15 Injured in New China Land Clash

In the latest case of unrest afflicting the Chinese countryside, at least 15 people were wounded, some seriously, when a gun battle broke out in a land dispute between two villages in the southern province of Guangdong.

Residents said tension that had been brewing for years intensified in the fall, when Xiaomeichen residents decided to build a road through neighboring Dameichen. Both are in Huangpo county.

Things came to a head Friday, when Dameichen residents tried to stop the project, reportedly prompting several people from rival Xiaomeichen to pose as policemen and shoot at them. A resident who asked not to be identified said at least 400 villagers were involved. Among the 15 wounded was a Huangpo policeman shot in the foot, he added.

“It was a terrible fight,” the man said.

It was unknown how many of the wounded were from each town.

Several hundred policemen have been called in from the surrounding area to quell the violence. So far, no arrests have been made, the man said, in part because Xiaomeichen and its residents are politically linked to a retired, but still powerful, local Communist Party secretary.

Witnesses told the Hong Kong network Cable TV that injuries from shotguns and homemade bombs numbered at least 20.

China has seen growing unrest in recent years tied to corruption, illegal land seizures, a growing wealth gap and long-simmering disputes like this one that come to a head under new development pressures.

Village feuds involving local clans are part of a tradition in Guangdong dating back centuries. While communism discouraged clan identification in the 1960s and ‘70s, experts say, a more open society has allowed the tradition to return in areas.

A 2001 study of the resurgence of southern clans by Li Huaxiang, a professor with nearby Zhanjiang Normal College, reported 1,300 clan fights between 1979 and 1987, and 39 in the first eight months of 2000.

Chinese rural communities are often essentially one extended family, so a perceived slight from a rival village can inflame passions for years. Most Dameichen residents, for instance, carry the surname Liu, and residents said their bad blood with Xiaomeichen stretches back two decades.

There were 74,000 “mass incidents” in 2004 in China, up nearly 30% over 2003, according to the public security minister. In recent weeks, officials in Beijing have warned soldiers and paramilitary police to be vigilant against troublemakers and remain loyal to the Communist Party.

A year ago, two neighboring Huangpo villages came to blows over another road project. The conflict was sparked when a resident was killed in a traffic incident that the residents of the victim’s village believed was intentional. Three houses were reportedly torched, an ancestor-worship temple destroyed and 100 villagers wounded.

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Ding Li of The Times’ Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.