China: Dispossessed farmers beaten · Global Voices
John Kennedy

A self-shot video posted anonymously yesterday to 56.com, China's largest video sharing website, is titled:
政府强制整地并殴打群众
群众呼声：开发商强行征地，政府支持，法律何在，天理何在？？
A bare breast with signs of assault is shown at the end of the video.
The beating seems to have taken place in Zhangsheliangcai Village, Shangdunbo Township, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province and against the residents of Village Group 2. A semi-thorough Google search brings up no other accounts of the attack, but a little more Googling brings up an old statement on the local Fuzhou government website which writes that the numbers of evicted Shangdunbo Township farmers in 2001 going to petition first to the provincial capital and from there to Beijing were so high that in 2002 this small city district became one of the ‘top ten key management areas in the province’, that efforts were made to resolve “the conflict” and that from that point on there were no more petitions coming out of Shangdunbo Township.
Coincidentally, 2002 is when whoever posted the video to 56.com claims that their protests no longer had any effect. The government statement, which appears to have run at the time in the Fuzhou Daily newspaper, is dated 2003. A little more Googling turns up another (and there are more) old document also from the Fuzhou City Shangdunbo Township government, this time dated 2004, which calls for interested investors, given, it writes, the government's inability to borrow or raise sufficient funds at the time. A contact name and number is provided there.
Here's the remainder of the text accompanying the video:
简  介： 群众呼声：开发商强行征地，政府支持，法律何在，天理何在？？
江西省抚州市临川区上顿渡镇章舍梁曹村第二村民小组。本组地处城郊，共有人口240余人；良田130亩。在2000年临川区行政大楼新建向本村征地80余亩，只付10%征地款，本次征地合同本是从2000年至2002年间有效，然而已经超期5年，合同已无效。其余征地款至今未付，导致本村良田断切水源，无法耕种，全面荒芜、损失惨重，在2007年，区政府又向本村征良田6亩建区间路，每亩征地价格10000元。再次造成本组良田荒芜，无法耕种。遭到本组社员强烈反对。接着，区政府在今年7月20日，早上8点半，带有150余人，在未得到本组法人代表签字的情况下，强行开工。本组找其理论，他们不但不听，抛之脑后，反而出言伤人，殴打百姓。其中有多名百姓受伤、损失惨重，民愤极大。现本组无一寸土地可耕作。造成本组240人生存困难。为了伸张正义，讨回公道，特此呼应各界人士给于大力支持我组民生。望相关政府部门履行职能！
A copy of this video has been saved offline in case it should ever be removed from 56.com.