As Wukan’s protest unfolds before the world’s eyes, however, in China, what’s happening there has been blocked from media. Search engines, such as that of Sina’s Weibo, have blocked the terms “Wukan” and “Xue Jinbo” from search results.

But the censorship has not been able to completely block the information from netizens. In the past couple of days, netizens on Weibo have been using the initials of the village “WK” to circumvent censorship and circulate reporting about Wukan’s revolt reported in Taiwan and Hong Kong media. On Weibo, tens of thousands of users showed their solidarity with the Wukan villagers. “Goodnight, people of WK…” a Weibo user writes, “this is another sleepless night for you, but people all over China are sticking together with you…”

Others condemned the government for using militarized forces against villagers’ peaceful protest. “Besieging a village with heavily armed troops, what’s your motive?,” another user writes, criticizing the authorities’ deployment of militarized police force. “Those who are in power can’t pacify people, so they resorted to violence. That is completely incompetent, unintelligent, and shameless, and the end result will be doomed to be condemnable, sad, and despicable. History will remember; the monument of shame is already erected, waiting for your names to be engraved on… Think twice before it’s too late.”

Some netizens are concerned how long the relatively peaceful stand-off can last before a bloody confrontation. “Tonight, they (the authorities) want to copy 1.9.8.9.6.4. in WK,” a Weibo user writes, referring, in coded language, 1989’s Tian’anmen Square protest.

Another Weibo user is hopeful for a peaceful resolution. “In my humble personal opinion,” she/he writes, “what’s happening in WK has to be resolved peacefully no matter how difficult it is. Don’t want to see more blood. Let children walk out of this chaos; children shouldn’t share the cruelty of the adults.” She/he continues to express her/his concern for the villagers’ safety and the dangerous prospect facing them if violence breaks out: “People all over the world are supporting their protest, but who are willing to join them to fight against power? Yes, protest is resistance too. But (as outsiders) hail them for fighting against arms, theirs will be the only blood that will be shed.”

Some netizens have gone further to criticize the lack of social justice and democracy in China.”In this country that has no religious belief or a [functioning] justice system, things like this should get every citizen think carefully,”a Weibo user writes, “violence is not an option; China has had too much violence for thousands of years.”

Relating to Beijing government’s issuance of a regulation for weibo‘s (microblogging) identify verification, a Weibo user writes: “Today when I was having lunch with Haibing, and we talked about weibo‘s identity verification law. I said I don’t complain about these things nowadays any more. Haibing said, complaining about economy is fine—even if you turned the world upside down you’ll be fine—but those other things, forget it. Actually, I would be happy to live my life watching roosters fight or walking my dog rather than worrying about the heaven and the earth. But tonight I read so much about WK, and saw hundreds and thousands of villagers protest with tears in their eyes. I can’t allow myself to feel nothing. They’re all people, like you and me! They’re people who have been robbed!”

“About WK, I don’t even know what’s real and what’s rumor. This happened in a China that [claims] to devote itself to building a harmonious society? Unspeakable horror, iron-handed oppression. Respect goes to those who’re not afraid of dictatorship,” another netizen writes.

Wukan’s revolt is an escalation of the conflicts between peasants and the authorities and real estate developers over land seizure seen across China for years. In October, three young AWOL soldiers were shot dead on their way to help another soldier revenge his family whose land had been seized by the authorities by force. The public showed tremendous sympathy to the fallen soldiers. In Wukan’s case, the public clearly stand with the villagers. “Give back the land to its people,” a Weibo user writes. “Who are the masters of this country?” another protests.

A Weibo user points out that land seizure is a tough case for the government to handle: “The local authorities’ unregulated land selling is not unique [in Wukan]. If WK returns the land to the villagers, I’m afraid villagers all over China will request [the authorities] return land to them, and this is what they (the authorities) fear.”

She/he has a point. The fear of the prospect of Wukan’s revolt spreading over China led the government to block the news in the very begging of the protest. The media blackout provoked many netizens on Weibo to criticize Chinese government and the media. “It would be nice if [the government] use the effort they made to block the news somewhere it’s actually needed,” a Weibo user writes.

