Villagers, Police Clashes More Frequent Since Launch of Hainan Free Trade Port, Residents Say
Udumbara
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Land disputes resulting in violent clashes between Hainan residents and Chinese authorities have become more frequent since the Chinese regime designated the southern island province as a Free Trade Port (FTP).
The action—which officially made Hainan a duty-free zone on Dec. 18, 2025—was an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to attract foreign investment amid the sluggish economy and wave of withdrawals of foreign companies from China. The Hainan FTP is open to the outside world but closed off by a tariff barrier from other regions within China.
The most recent violent clash between villagers and police occurred on Feb. 1 in Daya Village of Lingao County in Hainan Province.
A video of the conflict posted on a nonprofit rights website called Yesterday, which records group protests in China, shows riot police beating villagers with batons and shields and spraying them with pepper spray. Villagers responded by picking up stones and bricks, resulting in chaos and several villagers being injured and falling to the ground.
According to residents who spoke to The Epoch Times under condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal, the villagers were dissatisfied with the local government’s long-standing practices of forced demolitions, corruption, and unfair elections and staged a protest in front of the Daya Village Committee, intercepting a government vehicle to demand answers. Authorities quickly dispatched a large number of police officers, special police, and government staff to the scene, triggering a conflict.
“[CCP officials] demolished the houses without compensation, forced villagers to sign blank contracts, and then demolished their houses,” said one local villager, who used the pseudonym Li Feng.
Similar violent clashes over land disputes and forced demolition have occurred frequently in Hainan.
Local authorities also forcibly requisitioned land in Dacheng Town, Danzhou City, Hainan Province, for the Tianjiaotan Water Conservancy Project last year. In April, villagers protested what they called unreasonable compensation for the land, leading to a violent clash between police and villagers in which one villager died, reported the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times.
Land Disputes
Li said that almost all conflicts and disputes in Hainan revolve around land. “We can tolerate anything, but land is truly the bottom line. Now, collective land has been taken back by the state. Are we supposed to live in the street?” he asked.
He said that Hainan’s management is chaotic, with village chiefs colluding with others—such as outside businesses and government officials from the mainland—to arbitrarily take away villagers’ land.
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An aerial view shows the 39 buildings developed by China Evergrande Group for which authorities have issued demolition orders in Hainan Province, China, on Jan. 6, 2022. Aly Song/Reuters
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“Authorities are gradually tightening land policies. We can’t even apply for building permits for our own houses. Isn’t that considered land grabbing? Our ancestors worked so hard to reclaim the land, and now it has all gone to the state to develop and make money. We’re left to starve,” Li stated.
Since Dec. 18 last year, when the entire island of Hainan was designated a Free Trade Port, villagers have faced unemployment, increased living costs, and hardship, Li said.
“Now that it’s become a free trade port, there are many bandits [CCP officials] coming to seize farmers’ land,” Li said.
“Only when it’s become an FTP, the land becomes valuable. ... They take land from farmers and don’t allow them to build their houses. They are driving up prices, but the economy isn’t developing. Prices are high, jobs are hard to find, wages are low, rent is expensive, and life is stressful and tough.”
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Vendors sell swimming accessories on Sanya Bay beach in Sanya, Hainan province, China, on Nov. 26, 2020. Tingshu Wang/Reuters
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If the Chinese regime continues to treat people this way, Li said, the people will resent it, especially since the local population doesn’t have a strong sense of belonging to the Chinese mainland.
“If someone organizes a movement one day, the whole population will probably agree to kick the [Chinese communist] government off the island,” he said.
Gu Xiaohua contributed to this report.
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