Police stormed into the village of Wukan in the southern province of Guangdong and arrested leaders of ongoing demonstrations in their homes. Videos posted on social media show one person with blood on his arm and chest, and another being treated for an apparent bullet wound on his hand.
Another video shows a line of black police vans streaming into the village, a hamlet of about 13,000 people on the South China Sea near Hong Kong.
The siege was resolved only after the provincial secretary of China's ruling Communist Party agreed to allow a local election.
The winner of that election was Lin Zuluan, a former protest leader. Lin was planning to lead a new round of protests this year over more land grabs. Instead, authorities detained him and then charged him with taking bribes.
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Lin's supporters say he was wrongfully charged and have staged more than 80 straight days of rallies since he was detained. Those protests continued after his sentence was announced Thursday despite official state warnings to disperse.
The statement levies several allegations at "a small number of lawless persons," including disturbing school, preventing fishermen from working and hampering shopkeepers. It says officials tried to "educate and persuade" protest leaders, but that guidance was evidently disregarded.
"In order to safeguard the interests of the masses and restore the normal order of production and local people's lives, local police decided to take action and apprehended them," the statement said.
Chinese law requires official permission be granted for all protests, a condition that is almost never met.
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