Rebel Chinese Village Wins Concessions

They fought the law and, for now, it looks like they won. Villagers in southern China who rebelled against the Communist Party over a land grab and the death of a village negotiator in police custody have had some of their demands met, AP reports. Authorities have agreed to release four detained villagers from Wukan and return confiscated land to farmers.

The Communist Party's deputy chief in Guangdong province has agreed to meet with protest leaders, and, in return, villagers have agreed to postpone a planned march to government offices. Police officers had surrounded the Guangdong village of 20,000 people during the two-week standoff, but roadblocks have now been lifted. Thousands of protests against land grabs occur every year in China, but the one in Wukan attracted an unusual amount of attention both in China and abroad, the BBC notes. (More Wukan stories.)