BEIJING — The Chinese government broke its silence Saturday on a deadly clash in southern China last week, insisting that police used deadly force only after a "few instigators" threatened them with explosives.
In the first official response since the incident late Tuesday, the state-run New China News Agency said three villagers were killed and eight wounded in the clash in the village of Dongzhou, in Guangdong province near Hong Kong.
In telephone interviews, locals said police killed as many as 20 farmers who were demanding compensation for land seized to build a wind power plant.
The official news agency, quoting authorities from the neighboring city of Shanwei, said police used tear gas to break up a mob of about 170 villagers armed with sticks, knives, steel spears and explosives in the hours before the fatal clash. The villagers' actions were "a serious violation of the law," the authorities said, promising an investigation.
Riot squads armed with machine guns and shields have ringed Dongzhou, blocking outsiders from entering, and villagers charged that authorities were mounting a cover-up. But in telephone interviews today, residents gave their version of events.
"It happened at night, so it's very hard to tell exactly how many died," said a woman who gave her last name as Liu. Like most villagers, she declined to give her full name out of fear of retribution. "But at least 10 were shot and many are still missing."
Both sides say the catalyst was a police decision to arrest local protest leaders.
A farmer named Zhang, 50, said officials detained one of the leaders about noon Tuesday. That evening, he said, police headed toward a construction site, and villagers, believing they were going to detain more people, blocked their way. Police fired tear gas and shot their guns into the air, he said.
As tension built, villagers told police they had homemade explosives and would detonate them if the officers didn't turn around. "Protesters did detonate explosives," Zhang said. "But it was only a threat, and no official or police were hurt." At that point, officers opened fire on the protesters.
Villagers, several of whom said they believed their phones were tapped, said at least eight protesters were arrested Saturday. Most were impoverished farmers with families to support.
