After a Year of Resistance, Justice Won: Thousands of Yunnan Farmers Escort the Elder Whose Body Was Seized (2026.01.14)
On January 14, 2026, in Fengyan Village of Linkou Township, Zhenxiong County, southwestern China’s Yunnan Province, thousands of farmers spontaneously poured into the village’s Tianba hamlet. They were not heading to a market, nor celebrating a festival, but seeing off an elderly woman they had never met, accompanying her on her final journey. The funeral procession stretched for several kilometers; firecrackers erupted in unison, drums and music thundered, echoing through the mountain valleys. What kind of elder was she, to move the hearts of so many? The answer begins thirteen months earlier.
In the early hours of December 20, 2024, before dawn had broken, Tianba hamlet in Fengyan Village—and several surrounding hamlets—suddenly lost power. The village was plunged into darkness, and residents’ surveillance systems all failed at once. Soon after, a team led by the county Political and Legal Affairs Committee—more than two hundred people including civil servants, police, and other personnel—quietly entered the village. They had a single objective: to dig up a grave and seize a body.
The body exhumed belonged to an elderly woman who had been buried for eighteen days. She came from the poorest family in Tianba hamlet. The old house she had lived in during her lifetime had previously been forcibly demolished by village- and township-level authorities. When she passed away in the winter of 2024, officials from the village and township repeatedly visited the family, demanding that the body be transported to the county seat for cremation. But cremation meant transportation costs, labor costs, and cremation fees—expenses the destitute family simply could not afford. In despair, the family even told officials, “If it must be cremated, then you take her yourselves.” The government, however, refused to cover any costs. In the end, the family buried her according to local custom.
After the burial, police station and township officials came to the home many times, repeatedly urging the family to hand over the remains and even offering “compensation.” The family consistently refused—they could not bring themselves to do it.
Eighteen days later, the body-seizure operation was carried out. The new grave was dug up, and the elderly woman’s remains were forcibly taken away. Throughout the process, officials presented no legal documents to the family. Police restrained the elderly and children in the household and escorted the family away as if they were criminals. When villagers tried to record the scene on their phones, the devices were immediately confiscated, and several villagers were taken to the police station.
This incident could have ended, like so many others, in fear and silence. But this time, the family did not yield. They began speaking out online, reporting what had happened, and persistently filing petitions, appeals, and protests. Their persistence lasted more than a year.
Meanwhile, beginning in November 2025, villagers in Zhongtun Town—dozens of kilometers away—launched a large-scale movement against forced cremation. After more than two months and multiple mass actions, the Zhongtun town government was compelled to abolish its forced cremation policy. In early January 2026, news arrived from Linkou Township as well: the forced cremation policy had been canceled. The elderly woman’s ashes were finally returned to her family. More than a year later, she was at last laid to rest again.
When the news spread, the entire Linkou Township was shaken. Villagers understood clearly that without the Tianba family’s year-long persistence, the policy would likely have continued. In their eyes, this was no longer just an ordinary household, but the heroes of the entire township. What they reclaimed was human dignity itself. The funeral procession that stretched beyond sight, and the firecrackers that blanketed the mountains and shook the valleys, were the most solemn—and the heaviest—tribute to a year-long, unyielding struggle.
Top 10 Collective Protest Incidents in China in 2025: A Tribute to the Unsung Heroes
Bidding farewell to the stifled silence of 2024, 2025 witnessed a gradual resurgence of civil resistance in China. From farmers and workers fighting for survival, to students and parents fighting for dignity, to netizens standing up against injustice faced by others, increasingly more people chose to confront their fear and refuse silence. In this year, anger was no longer an atomized whisper. On the internet, tens of millions of “Digital Moms” relayed the call for justice for “Little Luoxi”; in Pucheng, Shaanxi, tens of thousands of citizens took to the streets for a student they never knew; on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, farmers resolutely demanded to “Dig up Xi Jinping’s ancestral grave first”; and in Jiangyou, Sichuan, protesters shouted a rare political slogan: “Give us back democracy.”
