The Wukan protests, also known as the siege of Wukan, was an anti-corruption protest that began in September 2011, and escalated in December 2011 with the expulsion of officials by villagers, the siege of the town by police, and subsequent détente in the village of Wukan, in the east of Guangdong province. The villagers rose up again in June 2016, but were again suppressed. The most recent rounds of clashes were in September 2016, when the former village leader Lin Zulian was sentenced to jail. The clashes were suppressed.

Shanwei, or Swabue, or also commonly known as Hailufeng is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. It borders Jieyang to the east, Meizhou and Heyuan to the north, Huizhou to the west, and looks out to the South China Sea to the south. It lies approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) east of Shenzhen and the locals speak the Haifeng dialect.