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CNN: Chinese couple "tests" property law
Mar.27 CNN report:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/27/chongqing.property.ap/index.html
Chinese couple tests property lawPOSTED: 0816 GMT (1616 HKT), March 27, 2007
BEIJING, China (AP) -- A Chinese couple has stirred up an Internet and media frenzy over their fight to keep their home and restaurant from being razed by developers, in what is seen as the first major test of a newly passed private-property law.
Wu Ping and Yang Wu have been battling to protect their building in the southwestern city of Chongqing from bulldozers since 2004, when 280 residents were asked to move out of the area, according to state media reports.
There are thousands of property disputes in China every year, but this one has gained prominence because developers have dug deep around the two-story brick building, leaving it balanced precariously on a small island of land.
Chinese news reports and online commentators refer to the site as a "dingzihu" or "nail house," playing on a phrase for troublemakers who stick up like nails and refuse to go along with government policies.
"If nobody stands up for this, the concept of fairness will be harmed," Wu said in an interview in The Beijing Times last week. "It is not for myself only, but also for others and the future."
An official with the Jiulongpo district housing management bureau in Chongqing said Tuesday that there was "no deadline to demolish their house." He refused to give his name because he said the issue was too sensitive.
"We're still trying to reach an agreement through negotiations, not force," he said.
Wu was offered 20 million yuan ($2.6 million) in compensation or two higher floors in the planned new building -- both of which she turned down because she wanted lower levels in the building so she could run her restaurant.
Wu's mobile phone rang busy Tuesday. Calls to the phone of a development company official were not answered.
Images of the house have been plastered in newspapers during the past week and it has been the focus of editorials and cartoons. Discussions have flooded Chinese Internet chatrooms.
"I support you! Hold on! Governments are indifferent to people's needs. You are the pride of the Chinese people!" said one posting on ynet.com, the Web site of the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper.
State-run media have deemed it the first major application of a property law passed at the annual legislative session earlier this month.
The law, which had been discussed for 14 years, highlights how private property remains a contentious issue nearly 30 years after China began dropping central planning in favor of free markets.
The law offers the same protections for private and public property, a far cry from the first decades of communist rule when China preached common ownership and the state took care of housing, education and health care for its citizens.
"Ms. Wu's upholding of her private-property rights just reflects the spirit of the property law," said an editorial last week in the Southern Metropolitan newspaper. "Any effort to strive for fairness should be praised and cherished." |
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