Quake raises construction fears in China
By Poon Siu To
HONG KONG - Scenes of massive devastation caused by this week's magnitude 7.9
earthquake in central China have monopolized news coverage, but coinciding with
the tragic events in which tens of thousands of people have died, is an
expanding trend of city renovations now underway across China.
Gripping accounts of survivors being dug out of collapsed buildings following
the quake have underscored China's alleged disregard for building codes in the
rapidly urbanizing region. But just weeks and months earlier, there have been
abundant news stories about demolition of old buildings and relocation of
residents with local officials vowing to give facelifts to their cities.
In fact, Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan province which is about 93
kilometers from the epicenter of Monday's earthquake, announced this year it
would spend 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) to build a new town in its
northern suburbs. Recent events suggest Chengdu may have been better off
spending the funds on improving and reinforcing existing structures.
Now, poorly planned renovations and "cosmetic" civic enhancements have building
experts concerned that ordinary people may suffer rather than benefit from this
new round of city renovations.
"There are lessons to be learned from this, and I think the main lesson is that
codes need to be followed," Reginald DesRoches, a civil engineering professor
at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, told news agency CNN on May
14. "What you see in rural areas in particular is that builders just don't have
the funds to invest to actually follow the codes, and there are no regulations
to do so," DesRoches added to CNN.
Additionally, in regard to the nationwide renovation push, the demolition of
houses without sufficient compensation or residents' consent has left many
homeless. Some have made complaints with relevant authorities, some taken to
the streets to protest or even committed suicide - reports like these can be
read everywhere. Such scenes are closely related to the office-term shifts of
regional party committees before the 17th National Congress of the Chinese
Communist Party last October.
In August, 2003, Weng Biao, a 39-year-old resident in Xianwu district in
Nanjing, provincial capital of Jiangsu, set fire to himself in an attempt to
stop the forced demolition of his home by authorities. He later died of serious
burns. This unfortunate incident occurred amid an upsurge of city renovations
that come with forced demolition of older buildings and the relocation of
residents in major cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Guangzhou, as
well as some second-tier or medium-sized cities.
Five years later, a similar tragedy occurred in Quanzhou city in Fujian
province. In the morning of April 3, a resident in Quanzhou's Luojiang district
named He Quantong committed suicide at home by setting fire to himself in
protest against authorities' forced demolition of his home. The tragedy again
tells us that a mad wave of forced demolitions is now sweeping the country.
A number of Chinese cities are now undergoing renovation. Linshu in Shandong
province took the lead in announcing a facelift; Shijiazhung in Hebei province
pledged to have a completely new look "in three years"; Shandong's Yantai
"happily" kicked off its city renovation projects; Hebei's Handan planned to
invest 30 billion yuan in its renovation of the city; Chengdu, provincial
capital of Sichuan will spend 10 billion yuan this year to build a new town on
a demolished area in its northern suburb; Haikou, capital of the island
province of Hainan, last year successfully leveled Wangsha village, a "village
inside the city", due to the fast expansion of the city. There are innumerable
similar cases.
Compared with the wave of city renovations five years ago, renovations now are
taking place mainly in second-tier or third-tier cities which are political and
economically less important. After five years, history seems to be repeating
itself and, according to some residents and activists, the properties of
ordinary Chinese people are being treated as if they were worthless.
That their misfortune has been repeated after an interval of five years may not
be coincidental, but because the communist leadership shifts every five years.
With a five-year office term limit, all provinces, cities and counties have new
leaders on a rolling basis. Officials starting a new term are always eager to
do something big to prove their capability and to accumulate the "capital"
needed for future promotion. Economic growth and the improvement of a city's
appearance are key to evaluating the performance of officials in charge.
The push for rapid growth, especially of the cosmetic sort, has forced builders
to move fast and perhaps ignore the rights of citizens and building safety
requirements. According to the CNN report, Brian Tucker, a seismologist with a
California nonprofit organization that helps reduce earthquake risks in
developing countries, a civil engineer in China told him the country has no
centralized, uniform code for earthquake-resistant public buildings such as
schools or hospitals, and the size of the fallen beams and columns pictured in
video of the disaster appear inadequate to the task.
Still, the construction goes on. In the first half of last year, after new
party committees were established, cities began implementing ambitious facelift
plans. In Haikou, the past three governments were unable to demolish Wangsha
village, but since the end of last November, eight months after the new
government took office, hundreds of fully armed policemen and government
officials broke in the village and brought villagers under control. It took
just 53 days to raze the "village in a city".
The demolition of older buildings also offers an opportunity for corruption.
With the boom in the property market in past years, many Chinese cities have
used up land for urban development, naturally pushing up land prices. Urban
lots became scarce and were in high demand. Even if newly appointed local
officials resisted corrupt, their families, relatives and friends were less
willing to let money-making opportunities slip away.
In fact, under the banner of "city renovation", local officials in the name of
the government could throw local residents off their land and use it for their
own purposes. The officials and their cronies then could launch developments by
themselves or sell the lots to others to make handsome profits. Through such
"land laundering", the officials and their cronies could make millions of yuan
at the expense of residents and safety regulations.
Poon Siu To is a freelance commentator for the Chinese edition of Asia
Times Online.
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