China villagers say government steps won't defuse outrage

BEIJING Dec 15 (Reuters) - Angry villagers in southern China on Thursday threatened to defy authorities and continue protests over a land controversy in the latest display of simmering rural discontent that is eroding the ruling Communist Party's grip at the grassroots level.

The threat comes despite moves by the authorities to halt a land project at the centre of the unrest and detain local officials involved.

There have been days of protests, which photographs show attracted hundreds of people, in Wukan Village in Guangdong over the issue.

"The whole village is distraught and enraged. We want the central government to come in and restore justice," said one resident.

Two residents, speaking on condition of anonymity, said villagers were preparing another rally over last weekend's death in custody of Xue Jinbo, 42, who had been detained on suspicion of helping organise protests there against land seizures.

In China, most rural land is held in name by village collectives, but in reality officials can mandate its seizure for development in return for compensation -- which residents often complain is inadequate and does not reflect the profits reaped.

The government of Shanwei, a district including Wukan, said on Wednesday a "handful" of Communist Party members and officials accused of misdeeds over the disputed land development were detained and that the main land development project had been suspended, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

In a bid to allay suspicions that other villagers detained over protests in September had been abused, the local government put online footage of four suspects being visited by relatives and reassuring them of their wellbeing. (www.shanwei.gov.cn/163661.html)

FURY

But for the two residents it was not enough to defuse fury over the death of Xue, whom villagers believe was the victim of police brutality -- a charge the government denies, citing an autopsy that found he died of heart failure.

"The villagers are getting ready to gather again and shout slogans and demand punishment about Xue Jinbo," said one.

Attempts to speak to other villagers were unsuccessful. Phone calls did not go through, or were unanswered. Wukan has been surrounded by police and anti-riot units.

China's leaders, determined to maintain one-party control, worry that such outbursts might turn into broader and more persistent challenges to their power.

But they usually stay local and Beijing's grip remains strong, said Kenneth Lieberthal, an expert on Chinese politics.

"Is there a risk of disruption? Yes, absolutely. Is this a place just waiting to explode? No," said Lieberthal, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C. think tank.

"The chances of long-term, systemic instability are very, very small. The chances of some major disruption -- like 1989, but on a much larger scale -- are considerably greater, but still the odds are they can avoid it," he said.

Wukan, with its clannish unity and big stake in rising land values, is however an example of the kind of slow-burning discontent that is corroding party power at the grassroots.

Residents say hundreds of hectares of land was acquired unfairly by corrupt officials in collusion with developers. Anger in the village boiled over this year after repeated appeals to higher officials.

Although China's Communist Party has ruled over decades of economic growth that have protected it from challenges to its power, the country is confronted by thousands of smaller scale protests and riots every year.

One expert on unrest, Sun Liping of Tsinghua University in Beijing, estimated there could have been more than 180,000 "mass incidents" in 2010. But most estimates put recent numbers at about half that.

Earlier this year, Chen Xiwen, an official who helps steer rural policy, said some 40 percent of petitions by villagers were about land grievances triggered by urban and industrial expansion and complaints of inadequate compensation. (Addition reporting by Paul Eckert in Washington D.C., Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)