Another user is concerned about the government’s cover-up: “This time about wk, I don’t know if some wumao (government agents infiltrating online communities who post favorable comments about the government and the Party) will come out and ‘clarify the rumors’… damn it, those wumao, no matter how stupid they are, should have a bottom-line for morality and conscience!”

A user applauds foreign media for their coverage: “WK is getting big. Turned out it’s foreign media that have conscience…” Another criticizes Chinese who haven’t shown their support to Wukan for their apathy: “I couldn’t sleep this morning and reposted a lot of [posts] about wk. In today’s China, some people fled, but some are ready to give their last drop of blood to protect their home… But, most of us are still just onlookers…”

Now it seems that Weibo is still trying to block information under the pressure of the government. Several users mentioned that their posts containing “WK” have disappeared shortly after they posted them. “Posts about WK can’t live for over an hour; why not tell us the truth?,” a user complained.

However, the discussion of Wukan is still alive on the social media site despite the censorship. Perhaps Chinese people are more rebellious than the government thinks we are, like this one, who, before she/he went to bed last night, wrote her/his last post for the day: “Before I go to bed, I’ll post this, risking my account being deleted.” There’s a link to a blog post with photos of protesters and crying villagers and a lengthy report of Wukan’s revolt. “I also want to say,” she/he continued, “WK people, hang in there!”

The news was first released in a Weibo post by Jilin City Traffic Police Department and soon was deleted. On October 9, China Radio International’s English website posted two articles about the incident, which have been deleted as well. However, some overseas Chinese and English media outlets such as powerapple.com, a UK-based forum for Chinese living overseas, BBC and The Guardian had picked up the news before it was apparently blocked in China.

AWOL is a serious offense in military punishable by death penalty in China. So why did they do it? The reason is unclear because no official report has been issued and no medium has access to the families of the AWOL soldiers since they have been taken away by the authority. However, many have speculated. For instance, according to The Guardian, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy suspected that the soldiers were unhappy about the early discharge of two of them. However, most media and Chinese who read the news on social media now believe that the forced eviction of Yang Fan’s family by the local authority in Hongsheng Village close to Fushun City in Liaoning Province adjacent to Jilin Province triggered the soldiers’ deserting.

Many Chinese netizens expressed regret for these four soldiers. “It was turn for the soldiers to take up a gun and protect (their family who were) evicted by force, but regrettably the four of them were stopped on their way, not being able to go home and stop the barbaric eviction,” a Weibo user writes. Blog posts that repost the news from other powerapple.com have been widely circulated on Weibo. Although the main text is copied from powerapple.com, many bloggers added their own titles to comment on the incident. “The Wake of Chinese Soldiers Digs the Grave of Those Evict by Force,” on title reads.

Powerapple.com published the four soldiers’ personal profiles on a popular social networking site qzone.qq.com. The 18-year old Lin Penghan’s latest update was posted more than a year ago. This post, titled “Transient Footsteps,” a short prose about unrequited love, now has 4,454 reads and 265 comments.

Some of these visitors expressed tender sadness in their comments. “Take care on the way,” one comment reads. “Goodbye,” another reads.

Some other visitors showed regret and discontent. “Cruel youth, a confused generation… The older generations have ruined all your resources. They are guilty,” one comment reads. Another reads, “You just left like this. How regrettable. This is China. I want to know why! Everything is understood in silence! Bless your family.”

Yet some others saw the young soldiers as heroes. “Proud sons of China,” one comment reads. “What is truth[?] Why shot dead three of them on the spot and then blocked the information[?] Cruel reality. China’s proud sons,” another reads.

The sympathy for the soldiers from Chinese netizens is obvious, although usually deserting and/or defecting soldiers are despised in China’s rather militant culture cultivated by the Communist Party, especially in the early years of the People’s Republic. To many Chinese netizens, the soldiers are not the perpetrators. Rather, they are seen as victims and, perhaps more so, as a sort of tragic heroes who tried and failed to change their and others’ fate. And this sentiment has come from Chinese public’s growing anger towards forced evictions and sympathy towards the victims.

