Protest leader appointed party chief of Chinese village

Jan 16, 2012, 7:41 GMT

Beijing - An elderly man who led protests has been appointed secretary of the village branch of China's ruling Communist Party, villagers and state media said Monday.

Lin Zulian, 67, was given the post in Wukan Sunday by a party committee in Donghai township of the southern province of Guangdong.

'It was voted on by the party members,' one resident told dpa by telephone from the village, which he said had more than 130 party members.

Lin was a leaders of protests that led to clashes with police since September over property development and alleged illegal evictions.

Most villagers supported Lin's appointment, said the resident, whose name was withheld to protect him from possible reprisals.

'We believe that only Lin Zulian can help us get back our farmland,' he said.

The official Xinhua news agency said Wukan's former party secretary was sacked and placed under investigation.

A wider investigation of the complaints by villagers begun on December 20 and is still underway, the agency said.

Lin was asked to lead preparatory work for the election of a new party committee in the village, it said.

The land dispute in Wukan started after a livestock company and a property developer announced plans to build on land bought from the local government.

The villagers said they still owned the land and were disappointed by the government's failure to resolve the dispute.

The protests escalated again after the death of another protest leader, Xue Jinbo, on December 11.

The government insisted that Xue died of a heart attack but activists linked his death to that of Qian Yunhui, another village land activist who was crushed by a truck in the eastern province of Zhejiang in December 2010.