The following are the Top 10 Collective Protest Incidents in China in 2025, selected by the “Yesterday” Project:
10. Parents’ Rights Defense in Tianshui Kindergarten Poisoning Case
Time: July 1 – July 20, 2025 | Location: Maiji District, Tianshui, Gansu
This was a “man-made disaster” driven by profit and devoid of humanity. To enhance the appearance of their food to attract enrollment, the Heshipeixin Kindergarten in Maiji District, Tianshui, knowingly added toxic industrial pigments to the children’s meals over a long period, causing lead poisoning in over two hundred toddlers. Even more shocking was that the test data from the local CDC severely contradicted results from authoritative hospitals elsewhere. Parents, exhausted from traveling everywhere to seek medical help, painfully discovered that public power was attempting to cover up the truth to maintain “stability.”
On July 20, 2025, facing “bullying clauses” forced upon them by the government and the violent beating of their representatives by police, a large group of desperate parents took to the streets, blocking the city’s main arteries. Although the protest was ultimately suppressed, it was the parents’ persistence that allowed more people to glimpse the bottomless black curtain of food safety in China through this incident.
9. Changsha Delivery Riders United Demonstration Against Discrimination
Time: December 22 – December 23, 2025 | Location: Changsha, Hunan
On December 22, 2025, the Heneng Puli residential compound in Changsha issued discriminatory entry regulations and verbally abused a rider during a conflict, ultimately detonating the collective anger of the delivery workforce. Hundreds of riders quickly assembled, blocking the compound’s gates for over ten hours demanding an apology from the involved homeowner. In the early hours of the next day, fearless of the hundreds of police officers on site, the riders staged a motorcycle demonstration through the urban area for several hours. During the procession, some riders even wore yellow robes and crowns as a symbolic gesture. The ending was dramatic: riders from major delivery platforms collectively “blacklisted” the compound, leaving all residents unable to order food, effectively executing a counter-measure against class discrimination.
8. Battle Between Street Vendors and Chengguan in Kunming
Time: September 27 – September 28, 2025 | Location: Guandu District, Kunming, Yunnan
In the midst of an economic winter, for the vendors at the Kunming Haile World Night Market, their small stalls were their families’ last rice bowls. However, the local government repeatedly tormented them within a wealth-extracting loop of “Rectification—Investment invitation—Fee collection.” The vendors were not only frequently harvested for fees but also faced violent eviction by Chengguan (Urban Management).
On the night of September 27, vendors pushed to the brink erupted. Facing hundreds of fully armed Chengguan and police officers, they fought back using whatever tableware, tables, and chairs were at hand. With “pots and pans flying everywhere,” the chaotic battle lasted for a full six hours. This was not just a conflict against arbitrary fees, but a desperate struggle by the underclass to defend their right to survival against predatory urban management in the backdrop of an economic depression.
7. Thousands of Farmers in Qiongzhong Siege “Hainan Rubber Group”
Time: October 31, 2025 | Location: Qiongzhong, Hainan
Facing the bullying behavior of the state-owned Hainan Rubber Group, which forcibly claimed land ownership and barbarically cut down thousands of betel nut trees planted by villagers, the residents of Nabai Village in Qiongzhong chose not to swallow the insult.
On October 31, 2025, over a thousand villagers launched a “Down with Hainan Rubber Group” campaign, besieging the farm and smashing multiple company sedans and facilities. This action triggered resonance across the island, with young people from various regions driving in to support them. Facing such a fierce backlash, the Hainan Rubber Group finally compromised, paying 588,600 RMB in compensation and 100,000 RMB in replanting funds. This was a rare case this year where citizens achieved a substantive victory through radical resistance, brutally proving that in the face of authoritarian power, weakness is only swallowed, and only resistance offers a sliver of hope.
6. Shenzhen Yilisheng 3,000-Worker Strike Against Disguised Layoffs
Time: December 4 – December 12, 2025 | Location: Shenzhen, Guangdong
After being acquired and shifting production capacity, the well-known electronics factory Yilisheng used a “five days, eight hours ultra-low wage” schedule as a “soft knife,” causing workers’ income to plummet to less than 2,000 RMB, in an attempt to force old employees to resign voluntarily to evade N+1 severance pay. The Labor Law, originally meant to protect workers, became a “legal” weapon for purging them when combined with ultra-low base pay by the management.
