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Steer urban growth along a humane path
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STEER urban growth along a humane path
IN my column last Wednesday I mentioned the fatal arson fire that killed one villager and wounded several others in a bloody land grab in rural Pingdu in Shandong Province.
Four days after the tragedy on March 21, investigation netted seven suspects, including the village chief surnamed Du, and the contractor who was to build on the land seized without due compensation to or consultation with villagers.
Those victims were camping in a tent to prevent construction. Following detention of the suspects, more damning revelations began to emerge.
Villagers said that while running for election in March 2011, Du had arranged for himself to be elected as village chief by spending more than 300,000 yuan (US$50,000) in buying votes. That represents around 1,000 yuan per vote.
I hope the promptitude with which the seven people were found responsible for the fatal fire does not suggest the end of investigation into land grabs that have become a local obsession around China.
In 2013 Pingdu government website published an article titled “Getting tough and no-nonsensical in pushing through with shanty town renovations.”
“Shanty town renovations”, while well-meaning, also provide one of many rationalizations for evicting old residents from their old homes, so that lands can be appropriated by the government and then sold to developers at a markup.
The article stated, “Relevant authorities should step in earlier in dealing with those who dare to obstruct construction [on grabbed lands] with evil intentions, and those who have played a leading role in stirring up troubles, or those trying to have their complaints heard by the higher authority.”
“Strike a heavy blow on those trouble-making leaders in so far as this does not endanger social stability,” the article cautioned.
Although Pingdu-style land expropriation has become a buzzword, these kinds of seizures are by no means restricted to Pingdu, or Shandong.
Such atrocities have been repeated time and again exactly because, in the wake of such atrocities, only the bullies directly involved in murders got punished.
Meanwhile, incentives and inducements continue to be proffered to ambitious local officials who, in their enthusiasm for turning land to non-agrarian use, are more or less responding to the political mandate to urbanize.
It is tragic that in a season when peasants should be busy sowing, irrigating, and fertilizing their crops, I heard that my native village in northern Jiangsu Province is again in the grip of a new building boom, as some villagers are busy razing their old residences and putting up multi-storied buildings.
So far, the drive to urbanize has been chiefly conceived out of economic considerations.
It is time our government took stock of the political implications, and the human costs inherent in this drive.
After reading my column, an American from Miami wrote, “In principle, I agree with you ... that agricultural land should remain agricultural save for a matter of extremely high national importance.”
He cautioned that violent grabs would be particularly dangerous to the government, “since the Party draws its legitimacy from the peasants.”
The human factor
The need to factor in the human element is even more pressing.
In the recently published urbanization plan for 2014-20, while the fundamental impetus for pushing urbanization is for “expanding domestic demand,” it was also asserted that urbanization should be steered along a human-centered and environment-friendly path (“Urbanization plan focused on people,” March 17, Shanghai Daily).
These are sound principles, but the devil is in the details, and it is up to the Party to work out details in how to put human beings and the environment to the fore.
In this hoped-for people-centered approach, we should pay particular attention to those segments of the population who tend to be voiceless, invisible, and who do not feature prominently in the production-consumption game.
They should draw our attention precisely and solely because they are human beings.
Xinhua reported on March 25 that in Xuanen County, Hubei Province, as a result of a mass exodus of young people seeking to make their fortunes in cities, there were only two people in a primary school, a 59-year-old teacher and a 7-year-old pupil. There were still four students in 2009.
In that county, there are currently 36 primary schools where the number of faculty and students in each school total less than 15. The average age of teachers is 55.
The long separation from migrant parents is also taking a heavy toll on the psyche of the left-behind children.
In a village in Sichuan Province, a 12-year-old girl recently set fire to a neighbor’s house in an attempt to get her migrant worker mother to come home (“Firestarter, 12, just wanted to see her mom,” March 25, Shanghai Daily).
Her mother was working in another province.
In her desperate move, this 12-year-old made undeniably compelling the need to steer urbanization along a human path.
China is believed to have about 60 million left-behind children like her.
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