22/08/2019
- State media says presence is part of preparations for major drill, but analyst calls it a ‘psychological warfare tactic’
- Fears that the armed presence was a show of power to Hong Kong
Dozens of trucks line a street next to the entrance of the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre in Shenzhen on Monday. Photo: SCMP
A convoy of armed police trucks has been stationed at a sports centre in a mainland Chinese city bordering Hong Kong, adding to speculation online that Beijing could be preparing to intervene directly in the protests roiling the special administrative region.
But a Beijing-based military expert said the movements were part of regular exercises and not cause for concern.
Footage of the trucks rolling into Shenzhen in the southern province of Guangdong began circulating online on Saturday.
On Monday, Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily and Global Times posted videos of the convoy in the city, saying the police were there to prepare for large-scale drills.
Dozens of the trucks as well as excavators lined a pavement next to the entrance of the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre in Nanshan district on Monday, across the harbour from Hong Kong.
Personnel in camouflage uniforms stood at the entrances of the sports centre, but did not block access to civilians.
Asked whether they were in Shenzhen for a drill and what time they had arrived, the personnel shook their heads and said nothing.
Also on Monday, the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office released a stern statement, calling attacks on police “signs of terrorism”.
Online, internet users speculated that the armed presence was a show of power to Hong Kong.
Excavators are among the heavy equipment stationed near the entrance of the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre on Monday. Photo: SCMP
“They are just waiting for an order before they’ll drive to Hong Kong to calm the riots. We hope the armed forces can enter Hong Kong and beat the hell out of these idiotic youth,” one commenter said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform.
Beijing-based military specialist Zhou Chenming said that the armed police were taking part in regular drills and that people should not feel nervous.
“The central government has repeatedly stated it will only interfere if there are large-scale riots and the Hong Kong government has applied voluntarily for support,” Zhou said.
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“If the situation does not reach that point, then this is only a deterrence measure, to deter these [small group of people] from stepping over the line.”
Dixon Sing Ming, a political-science professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said the move was a “psychological warfare tactic”.
“The drill is part and parcel of a well-coordinated attempt by Beijing to pressure the protesters and the general public to give up their five demands, including the one for universal suffrage immediately,” Sing said.
Hong Kong has been engulfed in protests since early June, at first to oppose the now-shelved extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong to send suspects to other jurisdictions, including mainland China.
Chinese police mass 12,000 anti-riot officers in Shenzhen for drill
But protesters now have five demands, including a complete withdrawal of the extradition bill and an independent investigation into the police’s use of force in handling the protests.
As the confrontations have escalated, public opinion in the mainland has grown steadily tougher, with many calling for more stern measures to restore order.
On August 6, 12,000 police officers gathered in Shenzhen for a drill, which included anti-riot measures similar to those seen on the streets of Hong Kong.
Although the police said the drill was part of security preparations for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic on October 1, internet users saw it as a show of power and warning to Hong Kong.
Source: SCMP
Posted in 70th anniversary, anti-riot officers, armed police, Beijing, camouflage uniforms, Central government, Chinese armed police, excavators, Global Times, guangdong province, harbour, Hong Kong, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, large-scale drills, mainland Chinese city, Nanshan district, October 1 1949, People’s Daily, People’s Republic, Police, protests, psychological warfare tactic, regular drills, Shenzhen, Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre, signs of terrorism, Special administrative region, truck convoy, Uncategorized, videos, Weibo |
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22/07/2019
- Some 150,000 residents of Baishizhou have to leave by the end of September to make way for malls, hotels and high-end residential projects
- They worry about finding affordable housing in the city, and their children’s education
Urban villages like Baishizhou provide affordable housing, mostly for migrant workers. Photo: Phoebe Zhang
As their eviction deadline nears, all Chen Jian can think about is the wrecking ball – and where his family is going to go. He often dreams about the negotiations – with officials, real estate developers, landlords. On other nights, he cannot sleep at all.
“I’m mostly worried about my daughter – she starts secondary school in September,” said Chen, 41, who works as a quality supervisor for a foreign trading company.
His family of four lives in a cheap one-bedroom flat in Baishizhou, one of the last standing chengzhongcun, or “urban villages”, in the flourishing commercial zones of southern Chinese city Shenzhen.
The villages provide affordable housing – costing from a few hundred to a few thousand yuan per month – to a mostly migrant worker population that provides services and labour.
But Baishizhou, in the Nanshan district, will not be standing for much longer. Many tenants in the area have received eviction notices since June, telling them to move out before the end of September to make way for a real estate project led by Shenzhen-based developer LVGEM Group.
The developer bought the land and buildings from their landlords, and it plans to knock them down and replace them with malls, hotels, high-end residential projects and skyscrapers.
Some 150,000 people are affected, mostly migrant workers, and they will have to find new homes, change jobs or even move back home at short notice.
Chen Jian lives in a one-bedroom flat in Baishizhou with his wife, daughter and son. Photo: Phoebe Zhang
For Chen and more than 2,000 other families, their children’s education is the most urgent issue. He said they could move somewhere else nearby, but the rent would be more than four times higher. A cheaper area would mean a long walk to school for his daughter from the nearest subway station.
As the breadwinner, Chen’s monthly income of 12,000 yuan (US$1,750) has to cover the whole family. His wife takes care of their three-year-old son and their daughter, 12.
“If I were here by myself, I would just pack up my bags and go,” said Chen, who moved to Shenzhen from Henan province. “But I can’t – I have children, I would do anything for my children.”
Families who’ve lived in old Chinese town for generations being kicked out to make way for tourists
Urban villages are a phenomenon that grew from China’s rapid development. In the 1980s, soon after Shenzhen became the country’s first special economic zone, the local government expropriated mostly vacant land from villagers and allowed developers to build commercial properties there.
