town government, they did not storm the government office but merely sat in silently to demonstrate, which compared to irrational acts of smashing, looting, arson, deserves affirmation; On the other hand, the reasons behind the villagers' actions are hard to justify fully. Decades have passed since the founding of the People's Republic of China, yet they still rely on the historical fact of "ancestral mountains" to assert their rights instead of seeking more favorable evidence, which is not commendable.
Without doubt, the Sihui municipal government bears certain responsibility in this incident. A seemingly simple forest land dispute dragged on for three years before a determination was made, inevitably leading the villagers to speculate and suspect the underlying interests involved, giving rise to various rumors. The lack of documentation and notification during the land reform at the founding of the nation, the loopholes left by the forestry "three determinations" policy, the fact that only over 900 mu of the 1830 mu mountain land had ownership certificates, and the forestry department's "coordination" of over 800 mu of mountain land to Xishan Village, all gave Zhuoshan villagers excuses. Now, the relevant departments should strive to achieve information transparency, disclose the original mountain ownership and forest rights certificates of Tianxin Village, and provide detailed explanations regarding the specific ownership situation of the 1830 mu mountain land, in order to eliminate the doubts of the Zhuoshan villagers. (Source: Southern Rural News)