Villagers demonstrate against drive for alternative funeral practices instead of burial to preserve land resources
Protests have erupted in China’s southern Guizhou province, the latest in a string of rural demonstrations that have seen incidents of unrest increase by 70% compared with last year.
The protests in Shidong town started over the weekend in response to a directive from local authorities that people should be cremated rather than buried after their death.
Guizhou is a poor, rural province away from the urban hubs of Shenzhen and Shanghai.
In unverified footage from the protests shared on X by the protest-tracking account Yesterday Big Cat, a villager can be heard shouting: “If the Communist party is digging up ancestor’s graves, go dig up Xi Jinping’s ancestral tombs first”.
