Wukan and the Hai-lufeng Soviet: Is History repeating itself?
Wukan and the Hai-lufeng Soviet: The recent reports about the protests in the village of Wukan in Guangdong Province say that the village is continuing to resist the authorities. The police are surrounding the village and an uneasy standoff is taking place. Out of curiosity I looked up Wukan on Google Maps, and to my surprise I found it was right smack in the area of Lufeng.
Peasant Revolutions
As part of my Chinese History Degree at SOAS (London School of Oriental and African Studies) we did a course called Peasants and Revolution, a study of peasant revolutions. The course focused on the peasant rebellions throughout China’s turbulent history. Special emphasis was focused on how Mao Zedong 毛泽东 was able to galvanize the peasants and convert them into the vanguard of the Chinese Revolution.
Peng Pai 澎湃
Mao was not the first Chinese Communist to discover the potential force of the peasants to serve the Chinese Communist revolution. Another was Peng Pai 澎湃. Peng fired up the peasants in the area of Haifeng and Lufeng during the 1920’s。
In 1927 he created the first ever Soviet, the Hai-lufeng Soviet. One of Peng’s first and foremost objectives was to single out landowners, the rich and corrupt officials and brutally kill them. Something he did with amazing efficiency until the Soviet was crushed by Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalist forces.
Is history repeating itself?
What must the current Chinese leadership be thinking when again they see the area of Lufeng at the forefront of anti-official protests? Perhaps the killing in police custody of the village representative, Xue Jinbo, was an attempt to avoid another Peng Pai from arising out of the protests?
Is history repeating itself?
Click here for more info: http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/04/07/democracy-comes-to-china-via-wukan/
Thanks, an interesting perspective on Wukan. Some further details in my article here – http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/04/07/democracy-comes-to-china-via-wukan/