3,000 workers launched an 8-day general strike in response. During this period, the workers displayed a high degree of organization. On the night of December 10, 2025, a scene rarely seen in past labor disputes occurred: facing a large number of stability-maintenance police, hundreds of workers surrounded the factory gates to apply pressure, successfully forcing the police to release their arrested companions. Although they were eventually forced to return to work under the dual strangulation of capital and the state apparatus, the resilience and unity shown by these protesters—predominantly women—revealed the astonishing power of Chinese workers erupting in desperate circumstances.
5. Farmers’ Anti-Forced Cremation Movement in Yun-Gui Plateau
Time: November – December 2025 | Location: Zhenxiong (Yunnan), Xifeng (Guizhou), Zunyi, etc.
To generate revenue through funeral reform, local governments in Yunnan and Guizhou enforced a “one-size-fits-all” cremation policy, even committing evil acts such as secretly digging up corpses for forced cremation, which thoroughly ignited the anger of local farmers. In early November 2025, thousands of farmers in Zhongtun Town, Zhenxiong County, Yunnan, broke through roadblocks manned by government personnel and defied the burial ban, sparking a prairie fire of resistance. In Xifeng, Guizhou, angry farmers shouted the slogan “Dig up Xi Jinping’s ancestral grave first,” surrounded the county magistrate, and forced officials to kneel and beg for mercy, expressing a shocking contempt for authority. In Zheng’an, Zunyi, 2,000 farmers formed a “burial protection squad” and successfully repelled the government’s “body-snatching squad,” drawing a perfect conclusion to this large-scale peasant movement spanning two provinces and three cities, causing the forced cremation policy in these areas to collapse.
4. “Digital Moms” Help Ningbo’s “Little Luoxi” Fight Medical Black Curtain
Time: November – December 2025 | Location: Across China and the Internet
To meet surgery quota KPIs, a doctor at Ningbo Women and Children’s Hospital fabricated a medical condition, pushing 5-month-old baby girl “Little Luoxi” into an unnecessary, high-risk thoracic surgery, resulting in her tragic death on the operating table with her body nearly drained of blood. Afterward, her mother, Ms. Deng, was beaten while seeking justice and was stigmatized by an internet “water army” organized by the hospital.
This tragedy triggered a phenomenal online resistance. After the autopsy report was released, tens of millions of netizens transformed into “Digital Moms,” launching a public opinion war against public power censorship and smears. They stuck slogans on their cars and handbags, letting the story of Little Luoxi spread across China; they relayed posts online, letting the “Wind of Ningbo” blow across the world. They elevated what could have been a “harmonized” (censored) medical accident to the height of national accountability, ultimately forcing officials to stop feigning deafness.
3. Thousands of Students and Parents Smash School in Xuchang No. 6 Middle School
Time: May 23 – May 25, 2025 | Location: Xuchang, Henan
On May 23, 2025, Wu Yijia, a 13-year-old girl at Xuchang No. 6 Middle School, jumped from the 16th floor, unable to endure long-term insulting corporal punishment and isolation by her homeroom teacher. Facing the loss of a vibrant life, the school and the involved teacher not only refused to take responsibility but showed extreme indifference, even blaming her original family. This arrogance thoroughly detonated public anger.
On May 25, thousands of students, parents, and citizens surrounded the school. The young students displayed astonishing capacity for action; they spray-painted the shocking phrase “Blood Debt Paid in Blood” on school walls, scattered leaflets, threw debris, and smashed windows. The authorities immediately deployed SWAT teams and used pepper spray to violently clear the scene. Although Wu Yijia’s father was forced to “calm the situation” under high official pressure, the sentence from students online—”Baby, we got justice for you”—has become the best footnote for a young generation that fears no power and would rather break than bend.
