Together with neighboring Haifeng and the now separated Luhe county now carved out from Lufeng, it formed the short-lived Hailufeng Soviet in 1927.

Jieshi saw serious inter-village violence over road use in October 2009 and March 2010[4] and, in September 2011, a series of protests or riots occurred in Wukan Village over allegations of Communist Party members unfairly selling farmers' land for development.

[citation needed] The city's executive, legislature and judiciary are located in the Donghai Subdistrict (东海街道), together with the CPC subbranch and PSB suboffice.

More specifically, a considerable percentage of the population belong to the Minnan sub group; the rest are Teochews, Hakka and Ming Dynasty Jianghuai military speakers.

Therefore, dialects of both Min Nan, Teochew and Hakka are spoken, in addition to Mandarin, which is used in official and public life.