China reverts to type with yet another enforced demolition death.
You probably need to understand how things work here at Demolition News Towers in order to understand how we can change our minds quite so quickly. We have set up a bank of news feeds that draw in information on demolition and demolition-related issues from across the globe and we react to them literally as they arrive.
Which is why we’re left looking rather stupid and naive this morning having suggested that China was mending its ways on enforced demolitions just 11 minutes before news of another enforced demolition death in the country landed on our screens.
The latest news involves a woman who was crushed under a truck minutes after her mother consumed pesticide to protest the forced demolition of their house in North China’s Hebei province on Sunday. The incident, which occurred in Zhangjiaying village of Xingtai, is the latest in a string of tragedies caused by forced demolitions that have been widely criticized.
The State Council Legislative Affairs Office has started making amendments to the Regulations on Demolishing Urban Housing, banning the use of violence, threat or illegal means to force the relocation of property owners, like cutting off electricity, water, heating and gas. But the revision is still in process.
On April 18, Hu Xifeng had an altercation with the village chief who had brought a team of workers to flatten her house, the China News Service reported on Wednesday.
When all efforts to stop the demolition failed, Hu drank pesticide. But even that did not deter the workers from driving a truck into Hu’s house, crushing her daughter, Meng Jianfeng, to death and injuring Hu’s sister, Hu Qiaofeng, who has been hospitalized. Both Hu Xifeng and Hu Qiaofeng are now out of danger.
The local police have launched an investigation into what the local government has termed a “safety accident”.
Read the full story here.
