A resident from Wukan village in Guangdong Province said by telephone that police swept in late last night to surround sensitive government buildings and take away the village's democratically elected leader Lin Zuluan.
Local police announced on social media early today that Lin had been detained on bribery charges and urged villagers to maintain social stability and "not allow a small number of lawbreakers to incite drastic behavior."
According to the South China Morning Post, Lin had been planning protests today against illegal land grabs.
In 2011, Wukan residents with similar grievances expelled government officials and police and barricaded the village, prompting a weekslong standoff that was peacefully resolved after the Guangdong governor agreed to let the village hold a series of elections to directly elect new leaders.
Before his detention, Lin had prepared a speech for today that said the villagers of Wukan, frustrated with ongoing high-level corruption, are "prepared to sacrifice more than they did in 2011," according to the Hong Kong-based Post.
Lin's Weibo microblogging account today posted what appeared to be a 30-second video, shot in darkness, of his overnight arrest with the caption "help me, help W K.