The locals invested the large sums of money they received into new living spaces in their villages, which they rented out to the migrant workers that flowed into the city amid a manufacturing boom.
These chengzhongcun emerged as a tangle of damp alleyways, where electricity and telephone wires hang like spiderwebs. They bustle with fruit carts, soy milk shops, cobblers, karaoke parlours, short-stay love hotels and hair salons offering massage services. The “handshake buildings” where people live are packed together so tightly that residents could reach out of the window and shake their neighbour’s hand in the opposite flat.
“I call this ‘voluntary urbanisation’,” said Duan Peng, an architect based in the city. Since he moved to Shenzhen in 2001, Duan has spent many days and nights in Baishizhou. He said its development was in line with the government’s urban planning policy, since it allowed migrant workers to live in a relatively prosperous area in the city centre rather than on its periphery.
“Handshake buildings”, where residents can shake their neighbours’ hands through the windows, are a feature of China’s urban villages. Photo: Phoebe Zhang
Chen moved to Shenzhen with his wife in 2000, and both their children were born there. They moved to Baishizhou in 2008 after he was introduced to his landlord, who is from Chen’s hometown and rented him the flat for 650 yuan a month.
The rent has gone up by just 300 yuan in the 11 years they have lived there. They have watched as new developments sprang up around them – amusement parks, a golf course, malls and an area that is home to some of the country’s top tech companies including Huawei, Tencent and DJI.
How the eviction of Beijing’s migrant workers is tearing at the fabric of the city’s economy
But away from the shiny new developments, 150,000 migrant workers from all over the country are packed into 2,500 buildings in Baishizhou, where rents and services are affordable.
The urban village is full of people like Chen. Small business owner Wang Fang came to Shenzhen from northeast China in 2003 and has lived in Baishizhou ever since. Six months ago, she signed a three-year lease on a commercial space and opened a dumpling restaurant, but she is worried about the future.
“I can’t go back home, I already have a Shenzhen hukou,” she said, referring to the household registration document that gives access to public services. “I don’t have land there any more and can’t make a living there [as a farmer].”
She has not been told she has to leave the restaurant, but Wang and her two sons have until the end of September – when the building’s water and electricity will be cut off – to vacate their flat.
“It’s only a matter of time before the business is shut down as well,” she said.
Small shops and street vendors line Baishizhou’s bustling alleyways. Photo: Phoebe Zhang
According to an online poll of 1,031 Baishizhou residents this week, about half said they may have to find another job, and more than 600 were concerned about their children’s education. The survey, conducted by Shenzhen University urban planning professor Chen Zhu, also found that 70 per cent of those polled planned to find another flat in the city, while 28 per cent would leave.
Duan said the evictions and redevelopment would inevitably affect the surrounding areas, as well as the residents.
“The prices of services in the neighbourhood will increase, because many of the workers [now providing those services] will move far away, and rents will increase as well,” he said.
But for many such redevelopments, while the government, landlords and village officials might be consulted, the tenants are left out.
“Most of these residents, their voices and their interests aren’t on the negotiating table – their losses aren’t calculated in the real estate developer’s demolition costs,” Duan said.
A receptionist at LVGEM said he was not aware of any complaints about the redevelopment, while emails to the company went unanswered.
Meanwhile the developer’s partner, Baishizhou Corporation, told Southern Metropolis Daily it would provide legal services, rentals support and school buses for tenants who will be displaced.
But it is not enough for migrant workers like Chen. Like many of those facing eviction, he fears he will have to pay more rent, and there may not be a school bus service in his area.
He mentions a slogan plastered on walls in the city, “Once you come, you’re a Shenzhener” – part of a government campaign to lure talent and investors.
Chen said he worried that Shenzhen wanted only hi-tech workers and luxury residential compounds in the city, leaving little room for low-income workers.
“Despite what the slogan says, you ask yourself, are you really a Shenzhener?” he said.
Source: SCMP
Posted in affordable housing, automotive special economic zone (SEZ, Baishizhou, breadwinner, chengzhongcun, commercial properties, dumpling restaurant, education, evictions, forced out, hotels, household registration document, hukou, landlords, malls, migrant workers, Nanshan district, negotiations, officials, real estate developers, residential projects, residents, Shenzhen, Shenzhen University, Shenzhener, skyscrapers, subway station, tourists, Uncategorized, urban villages, wrecking ball |
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17/05/2019
- Police in Shenzhen look for clues to accident in driver’s medical records
- Motorist complains of ‘sudden attack’ at time of accident
Police in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, are investigating a driver’s medical history after a fatal accident on Thursday. Photo: Weibo
Police in southern China have detained a motorist after three people were killed and seven injured in a car accident on Thursday night.
Officers said a car went out of control and struck pedestrians on a road in Nanshan district in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, at about 7.20pm. The 23-year-old driver, surnamed Liu, was taken into custody.
In a statement online, the Shenzhen public security bureau said blood and urine tests showed the driver was sober and drug-free. They said medicine for epilepsy was found in the vehicle.
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During questioning, Liu told officers he lost control of car because he had had “a sudden attack”, but did not elaborate.
Police said they were examining Liu’s medical records.
In China, people with epilepsy are not allowed to apply for a driving licence, according to regulations from the Ministry of Public Security.
Source: SCMP
Posted in accidents, blood and urine tests, chinese police, detain, driver, epilepsy, fatal accident, guangdong province, Japan, Kobe, medical records, Ministry of Public Security, mowed down, Nanshan district, pedestrians, Police, Public Security Bureau, roadside, Shenzhen, Uncategorized |
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People’s Daily, China
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 