A villager in northern China attempting to resist a forced government relocation by remaining on his land was brutally crushed to death by a road flattening truck on the orders of a Chinese government official.
The story, which was censored in China’s state controlled media, has caused outrage amongst users of Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, given it’s horrifying similarity to what happened to student protesters who were crushed to death by tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
The victim, He Zhi Hua, refused to accept a paltry payment from the government which has forcefully evicted Changsha Village locals in order to re-appropriate their land for commercial use.
When Hua began a protest by lying down on the spot through which construction vehicles had to pass, the local Vice Mayor ordered workers for the state-owned company to murder Hua by driving over his body with a huge road-flattening truck.
Shocking images show Hua’s pulverized brains and his mangled body in the aftermath of the state-sponsored execution.
Fearing unrest if the story got out to a wider audience, the government sent in 200 men to keep angry locals at bay and hide the remains of the body. The man’s family was offered a sum of money in order to keep quiet about the incident.
China is routinely rocked by riots staged by residents furious at the arbitrary theft of their land by the state, which under the Communist system claims that the government owns all land and that private property rights are non-existent. However, the state-owned media ensures that news of the protests does not reach a national audience.
In another similar case in Pan Jin City, when villager Wang Shi Jie tried to prevent workers hired by local government officials destroying his crops and confiscating his land before harvest, he was shot dead. When Jie’s father attempted to rush to his son’s aid, he was shot in the leg twice.
After the incident, hundreds of police officers were sent to dispose of the body and beat up villagers who complained about the man’s murder. The dispute started after it emerged that the agricultural land was being sold by the government to developers without the villagers having been notified.
Hua’s and Jie’s brave efforts in standing up to the savage Communist Party officials also brings to mind the courageous actions of Wang Weilin – otherwise known as ‘Tank Man’ or ‘The Unknown Rebel’. Weilin blocked the path of a column of Chinese tanks the morning after the Tiananmen Square massacre – footage that has become an iconic representation of the individual standing up against an oppressive state.
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