Beaten, forced off their land, cheated out of money, and even falsely imprisoned — farmers in China say they are paying a heavy price as authorities rush to deliver on ambitious pledges to ramp up national green energy output.
China has vowed the upcoming Winter Olympics 2022 will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy, and have built scores of facilities to increase capacity — but activists warn ordinary people are being exploited by “land grabs” in the process.
In a hamlet near Beijing, the Long family — who say they’ve lost more than half their agricultural land to a sprawling solar farm next door — now have so little income they are burning corn husks and plastic bags to stay warm in winter.
