Reporters gathering in Beijing for the start of the Olympics in three weeks time have focused attention on a house that has been standing alone in the middle of a flower bed. Its owners have refused to move on. Last night it seems they were forcefully evicted. This morning the house is a pile of rubble:
Forced evictions before China's Olympics is the BBC's footage on that story and a similar one out of Beijing earlier this year.
Before I say anything else, I do not seek to downplay this story. Nothing justifies violence. But it is going to focus yet another bout of outrage at China, so I do want to make some comment and put it in context. [Read on on the extension of this page.]
The development of huge areas of inner city is always a mark of Olympics related development. It is indeed a part of the selling power of a city putting in an Olympic bid that it will regenerate the city. Land that needs regenerating is by its very nature run down and the home of the poor, sometimes housed there because no one else wants them as neighbours, sometimes squatting, sometimes just left behind. In June 2007 the Guardian ran a comment: London is getting into the Olympic spirit - by kicking out the Gypsies . I looked at how "Evictions of the poor, along with mentally ill people and beggars, are one of the games' best-established traditions". The report was later quoted in a website advising squatters on their rights. It goes on:
Far more damning is a study released last week by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions. In every city it examined, the Olympic games - accidentally or deliberately - have become a catalyst for mass evictions and impoverishment. Since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, more than 2 million people have been driven from their homes to make way for the Olympics. The games have become a licence for land grabs. ....
And before we Brits get too self- righteous:
... London is about to establish its credentials as a true Olympic city by evicting Gypsies and Travellers from Clays Lane in Newham and Waterden Crescent in Hackney: 430 people will be thrown out of the Clays Lane housing co-op and a 100-year-old allotment will be destroyed to make way for a concrete path that will be used for four weeks. Nine thousand new homes will be built for the games, but far more will be lost to the poor through booming prices, which are rising much faster around the Olympic site than elsewhere in London. The buy-to-let vultures have already landed.....
[There is more on the London situation here: Clays lane estate.]
When city governments want to develop an area they always face resistance. They woo people to move on; they seek to buy properties at the going rate. It is also a fact that the going rate is less than would buy them a home elsewhere - by the very nature of the area, and by the fact that the value drops as soon as it is earmarked for development. When people resist the lure, governments resort to compulsory purchase. And when that fails eviction orders are made, and demolition dates fixed. And to enforce the order and ensure progress the police are brought in. The same happens where a project threatens the environment, threatens noise or challenges the NIMBY mentality. Crowds gather, pitch camp and resist eviction.
Resistance is usually non violent at first, but it often resorts to force and violence is used by both sides. People chain themselves to gates, climb on roofs and up trees, and they crawl down drains. Brits will remember 'Swampy' and friends at Manchester Airport and elsewhere. Force is used, and as people are dragged and pulled from their refuges, they shout and scream and spit, and then strike out with kicks and punches. Police continue placidly at first, but they are human and when the tipping point is reached they return what they have received. It gets ugly.
I do not want to defend Chinese police but we see similar stories everywhere. Yes, you might argue, but they are the exception and not the rule. They are not the rule here either. This nation is moving very fast from the rule of power to the rule of law. I have spent a lot of time with law students in past years and they have told me of the new legislation in every area that is bringing justice, accountability, restricts corruption, etc. (It makes their life hard work; mid course the law is always changing. But they are excited at the change, and want to serve this fast changing nation.) And the law changes have related to ownership of land -- and yes, the rules and procedures governing compulsory purchase and its sad but necessary enforcers. Yet officials and police are used to operating without accountability and using force, and the habits of a lifetime are not always quickly lost.
It is the sad fact that the bad news always makes the news. And where a host of reporters are gathering looking for news they will find it.
Beijing is a fast developing city. Modern world class architectural developments stand alongside run down slums. The huge changes in this city over the past 7 years since the Olympics were announced have necessitated huge relocations. More another time about the neighbourhoods that have been lost, and the buildings that have arrived.
Again, I do not defend the use of force, here or anywhere. But let’s try to see the progress that has taken place here and honour it. The fact that reporters can report such news is itself a huge thing here. These Olympics have brought change, and they will continue to do so. The direction of change however is not always guaranteed - and the responsibility for that may be ours as well as theirs.
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