By Zhang Shuxi

Before I came to USA, all my family members are vegetable farmers. Since early 1980��s household-based land contract system, our family has got 2 MU lands, which is the only way to support my family. The vegetable income is not bad because of the geographic advantage of suburban district. Our family is not rich, but it is not a problem to clothe and feed my family.

But in spring of 2004, the local government tore up the land contract without our agreement and expropriated our land as the school land for ��Tianjin Medical University�� .The compensation money from government is not enough. We did not agree with the compensation and began to appeal to village and district government and the higher authorities for help. But we did not get any reply from the government. One government official revealed the truth to us that our village Communist Party branch chief secretary had a good relation net and we can not succeed by appear unless we can also have good relation with the higher official working in Beijing. We are only common people. How can we have relation with higher officials? At last we got RMB20, 000 per MU. Later some people organized to straggle against the land expropriation but were arrested by the policemen.

 Later on, we began to know from the construction company that land compensation money from higher government is RMB220, 000 per MU. So RMB200,000 of the land compensation money were appropriated by the local government officials . We only got RMB20, 000 as land compensation, which is not enough for us to re-settle. Same like the 1,000,000,000 farmers, we don��t have any pension and medical welfare system. The land is the only way to survive. But now our land was expropriated, how can we live in the future?

Because of the extension of the city area, the lands in our neighbor villages were expropriated, too. The unfair compensation caused many social conflicts. When farmers knew the truth that the compensation money were appropriated, embezzled and squandered by the government officials, they began to straggle against the officials. In July, August 2005, more that 100 farmers in our neighbor village -Guo Huang Village protested against the local officials because they wasted the land compensation money. One of the leaders has relations with higher official in Beijing and he went to Beijing to appeal. The village Party chief secretary found him secretly and wanted to give him RMB100, 000 to ask him to stop the appeal. The leader refused. Several days later, when the leader went to visit his mother by bicycle, he was suddenly shot down by three gun bullets from the window of a passing car. Then he was sent to hospital. I got news from my family several days ago that he became paralyzed.

It is hard to believe that communist government and officials are same as gangsters to treat farmers just for their own benefits.  I am now fortunately in USA but I cannot forget the tragedies happened in my family and the neighbor village. I began to realize that the only way to protect our right is to stand up and straggle.

I believe that this kind of tragedy will not happen after China is democratized as a multi-party country.