Creation: Historical Materialism Group of the Proletarian Liberation Struggle Association
On December 5 and 6, fishermen from Chengwu Village in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, united in fierce resistance against coast guard officers who came aboard a coast guard ship to forcibly dismantle offshore net cages. This protest marks the second time this month and the third since the start of the Self-Strengthening Movement. Over two months ago, the local government of Zhanjiang, Guangdong, banned fishermen from farming conch, forcibly dismantling their aquaculture equipment under the guise of a “clearing operation.” The fishermen spontaneously organized a rights protection movement to protest the brutal government ban. On October 15, police stormed into the village attempting to arrest a rights-protecting fisherman, but faced fierce resistance, ultimately failing and retreating in disgrace after being detained in police vehicles. However, the pro-revision government’s treacherous ambitions remain. They have long coveted the tidal flats where the people of Chengwu Village have lived for generations. Early on the morning of the 3rd of this month, the government again dispatched hundreds of armed police, equipped with shields and riot gear, surrounding the village. Despite fishermen’s resistance—dousing water and soil—they were outnumbered and weaker in strength, failing to repel the invaders, leading to forced requisitions of some beaches, injuries and hospitalization of two fishermen, and arrests of several others. Police also used fire extinguishers to spray protesting fishermen, causing several women to faint from poisoning.
By December 5 and 6, the pro-revision government, driven by greed, attempted to continue forcibly requisitioning the waters used by Chengwu fishermen for fishing, aiming to dismantle “illegal” aquaculture facilities within the sea area. The unjust forced demolition labeled the fishermen’s only livelihood as “illegal activity” without offering any compensation. Confronted with pirates in coast guard ships (Yuehaiyang Enforcement 3011, 34.2 meters long, 9 meters wide, 2.4 meters deep, while fishermen’s boats are usually only 2-3 meters long), fishermen operated multiple boats forming a blockade at sea, with bow-to-stern and stern-to-bow formations, preventing entry. Learning from previous struggles, fishermen armed themselves with high-pressure water guns and other weapons to fight back. The conflict was intense, and the coast guard, faced with resistance, dared not directly break through to forcibly carry out the demolition.
What is the reason for the pro-revision government’s deployment of police and demolition teams? It is the local government’s “Coral Reef Protection Zone Cleanup and Rectification” operation. However, as we know, in a class society, environmental protection is not supra-class; it only serves certain classes. In socialist countries, environmental protection mainly aims to help the proletariat and other working masses better transform and utilize nature, develop socialist production, and ensure their health and well-being. In the 1950s, the severely degraded Saihanba, with no trees and endless yellow sands, greatly affected the daily lives of Hebei people. In the 1960s, socialist China launched a mass movement to manage Saihanba. The environmental measures taken by the Chinese people during this movement served the development of production and the health of the entire population. The goal of socialist environmental governance is not abstract “protecting natural scenery,” but to serve the interests of the proletarian dictatorship and the people’s production and life. However, what is the purpose of today’s pro-revision government’s “Coral Reef Protection” policy? According to available information, on June 4, 2024, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a document titled “Notice from the General Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources on Strengthening Coral Reef Protection and Restoration.” The document is vague and hollow, filled with meaningless phrases like “protecting coastlines,” “global carbon cycle,” and “biodiversity.”
It is difficult to discern the true intentions of the pro-revision government from this document alone. Yet, the local government of Xuwen County in Zhanjiang has acted decisively to show what “protecting coral reefs” really entails. After the fishermen of Chengwu Village resisted the illegal dismantling of net cages on December 5 and 6, the official Xuwen County government website published a news notice titled “Xuwen Launches Coral Reef Protection Zone Cleanup and Rectification Action.” It states, “This time, two law enforcement ships, one clearing vessel, four law enforcement boats, and five third-party clearing vessels, with 530 personnel, participated in the cleanup, removing 80 illegal aquaculture and suspension facilities totaling 800 meters.” But what does 80 facilities and 800 meters mean for the fishermen’s livelihoods and blood, sweat, and tears? In a video provided by Yesterday, fishermen say, “We have no fields or land… this is how we make a living.” The pro-revision pirates, under the banner of environmental protection, are actually engaged in activities that destroy the people’s livelihoods. Isn’t this bloody fact a reflection of the pro-revision government’s baseness and shamelessness? The sole motive and purpose of capitalist production is to extract more surplus value. Capitalists are personified capital. Their soul is the soul of capital. The only driving force of capital is the increase of value—exploiting as much surplus labor as possible. (Xu He: “Introduction to Political Economy”) “In the new era of imperialist China, the nature of bureaucratic capitalists has not changed. Environmental protection serving bureaucratic monopoly bourgeoisie can only mean more frenzied plundering of surplus value and people’s wealth, not any super-class ‘protection of coastlines’ or similar.” This is the essence of bourgeois “environmental protection.” The imperialist bandits of pro-revision China wave this broken flag, stirring up a new land grab movement, turning the land and beaches that the working people have relied on for generations into “natural reserves” or industrial zones, violently demolishing and forcibly removing them, leaving no room for the Chinese people to survive. This is the ongoing reality in China today.
Moreover, the brutal acts of the Zhanjiang Xuwen local government are no longer limited to the three incidents mentioned above. On February 5, this year, the local government launched a coordinated effort across provincial, municipal, and county levels (Guangdong, Zhanjiang, Xuwen), deploying 213 law enforcement personnel, 44 law enforcement vehicles, 23 law enforcement ships, and 5 third-party vessels, removing two net enclosures, destroying nine net enclosures, over 2,100 meters of netting and ropes, and removing 470 iron piles, effectively deterring illegal aquaculture and fishing activities. And what was the result? As Chengwu villagers said: not a single penny will be paid! Over a thousand meters of nets and hundreds of facilities, pro-revision government officials act like feudal landlords or pirate sea overlords, tearing apart some superficial democratic veneer, barbarically looting the local fishermen for nearly a year (or even longer). This fully demonstrates that the contradictions between the Chinese people and the current ruling class have reached a stage of open confrontation—either the pro-revision bandits plunder China’s people or the Chinese people resist and completely defeat their looting ambitions. With the increasing revolutionary consciousness of the people, the rotten rule of the pro-revision government will not last much longer.