According to a senior communist official, yes:
On Monday Zhu said the protests, which attracted worldwide media attention, resulted from local leaders' failure to address the villagers' complaints and refusal to consult them on decisions about collectively owned land.
And he warned of further unrest in China if such problems were not addressed.
"The public's awareness of democracy, equality and rights is continually getting stronger, and as a result their demands are growing," he said at the meeting.
"The task of managing the masses is becoming more and more difficult."
He won't be the first of the ruling elite to notice that the peasants are revolting.
UPDATE: Naturally, China doesn't like the idea of their public seeing people vote for those the Chinese Communist Party does not like:
China has slowly ramped up the rhetoric ahead of Taiwan's January 14 presidential and parliamentary polls, offering both economic incentives for the self-ruled island and making veiled threats that a vote for the DPP would harm vital trade ties.
Beijing will be hoping that pro-China President Ma Ying-jeou, who has signed a series of landmark agreements with Beijing since he became Taiwan's president in 2008, gets back into office and continues his policy of detente.
I imagine Peking would love to put out the story that voting for people Peking likes is the only acceptable form of "democracy." That makes voting both less appealing to people and less threatening to Peking.
UPDATE: China is certainly cracking down lately, despite the apparent retreat from Wukan. Clearly, there must be more to crack down on. Or, at least that the rulers think there is more to crack down on--which could create reasons for the public to resist Peking if it didn't already exist.
