Most locals favor tomb removal

More than half of the local residents of Zhoukou, Henan Province who participated in a telephone survey said they support a controversial tomb removal campaign which has garnered widespread criticism and anger from scholars. 

The Global Poll Center, which is affiliated with the Global Times, conducted a telephone survey of Zhoukou adults asking for their attitudes toward the tomb removal campaign, which officials say is aimed at turning burial plots into farm land.

A tomb removal campaign in Zhoukou removed more than 2 million tombs on about 2,000 hectares since March, the local government said on its official website.

The Global Poll Center survey, conducted between Thursday and Saturday, interviewed 220 urban residents and 1,139 rural residents. More than half of respondents had not finished high school.

The results show that 52.4 percent of the interviewees support the tomb removal campaign, and more rural residents than urban residents support it.

Among rural residents, 54.3 percent support the campaign while 38.2 percent oppose it. The split for urban residents was 42.7 percent in favor and 47.9 percent opposed.

Of the 712 residents who supported the campaign, 64.1 percent agreed it was important to reclaim the land.

Other reasons for supporting the campaign included encouraging economic development and the need to change local burial practices.

The survey also found that 65.3 percent of interviewees over the age of 50 support removal of tombs, while 49.6 percent of interviewees between 18 and 29 years old don't.

Meanwhile, 57.2 percent of interviewees with less than high school education support the campaign and 45.2 percent of interviewees with college and university degrees object to it.

Among the 540 interviewees opposed to the campaign, 60 percent agreed the campaign runs contrary to local custom. More than 19 percent of those opposed believed there were inequities in how the campaign was applied and more than 9 percent believe some local officials made profits from the reclaimed land.