Forced evictions by local authorities have plagued many villagers and towns people across China for many years. In China, the state owns the land and sells the right to use to business and individuals. The recent years’ skyrocketing real estate value in China has encouraged local governments to sell off (the use right of) land to developers to increase revenue. Corruption is often involved in these dealings as well.

However, very often, the existing residents or farmers who farm the land do not get the compensation they are entitled to. As a result, conflicts often happen when the two sides, the authority and the residents or farmers, cannot strike a deal. In many cases, local authorities and developers resort to force to evict the former dwellers or farmers of the property.

Powerless compared to local authorities and rich developers, residents and villagers often protest against forced evictions by refusing to move, self-immolating, and some with violence.

Those who refuse to move are called “dingzihu” or “nail households” and there have been constant struggles between them and local governments or developers in both urban and rural areas.

Faced with local authorities’ injustice, some residents and villagers expressed their anger and despair with self-immolation. Countless cases of villagers setting themselves on fire to protest against forced eviction have been reported in Fenggang, Jiangxi Province, Ezhou, Hubei Province, Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, Xinhua, Jiangzu Province, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province… There have been so many such tragedies that I cannot even give a complete list of those that happened this year, after “The State-Owned Land and Housing Acquisition and Compensation Regulations” (The Regulations) issued by The Central Government came into effect in January, which stipulates that administrative or violent forced evictions are illegal.

But the law does not seem to have stopped some local officials and developers from violently evicting residents. In September, hundreds of villagers were evicted by more than 300 thugs hired by the Haozhou City in Anhui Province and became homeless. Information was also suppressed. A villager said that the thugs threatened that they would beat him up when they saw that he was taking photos.

Some of these forced evictions resulted in injuries and even deaths. This September, 57 officials received administrative penalty and 31 were charged with criminal offense in Changchun Province for their involvement in 11 forced evictions that caused injuries and deaths. One of the worst cases happened in March, when 48-year old resident Liu Shuxiang, a dingzihu, was killed from suffocation when she was buried in rubbles after 18 excavators tore a few buildings down.

Angered and having so power to resist, some villagers resort to violence. In Wuhan, a young man named Zou Bing injured two of the 30 plus hired by a District in Wuhan City who assaulted and injured his mother in the process of evicting her. One of the injured died in the hospital and earlier this month, Zou was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

Collective protests against forced evictions also have been seen more often across China. Al Jazeera English reported a villagers’ protest in a village named Liuxiazhuang in September. The scene is simply heart-wrenching. Another protest-turned-into-riot in late September also caught the attention of international media. The riot broke out in Lufeng, Guangdong Province, and lasted for four days. Netizens in China showed support for the protesters and anger towards the corrupted local authority and developers.

So, back to what happened in Jilin. Chinese public believe that the three slain young soldiers, seen by many as still “kids,” left the base to help their team leader protect his family against violence, with violence. In today’s China, it is seen as heroism more than anything else. Although Chinese public’s awakening is encouraging, the lurking thirst for violent justice is nevertheless quite worrying.

Media outside China also reported that the Chinese government has been monitoring carefully the sales of jasmine flowers in China (I’m not kidding you) (ABC, NYT) and doing other good things like canceling the international Jasmine Cultural Festival in South China this summer (The Scotsman).

Curious about Chinese netizens’ reaction to this, I went onto Sina Microblog, typed in “molihua,” the Chinese word for “jasmine flower,” in the search engine, and waited. A few seconds later, a screen appeared. On top of it were the thumbnails of a few microblog users whose names had “jasmine” in them. Below them was a line that read “According to related laws, regulations, and policies, the search results are not shown.”

I tried clicking on a few user profiles listed, the first two didn’t look like having anything to do with the jasmine movement. Then the third came up, 又见茉莉花时 (Time When I See Jasmines Again). The short intro to the profile read “To the world you may be just one person. To one person you may be the world.” The microblogs posed included snips of news in Libya, stories of corrupted officials, and social issues. And I knew.

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