Posted on 04/03/2007 6:33:18 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
China's "Stubborn Nail" loses house, gets pay-out
by Robert J. Saiget
1 hour, 28 minutes ago
Workmen in China demolished a house that attained almost iconic status because of its owners' refusal to move for a huge property project, but their three-year battle may have paid off.
Wu Ping, whose struggle against the developers earned her the nickname "Stubborn Nail," and her husband had their two-storey brick house in the southwest city of Chongqing demolished late Monday night.
Their plight -- thrown into the spotlight partly thanks to dramatic photos of the house sitting in the middle of a massive pit excavated around it -- became a symbol of the little man's defiance of China's moneyed interests.
However the couple appeared to have been rewarded handsomely for holding out, with a court in Chongqing announcing Tuesday they would be given a new home nearby valued at about three million yuan (390,000 dollars).
In addition, they were awarded 900,000 yuan in damages because the developer had cut off water and electricity, and blocked traffic to their home during the three-year stand-off.
Both are mind-boggling sums to the average person in China, where per capita rural incomes barely topped 3,500 yuan (452 dollars) in 2006.
"This case has been appropriately settled," said Zhang Li, the head of the Jiulongpo district people's court in Chongqing.
"We have undergone active consultations many times with each party in this demolition case. We have worked to overcome differences and expand common ground and we have created the conditions to reach an agreement."
Wu had previously told AFP that she and her husband, Yang Wu, wanted a house of the same size in the same area, plus one million yuan in compensation for losing the successful restaurant they ran from their home.
"I am only trying to protect my rights and my dignity," the charismatic 49-year-old told AFP at the weekend.
"If you are right, you must stand up for yourself, otherwise people will bully you."
Although the court officials said the compensation pay-out was part of a deal between the developers and the couple, neither Wu nor her husband were available for comment Tuesday.
As the citizens of Chongqing woke up to the disappearance of the house, they expressed admiration for her defiance.
"She stood up to the government, she stood up to the developers," said a man standing near the rubble who gave his surname as Chen.
The legal battle had raged since the couple rejected a compensation offer to move out that was accepted by 280 other homeowners, holding up a planned residential and business skyrise development called Broadway Plaza.
Wu had incessantly accused the local government of collusion with the developer, while refusing to bow to the strong-arm tactics aimed at getting rid of her home.
Earlier this year, she filed a lawsuit maintaining that she could not be forced to give up her home.
The Stubborn Nail's case hit such a nerve in China because similar disputes are plaguing the country.
While Wu was able to stand up to the powerful and wage a high-profile publicity campaign rarely seen in China, people in countless other cases have lost their property without adequate compensation.
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Public Security, there were 87,000 protests in 2005, many of them to do with land grabs. Such protests are often crushed by security forces.
State-run Xinhua news agency reported that authorities in Beijing on Tuesday demolished the home of a resident of the city who was waging a battle similar to Wu's.
The homeowner, identified only by his surname Qiu, was holding up construction of the futuristic new headquarters for state-controlled China Central Television Tower but lost a lawsuit over the matter, the report said.
The national parliament passed a landmark law last month that solidified private property rights, partly to combat such disputes.
While Wu waged her publicity campaign, her husband had staged a vigil in the home over the past week, at times waving a national flag.
During his vigil, Yang Wu also hung a banner out of the house that read: "The legal private property of citizens cannot be violated," echoing wording in the country's new property law.
Another banner said: "The human rights of the citizens shall be protected."
In her brief comments to AFP on Monday night, Wu said her husband had left their home shortly before it was demolished.
 Chinese workmen demolished a house, seen here March 2007, that attained almost iconic status because of its owners' refusal to move for a huge property project. However, Wu Ping and her husband's three-year battle may have paid off with a court in Chongqing announcing they would be given a new home nearby valued at about three million yuan (390,000 dollars).(AFP/File/Mark Ralston) |
Ping!
So, Chinese have greater property rights than Americans after SCOTUS ruled that the government can take your house and give it to a political contributor?
Damn. Sounds like the Chinese have stronger private property rights than we do, post Kelo.
hope?
That’s what it sounds like to me too.
Ping!
Umm . . . this Chinese couple lost their house.
does anyone know if the chinese have to pay property taxes on their homes
and if there are any, if they do not pay them do they loose their home
Yes... but for the price they wanted.
And held out for a lot of moolah. Plus, the developers got spanked.
Perhaps you missed this part of the article?
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Public Security, there were 87,000 protests in 2005, many of them to do with land grabs. Such protests are often crushed by security forces.
Guy I know growing up in Queens lived in an older house in Rosedale, a very low elevation area in SE most Queens, just north of Kennedy Airport.
Sometime around 1960 new regulations required home lots to be graded to at least five feet (!) above sea level. A lot of newer homes on his block were built “as is” at much lower elevation. So around 1970 the City comes in and raises the level of the street he lived on, and FILLS in the lots with houses on them to the required level. Winds up his house (actually his father’s) is left sitting in a ten foot deep hole, with the first floor of the surrounding homes buried and the street raised to the level of his second floor. He had to climb a steep stairs to get to street level! Only in NYC.
Drainage must have been a horror show.
Thanks for a report on a brave lady.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.