2. Student Death in Pucheng Sparks Protest of Tens of Thousands
Time: January 2 – January 6, 2025 | Location: Pucheng County, Weinan, Shaanxi
On January 2, 2025, Dang Changxin, a student at the Pucheng Vocational Education Center, tragically fell to his death. The school quickly labeled it a “fall from height” (suicide/accident), confiscated phones, and put the family under house arrest, triggering strong public dissatisfaction. On the night of January 5, the conflict completely intensified after police beat and forcibly arrested the deceased’s uncle, escalating the event into a massive demonstration. On the 6th, tens of thousands of angry citizens took to the streets, breaking through the gates into the campus and smashing some school facilities. During the event, protesters bravely confronted large numbers of stability-maintenance police, engaging in fierce clashes, with several students suffering frantic beatings by police. This was the largest scale protest of 2025, raising the curtain on the year’s civil resistance.
1. Thousands in Jiangyou Demonstrate Against Bullying
Time: July 22 – August 4, 2025 | Location: Jiangyou, Sichuan
This was originally a vile case of bullying against a minor where three perpetrators used cruel methods, yet the police classified it as “minor injury” and treated it lightly, quickly sparking strong social resentment. On August 4, 2025, thousands of citizens took to the streets to seek justice for the victimized girl, only to face two rounds of violent suppression by large numbers of police. Facing the police, the protesting crowd did not retreat; instead, they shouted the slogan “Return our Democracy.” It marked that the public’s demands had risen from dissatisfaction with a single judicial case to reflection on and challenge to the entire political system, making it a landmark moment in China’s collective resistance in 2025.
Tribute to the Unsung Heroes
They are not born warriors; they are just ordinary people. But when they stood up for themselves and others, they demonstrated astonishing courage. The names of the vast majority of them will never be known; many are paying a painful price for this, perhaps currently enduring long imprisonment and loneliness. But it is these nameless people who, with their own freedom and blood and tears, smashed a crack in the Iron Curtain, letting in a faint but real light.
“Guizhou’s Anti-Forced Cremation Movement Escalates: Township Head Captured After Trying to Seize a Body, Forced to Wear Mourning Cloth and Kneel (2025.11.28)”
On Friday, in Xifeng County of Guiyang, Guizhou, the month-long anti-forced cremation movement once again erupted into violent confrontation. Three government officials — including the township head — were seized on the spot by enraged villagers after attempting to forcibly take a deceased person’s body and assaulting family members. To avoid being beaten, the three were ultimately made to wear white mourning cloths and kneel before the coffin.
According to villagers, on the morning of November 28, in Shanshuping, Lianhe Village of Xishan Town, family members and villagers were carrying a coffin to the burial site when they were blocked by several government officials and funeral-home workers. The officials demanded that the family hand over the body and transport it to the funeral home for cremation. Villagers, however, said the family possessed legal approval for a traditional burial and had violated no regulations.
A physical clash broke out during the dispute, injuring one family member. Furious, villagers detained several government personnel — including the township head and the Party branch secretary — and smashed the windows of their vehicle. The incident quickly spread through the community, and villagers from surrounding areas rapidly gathered, swelling the crowd to several hundred people.
Videos taken by villagers show three men — including the township head — being brought before the coffin. They were forced to kneel as “mourning sons,” and white mourning cloths were tied to their heads according to local customs. Ironically, despite their usual authority, the officials complied obediently amid villagers’ scolding and ridicule. Other officials, however, managed to flee during the chaos. Ultimately, the detained officials were allowed to leave only after promising not to block the villagers again. All accompanying vehicles remained in villagers’ custody.
According to locals at the scene, on the morning of the 29th, after the government promised to cover the injured person’s medical expenses, the deceased was buried. Video from that afternoon shows villagers pushing one of the seized Hongqi sedans off the roadside.
Since early this month, farmers in Xifeng, Guizhou, and Zhenxiong, Yunnan, have repeatedly launched large-scale protests against mandatory cremation policies imposed by local governments. Multiple clashes have occurred between villagers and authorities. In Xifeng, even a deputy county head was once surrounded by villagers. In Mushan Village of Shidong Town, thousands of villagers have been taking turns guarding the cemetery for over twenty days to prevent officials from “stealing bodies,” and the watch continues.
