Force of Growth Hits Home in Shanghai

Xu Hanlin and his wife were awakened by a knock at the door. Before they could answer it, a demolition crew had kicked the door in, started to throw their furniture out in the rain and slammed sledgehammers through the walls. When Xu tried to stop them, a worker planted a boot in his stomach.

The Xus are among tens of thousands of people who have been told that they have to vacate their homes this year to make way for burgeoning Shanghai’s new highways and skyscrapers. The warren of simple brick-walled houses where they lived until last month stands on land that has been sold to developers--who have yet to decide what to build.

Improving the lives of many at the inconvenience of a few is a story old to China; forced relocation is a drama that has been enacted in metropolises around the world, a necessary evil of growing cities.

“By selling government land, we can get the money to provide better roads and better housing,” said Gao Wenyu, the earnest deputy director of the government construction committee in the district where the Xus had lived. “We are trying to satisfy people’s desires and dreams of a better life.”

In fact, developers in Shanghai must provide the dislocated residents with new homes that are better than the ones they left. Although the new apartments are usually on the remote edges of Shanghai, with few community facilities, many in this city of 14 million--who live in tiny, dark dwellings where families still rely on chamber pots--are grateful to be moved to better housing. Most Shanghai residents lease their homes from the government, but some have bought theirs.

Some of the residents, like the Xus--who have taken shelter with his mother--would prefer not to move. And now they have no place to go--the developer failed to provide another apartment before the wreckers bashed the walls down. That, and the lack of notification before demolition, violates the relocation law, says the district’s legal department.

Crews Smash First, Settle Questions Later

Not long ago, the Xus would have merely grumbled about their fate and not dared to challenge the system. But, unhappy with the developer’s compensation offer and aggrieved by the way they were tossed out of their home, they want to make a point. In a move as emblematic of the new China as Shanghai’s gleaming office buildings and its elevated highways, Xu is taking the developer to court.

The Xus’ story has resonance in many cities, but especially in Los Angeles, where nearly every highway runs through the ghost of a vanished neighborhood. For construction to begin on the Century Freeway a decade ago meant the elimination of 7,000 houses and businesses and the displacement of about 20,000 people. Dodger Stadium stands on Chavez Ravine, the former community of about 1,000 mostly Mexican American families who were forced from their homes in the 1950s. One resident held out for two years in a tent on the site of his bulldozed house before he finally accepted compensation and moved in 1961.

In fast-growing Shanghai, which reportedly hosts 10% of the world’s commercial construction projects, a simple sit-down strike can create a massive bottleneck. So, although relocation crews are trained by the district governments on proper eviction procedures, the tendency is to smash first, settle questions later.

“Because we’re after the developers’ capital, we have limited time to spend on relocation work,” said Gao, the district official. Last year, she said, 5,000 households were moved out of Changning district, an area that boasts luxury hotels near the airport and expensive villas for foreigners.

“Of course, due to the speed of the project, it is inevitable that a small portion of people will have a disagreement. If mistakes are made,” she added, “people can redress them in court.”

Legal Costs Deter Many From Filing Lawsuits

As such, China’s rule of law is developing as quickly--and sometimes as haphazardly--as the city.

The district Housing Bureau will mediate disagreements before they reach the court level. But grass-roots legal services are few, and a single consultation with a local lawyer costs 1,000 yuan (about $120)--or more than two months’ salary for most people. That deters many from pursuing a case or successfully filing the requisite paperwork to launch one.

Zou Yan, the deputy director of the Changning district’s legal department, said only two lawsuits were filed against the government over evictions last year and about 20 civil lawsuits against developers.

Wu Ming, a 50-year-old who felt that he had been wrongly evicted and poorly compensated last year, filed three of the lawsuits.

“I filed the papers five times before the court would accept the case,” said the teacher, who did not want his real name used because he feared that it would affect his unresolved appeal. “Each time, they would say, ‘This is wrong; do it again.’ I bought some law books, then I would do it again and come back.”

The teacher sipped tea and explained why he went to the trouble. When the notice came that he and his 103-year-old grandmother would have to move to Shanghai’s suburbs, they refused to go.

“There are no hospitals out there,” Wu said. “I thought if I moved her, she would die.”

For a while, the developer left them alone, tearing down all their neighbors’ buildings until Wu’s two-story house stood alone, like a single tombstone.

The family endured months of noisy demolition and intermittent water and power outages. When his grandmother died, the wreckers made their move.

“I went out for a few minutes one morning, and when I came back, migrant workers were throwing my furniture in a truck and demolishing the house,” he said. “My brother, who was sick, was sleeping when they rushed in, and they just rolled him up in his sleeping mat and threw him in the truck like furniture.”

Wu finally moved to the new apartment, which is an hour’s bus ride away from his old home and much smaller than what he says the developer had promised. The teacher, extremely stubborn and a stickler for procedure, filed two lawsuits against the developer: one to get the larger apartment that he feels he is entitled to and one for the violent eviction. He lodged another against the government for letting it all happen.

He forfeited one case against the developer when he walked out in anger, and he is appealing his other loss against the government. But he did win one case. “The court said the developer has shortcomings that should be corrected in the future. But I didn’t get any compensation. In fact, I still had to pay the court costs even though I won,” he said.

Now he takes the long bus ride into town every day to tend to his appeal, drink tea with his friends and play the stock market.

Despite his ordeal, Wu said he understands the need for relocation and has praise for the government and its infrastructure projects.

“I wouldn’t mind as much if I had to be moved for Yanan Road,” he said, referring to a 2 1/2-mile elevated highway stretching from the airport to the city center that will displace 5,368 households. “The government is trying to do something good for people.”

Problems Occur With Private Projects

Indeed, the problems seem to occur most frequently with the private projects. The developers usually hire a relocation company to clear the land of residents--and close their eyes until it’s over.

“The relocation groups are the ones who do the dirty work,” said businessman Li Changming. In December, several men came to his shop-cum-home at the crossroads of Shanghai’s famous Yu Garden to tell him that his family had to move.

When he went to their office to discuss the compensation, they threatened to beat him if he did not accept the offer, then started to punch him and hit him with a large jar, he said. Neighbors stopped the beating. Li filed an official report with the Public Security Bureau, a prerequisite for filing a lawsuit.

But when he decided to sue the relocation group, the security bureau would not release his file to the court, blocking his lawsuit. He studied the relocation law, and he gathered photographs of his injuries and witness accounts. But the court still demanded the file.

He sent copies of his documents to government officials, from the mayor on down. He finally received a reply from the deputy mayor, who sent him a letter asking him to go back to talk with the relocation group. “I went back, and, yes, they tried to end it: They beat me again,” Li said.

His shop is now a pile of bricks, and he received only a portion of the compensation that the company agreed to in writing.

Li has twice moved his wholesale business, which sells hair ornaments, costume jewelry and scarves.

“I just want to do my business and keep to myself, but when these things happen, it shows a serious problem in society that should be reformed,” he said. “One reason I should stand up is because I can stand up. Many people can’t.”

Bao Lei of The Times’ Shanghai Bureau contributed to this report.