Associated Press, March 3, 2012

Chinese village goes to the polls to elect new leaders after running authorities out of town over land grabs

Chinese villagers in Wukan who staged a rebellion against local officials they accused of stealing their farmland voted for new leaders on Saturday in a much-watched poll that reformers hope will set a standard for resolving similar widespread and protracted disputes.

The Wukan protests flared in late 2011, with villagers smashing a police station and cars. After key village activists were detained in December, villagers drove out officials and barricaded themselves in for 10 days, keeping police out and holding boisterous rallies. Villagers said the local head, in power for decades, sold their farmland to developers without their consent [.....]

Similar standoffs in China often end in arrests, but in Wukan the provincial government conceded. It offered to hold the new elections, return some of the disputed farmland and release the detained activists, as well as the body of one who died in detention. [.....]