Focus
As homes fall, desperation rises
By Lara Farrar and Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-05 15:09
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Demolitions lead to violent evictions
Feb 5 and 18, 2010
Cui Kezhong, president of Wende Primary School for the children of migrant workers in Chaoyang district, refused to close his school after the Cuigezhuang village committee ordered its demolition.
Following his refusal, his office was broken into twice, on Feb 5 and 18, 2010.
The glass in the office was broken, several desks and chairs were tossed outside classrooms, and all the teaching equipment, including scanners and stationery, were destroyed. Many student vaccination record cards went missing.
Dec 14, 2009
Xi Xinzhu doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire when a group of men broke into his house, forced him to the ground and dragged his mother and wife out of the family's flat.
He was transported to No. 304 hospital. Hospital officials said that 10 percent of his body was burned.
Xi didn't sign the relocation agreement offered by the Beiwu village committee because he was offered economically affordable apartments, which have many transfer restrictions.
His house, on the other hand, was a commercial property that could have been transferred freely and sold for a higher value, he said.
July 4, 2008
Wang Zaiying, 46, was beaten to death at 1:30 am, just 200 m from the site of his demolished flat in Lizhuang village, Miyun county.
Since March 2008 he had refused to move, resulting in a couple of threatening letters. The windows of his apartment were broken several times.
On April 30, his nine-room flat was demolished with a tractor shovel. Until the day he was killed, he visited the demolished site every night. His 15-year-old son was left homeless.
Three people were sentenced to prison terms of 12 years to life for the fatal beating and were ordered to pay a total 260,000 yuan to Wang's family.
Another five people involved with the destruction of the home were sentenced from 10 months to two years in prison.
