Working the system

WHEN township officials need to get into the locked government office of Shibaihu Village, they know to come to the home of Li Peng, sidestep his goats and dogs, and ask him (or his elderly mother) for the key. Mr Li (pictured) is not an official nor a Communist Party member. He is an activist, and a rather effective one.

Mr Li and his family have been on the wrong side of officials in this windswept northern village (population 1,200) for half a century, including disputes over land and public finances. Their struggles demonstrate how power operates at the lowest rung of politics: the villages where half the country resides, and where a few officials can hold capricious sway over fellow villagers they’ve known all their lives, and to whom they may even be related. Researchers say there are tens of thousands of rural protests a year, often coming to naught.