Cox Washington Bureau
March 22, 2006

‘Disturbing public order’ is charge against farmers demanding due compensation in relocation.

Yunyang, China — He Kechang retired to a village above the Yangtze River hoping to spend his last years with his family working their half-acre of land. But as construction started on the Three Gorges Dam about 200 miles downriver, the former ship worker found himself slowly drawn into a morass of deceit and corruption. The government sent millions of tax dollars to the town of Gaoyang to relocate 13,000 farmers and make way for the dam. But He and his family never saw their share. Instead, they saw officials spend the money on impressive new buildings for the government and police. He turned up evidence that officials artificially inflated the number of residents and amount of land in order to collect more money from the central government while denying farmers their rightful compensation. He, who is 61, felt compelled to act. He collected documents, got petitions signed and traveled several times to Beijing to lodge complaints and seek out journalists. Sometimes he went at his own expense, sometimes with donations from villagers who gave what they could afford, even as little as 25 cents each. "My son tried to tell him, if a farmer tries to seek justice from the government, the only possible outcome is failure," said his wife, Xiong Dezhen, "but he didn’t listen." For his troubles, He is sitting in jail with three other men, all in their 50s and 60s, all informally elected as village representatives and now charged with disturbing the public order.