China rules protest village had 'valid' complaints

Residents of a village in southern China who became a thorn in the Communist Party's side when they protested for more than a week over land grabs had "valid" complaints, state media have reported.

In a bold display of revolt against officialdom earlier this month, villagers in Guangdong province's Wukan faced off with authorities for more than a week after driving out local party officials and electing their own leaders.

They said officials had been stealing their land for years, and their anger boiled over when community leader Xue Jinbo died in police custody due to what authorities said was a heart attack but family members countered was a beating.

The stand-off ended after a senior provincial official said their complaints about land seizures were "reasonable" and agreed to release three detained protest leaders as well as Xue's body.

A new amendment to China's land law is also currently being drafted to better protect the interest of farmers in land expropriations, the official Xinhua news agency later said, citing a report from a top government panel.

"Urgent reform" of land policy is necessary, it said, as the current version of the law -- first adopted in 1986 -- has become "outdated".

The report, according to Xinhua, said the drafting of the new amendment began in April, but it is not clear when it will be completed.

Quoting provincial investigators, Xinhua reported late Friday that residents of Wukan had legitimate complaints against officials "over wrongdoing concerning land use and financial management."

The report quoted investigator Yang Junbo, also the deputy head of Guangdong's land and resources department, as saying that a company called Lufeng Fengtian Livestock Products used more land than was officially approved.

Another firm named Guangdong Yidazhou Group was in arrears with its land compensation to villagers, he was quoted as saying.

According to another investigator, Xue Chang, former secretary of the village party committee, embezzled money to buy a vehicle for personal use, the report said.

Guangdong has been hit by several bouts of violence in December, just as Chinese leaders are eager to keep a lid on social unrest as the Communist party prepares a once-in-a-decade transition of power that begins in 2012.