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<title>MCLC: Evictions reach tens of thousands</title>
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<h3 style="margin-top:0;"><a style="font-weight: 500; font-size: 21px;line-height: 30px; margin-top:25px; margin-bottom: 10px;" href="http://u.osu.edu/mclc/2017/12/01/evictions-reach-tens-of-thousands/" target="_blank">Evictions reach tens of thousands</a></h3>
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<p>Source: <a href="http://supchina.com">Sup China</a> (11/30/17)<br />
Beijing evictions reach into the tens of thousands, destroying livelihoods of migrants<br />
By Lucas Niewenhuis</p>
<p>Despite an unusual backlash <a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=c8ad11667f&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">from some state media</a> and even cautionary words <a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=983682d64f&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">from Beijing party chief</a> Cai Qi 蔡奇 in response to the <a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=b0fb6abedc&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hurried en masse evictions</a>, it is being widely reported that <strong>tens of thousands</strong> have now seen their livelihoods and futures in the Chinese capital destroyed in the past <strong>two weeks</strong>. The workers, who lived on the outskirts of Beijing and did not hold Beijing <em>hukou</em> (户口; household registration), are being forced to return to their hometowns in other provinces.</p>
<ul>
<li>The <em>New York Times </em><a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=05e60f3c2e&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">describes</a> (paywall) the areas affected as “<strong>reminiscent of war zones</strong>, with entire city blocks demolished,” and captures a chorus of voices wondering why their government has made them “abruptly homeless in midwinter.”</li>
<li>An unnamed city official, when asked whether the campaign was really intended to drive out the “low-end population” (低端人口 dīduān rénkǒu), <a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=5b38a4121c&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> (in Chinese) that it was “irresponsible” to use the phrase, and insisted, “<strong>there is no saying like ‘low-end population’</strong>” (没有“低端人口”一说).</li>
<li>The official’s statement has now become a reality on the Chinese internet, as that phrase, <em>Reuters </em>correspondent Philip Wen <a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=b6034fd1db&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports on Twitter</a>, has been blocked on both WeChat and Weibo. “<strong>China's underclass have become the unmentionables</strong>,” he concludes.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Voices large and small continue to speak out against the evictions</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Outspoken property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang, whose Weibo account was deleted last year after he suggested that media should be independent from the Communist Party, has chimed in, <em>SCMP </em><a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=d70fdc6f3d&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Ren criticized the </strong><strong>hukou </strong><strong>system as the root of the problems</strong> Beijing was actually trying to solve, noting that such a system was “adopted only by a limited number of countries, including China and North Korea,” and arguing that “if China doesn’t solve the land problem and change the household registration system, all of its so-called long-term [market] mechanisms will be built on sand.”</li>
<li><strong>A poster at Tsinghua University</strong> urges readers to oppose Beijing’s crackdown on “low-end population,” Afra Wang <a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=9fb9a476aa&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notes on Twitter</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>For more discussion of what exactly is going on in Beijing, see <a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=3246d5bd8f&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this conversation of China scholars and observers on </a><em><a href="https://supchina.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=05fc7fc9529b01bb9bd1abfa7&id=7fd5e2bd76&e=b3d625469d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ChinaFile</a></em>.</p>
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by <a href="mailto:denton.2@osu.edu">denton.2@osu.edu</a> on December 1, 2017 </div>
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