Why the Chinese Communist Party Is Destroying My Village
By Chen Guangcheng, July 13, 2022, WSJ

The Chinese Communist Party is again burying history to make a profit and hide its inhumane deeds. How else can one describe its plan to build a dam submerging 27 villages—including my own—without a demonstrated need for such a large-scale public-
works structure?

Some time ago, people in my hometown, Dongshigu, reported they’d heard that the government was considering building a massive reservoir nearby. The details were unclear, but surveyors soon began staking out land. No one knew what was coming or when.

This past spring, villagers along the Meng River in Shandong province received written notification from the authorities. They were informed in a two-page document that the proposed project will span 28,000 hectares, roughly 30 by 40 miles. It will
engulf more than two dozen villages along the gentle waterway that flows eastward, north of the city of Linyi, into the larger Yi River. More than 4,400 households will be moved, the notice says, equaling more than 13,000 individuals (in reality the
numbers could be much greater). Stretches of two major roadways will also be covered.

The authorities have already begun attempting to evict the inhabitants of the 27 villages through a combination of spurious documents and coercion. In so doing, they’re ignoring Chinese laws. While the notice suggests that authorities would like to
seek “feedback from stakeholders,” the reality is much different. Villagers are verbally threatened with no compensation if they don’t register their homes, land and belongings. Preposterously, the documents they’re being forced to sign claim the
villagers themselves are “demanding” the demolition of their homes.

There is no arguing with the regime’s language, because refusal can come at a real cost. Villagers are all too familiar with the Communist Party’s playbook on forced evictions: electricity and water shut-offs, harassment, road blockades and thugs
pinning people to the ground while their homes are destroyed. In some cases, bulldozers have buried people alive in their own homes.

Given the party’s penchant for gaslighting, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the officially stated rationale for the project—flood control and water security for nearby Linyi—ignores the realities on the ground. Locals understand that the
area isn’t prone to excess water. Countless generations living along the banks of the Meng who have drawn water for irrigation and drinking know how the river swells briefly after summer storms and then shrinks to a trickle in the dry winter months.
The area has recently settled into a drought, leaving villagers unable to plant peanuts, a local staple. I’ve spoken to people who are just now planting corn, knowing that it’s at least a month too late to expect a crop in the fall.

Years of sand extraction from the Meng have in many places reduced the Linyi riverbed to a series of water-filled pits between which nothing can flow. The government can easily look elsewhere for access to water. There are already large dams and major
reservoirs upstream on the far more substantial Yi River, one large enough to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for largest rubber dam.

With no justification for a plan that would cause so much damage, what, then, is behind it?

The answer is corruption. It’s at the heart of many similar projects in China. Local officials have the opportunity to skim the budget for their personal use. Bidding for contractors leads to more graft, as companies with the biggest bribes will be
guaranteed the work. It matters little what will become of the regular people affected, not to mention the land or environment.

Worth noting is that the central government is directing the plan, despite its intended local use. This corner of Shandong is especially significant to the authorities in Beijing. When my family and I were being held in brutal long-term house arrest,
people from around the world began traveling to the area to bear witness to our suffering and call for our freedom. Such spontaneous physical gatherings are a thorn in the regime’s side and require effort to eliminate. Take the case of Nobel Prize
winner Liu Xiaobo. When Mr. Liu died in custody in July 2017, the Chinese Communist Party had his remains scattered at sea, so that honoring him at a grave or memorial site wouldn’t be possible.

After I escaped from house arrest to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in 2012, the Communist Party and the U.S. negotiated an agreement. The party assured that it would conduct a full-scale investigation into my persecution, prosecute those responsible and
provide compensation. Ten years on, it is poised to bury the evidence of its crimes.

But it isn’t too late. The U.S. should still insist that the Chinese Communist Party follow through with its international agreement. In the process, these village communities—and the truth—could be saved.

Mr. Chen is a distinguished fellow at the Center for Human Rights at the Catholic University of America and author of “The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man’s Fight for Justice and Freedom in China.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-chinese-communist-party-is-destroying-my-village-corruption-meng-river-dam-shandong-province-dissent-dongshigu-11657743678

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