Hong Kong ( CNN ) -- China 's ruling Communist Party has expelled two former top officials from a southern Chinese village where local residents rose up last year to protest corruption and abuses of land rights . Xue Chang , the former party chief of Wukan , and Chen Shunyi , the former head of the village committee , are facing charges of corruption and election-rigging , the state-run news agency Xinhua said in a report late Monday . Other local officials were also punished , it said . The provincial authorities have also demanded that Xue and Chen return `` illegal gains '' worth tens of thousands of dollars , Xinhua reported , citing Zeng Qingrong , deputy head of the supervision department of Guangdong Province . But some villagers said the punishment did not go far enough and urged the authorities to step up their investigations . During the last four months of 2011 , thousands of residents took to the streets of Wukan , protesting the seizure of their farmland by officials , expelling local Communist Party leaders and clashing with anti-riot police who surrounded the village . The unrest drew the attention of the international news media , making it a focal point for grassroots discontent in China . Senior provincial officials intervened to negotiate a deal with the villagers . That agreement allowed the residents to hold elections to choose local representatives earlier this year , and protest leaders were elected to key posts . The provincial authorities also began investigating the former village officials and the land seizures . After three months , the investigators found that former officials were `` involved in illegal transfers of land use rights , embezzling collective properties , accepting bribes and rigging village elections , '' according to Zeng , the Guangdong official . As well as Xue and Chen , 18 other village , township and municipal officials were also `` punished , '' Xinhua reported . Two of those officials have been passed on to judicial authorities `` for suspected law infringements , '' and a total of 1.06 million renminbi ( $ 168,000 ) has been confiscated , the report said . But the announcement failed to satisfy Xue Jianwan , a villager whose father died after being detained by the authorities during the protests last year . `` The official report is not convincing , '' she said by telephone . `` None of us villagers would believe that a party chief would only take so little in so many years in his position . '' The authorities have ordered Xue Chang , the former party chief , to return 189,200 renminbi in `` illegal gains , '' and Chen , the former village committee head , to return 86,000 renminbi . Xue Jianwan said the villagers ' main concern was not the punishment of the officials , but reclaiming what had been taken from them . `` We still want to know whether we can have our land back , '' she said . The investigation is continuing , the Xinhua report said , adding that Xue Chang and Chen `` may also be handed over to the judicial authorities . '' Zhang Jianxin , one of the leading organizers of the protests in the village , said that the authorities needed to do more . `` We feel the government is downplaying the problems here , '' he said . `` They were also slow and ineffective . '' He agreed with Xue Jianwan that Xue Chang 's current punishment was too lenient . `` Meanwhile , '' he said , `` we 'll keep fighting for our rights over the land . '' CNN 's Shao Tian contributed to this report .
Villagers say the punishments are too lenient and the authorites should do more . The provincial government is investigating former officials in Wukan over corruption . Local residents drove out village officials during protests last year . Several ex-officials have been `` punished '' by the the authorities .