China has lost an influential voice for constitutional democracy with the death in November of Cai Dingjian. His death brought numerous tributes from scholars, lawyers and human rights activists. Many reformist officials will miss him too.
“Cai was a very politically engaged scholar. He was constantly using his research and writings to urge democratic reform in China,” said Nicola Macbean, director of The Rights Practice. “It was typical of Cai that he went to the heart of what is wrong with the existing law on demolitions – the absence of any serious consultation with the public.”
The Rights Practice plans to continue supporting the important work of our friend and long-standing partner Professor Cai Dingjian by helping to establish a fellowship in his honour. The details of the fellowship are under discussion, but the intention is to enable leading lawyers or scholars engaging with constitutional reform in China to spend time in Europe or the USA and explore at firsthand how constitutional freedoms can be guaranteed in practice.
You can donate to The Rights Practice Cai Dingjian Fellowship here. Or click here to request further information on this initiative.
Barbarian evictions must end -- but without eviction and demolition, there would have been no 2008 Olympics and no modern China.
These dilemmas influenced debate on the revision of China's regulations on demolition and eviction during a recent Beijing conference organised by Professor Cai Dingjian, director of China’s Constitutional Reform Institute, The Rights Practice and Beijing University Law School.
The main aims of the conference were to kick start reforms and ensure the interests of Chinese people are taken into account when authorities make development decisions.
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| A demolition crew at work in western Beijing last year. The family who lived here finally left after years of trying to avoid eviction; their home was destroyed. |
Many people have been evicted, their homes demolished, and inadequate compensation paid out. This causes increasing conflict between citizens and the government, which has embarked on an ambitious urbanization drive as part of its development strategy.
Some 40 academics, lawyers and members of civil society debated issues including the importance of respecting existing laws, the vagueness of many of these laws, the legitimacy of decision making and fair compensation for those evicted. They also discussed separating public and commercial interests, timing of evictions, and how to ensure people have the right to legally resist and appeal. Experts from Britain and the United States explained how compulsory purchase decisions are made in their countries.
Discussions about evictions and demolitions have come to the fore in China recently. In December 2009, shortly after the well-publicized case of a woman who set herself on fire in protest at her eviction (see Evictions and demolition fuel tragedies), five academics from Beijing University wrote an open letter to the Chinese government, arguing that the nation's urban housing demolition regulations were unconstitutional and breached the Property Rights Law.
The following month, the government issued a new draft regulation. According to the Chinese newswire Xinhua, the new law stated that people whose homes are demolished for redevelopment of state-owned land "should be paid with market prices and can sue over disputes before any demolition."
A year later not much has changed, with some conference attendees claiming that the reform was only for show and authorities will delay passage of new legislation until most urban development is completed in five to 10 years.
Beijing University Professor Jiang Ming’an, who signed the open letter, urged the government to explain the new regulation and make the process of evictions and demolition ‘more participatory and people orientated.’
Lawyer Qin Bing said the draft law did not solve all problems, as land was so important for development. "Owning property is also very important for Chinese people -- it gives them a sense of security and is a way for them to invest their money. This issue only promises to get worse," he said. Local governments and developers sometimes hire thugs to evict people, he explained, and citizens resort to violence because legal remedies often do not work.
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| The demolition of homes and the eviction of residents is causing conflict between Chinese citizens and their government. |
Professor Cai Dingjian said without planning permission "a development is illegal. Without public participation in planning decisions, conflict is inevitable." He stressed that the planning stage should accommodate different views and there must be a legal responsibility to protect the rights of citizens.
Land use law specialist Professor Brian Ohm from the University of Wisconsin believes that the eviction/demolition issue could be the most critical facing local government in China today. "The way local governments are financed is a root cause of the problem," he said. "They use the eviction/demolition process to make land available for development, then sell development rights to developers to finance local government. Restructuring local government finance is critical."
Professor Ohm said China could learn from the West's mistakes and benefit from contemporary practices that have evolved. The conference, funded by The US-China Legal Cooperation Fund, was reported in the Chinese media. (Helen Leavey)
Related Links:
Center for People's Congress and Foreign Legislature Study (in Chinese)
Evictions and demolition fuel tragedies
It’s a living nightmare. Some Chinese citizens have been forced out of bed in the middle of the night to flee their homes before bulldozers arrive to demolish them in the name of progress.
Chinese people have become more aware of demolition regulations in the last few years as the country's urbanization process continues at a rapid rate. Some become so desperate they resort to tragic measures.
Tang Fuzhen from Sichuan province died a few days after setting herself on fire in her final act of protest against "the forced demolition of her former husband's garment processing business and living space above it." (China Daily). The November 2009 tragedy was captured by mobile phone. The video spread across the Internet and was broadcast on Chinese television.
In March 2010, a 92-year-old man and his 68-year-old son set themselves on fire in Jiangsu province because their pig farm was to be demolished to make way for a new road. The son died and his father was badly injured.
In White Tiger village, Guangxi, the village head was arrested for resisting the forced demolition of his community’s homes.