A Reddit user just found a video of a Chinese farmer's homemade rocket that was built to fight back against enforced demolition.
The video was posted by @Superxiajun on Twitter. Check it out.
The caption translates to read,
"Ox, Bye! Farmers homemade rockets anti-strong demolition, scenes like war film!"
The farmer is most likely losing some or all of his land due to eminent domain.
Chinese people losing their homes due to urban growth is not a new trend. In fact, China has been seizing land since at least the 1970s, and since then, at least 40 million people have been forced out of their homes to make way for newer, more lucrative projects.
Construction for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, alone, displaced more than 1.25 million people.
Earlier in the 2000s, many farmers were protesting their land being seized by committing suicide.
Why such drastic measures?
China is a communist country, and everything is strictly controlled by their government.
For example, unlike America, which is, in many ways, plagued by an epidemic of social media, China maintains a tight grip on their internet. Many websites are blocked, including Facebook, Google, all porn, and many Western news sources.
Protesting the government is restricted, and Westerners tend to liken all Chinese protests with that of Tiananmen Square, when the Chinese government killed an unknown number of students (some believe thousands) who were protesting in the Square.
However, pride in their government is strong, and many people don't know about Tiananmen Square or don't care to learn about it as China experienced a swell of national pride and economic growth after the incident.
But like the farmer who made the rocket and the farmers who committed suicide before seeing the government take their land, not all Chinese people think the government is always right.
One man replied to the video with another video showing more protests. Warning, as the video contains violent images.
His caption reads,
"The low-level young people do not want to die for the Communist Party!!"
In comments, he clarifies that the video shows farmers resisting.
Many viewers of these videos are in awe of the farmers' audacity, and worry for his future.
phylosopher-x (Reddit)
Doomaa (Reddit)
SJisNoJustice (Reddit)
Grizzant (Reddit)
r_u_ferserious (Reddit)
THAT_LMAO_GUY (Reddit)
Others support the farmer's resistance.
"Very creative, should be promoted nationwide. Fight against the vicious Communists strong demolition of strong kill. Very creative, should be promoted nationwide. Fight against the vicious Communists strong demolition of strong kill. Very creative, should be promoted nationwide. Fight against the vicious Communists strong demolition of strong kill."
"It's amazing! Treat the wicked without weakness and compromise, come on! 💪 hope can spread all over the country, the communists are not far from the ✌ downfall"
visible-minority (Reddit)
There are many freedoms we take advantage of in the Western world.
