Zhuang Songkun wipes his failing, cataract-stricken eyes and flashes a metal-filled smile as he explains what he and his neighbours are hoping to achieve from the tense standoff with scores of armed police surrounding their village.

“We just want the central government to solve this problem by giving us a bit of land so we can fill our bellies,” Mr Zhuang, 61, says from the deck of a fishing boat he cannot take out to sea because of a police blockade of the harbour. “We just need some land to cultivate – what else do we need?”

After a village representative died in police custody and officials and police fled early last week, the villagers of Wukan in Guangdong province, southern China, have been living outside the control of the government and Communist party.