From the Reuters via the New York Times (link):
A vice mayor of Shanghai defended the Chinese commercial hub’s treatment of thousands of people who are being forced from their homes to make way for the 2010 World Expo, saying they are paid appropriate compensation.
The moving of the 18,000 households for the exposition, which is expected to cost 10.6 billion yuan ($1.32 billion) to hold, will be complete before the end of June, said Yang Xiong, who is also Deputy Director of the Shanghai Expo Executive Committee.
Some residents of the areas to be redeveloped for the expo, mostly in grim industrial parts of the city near the banks of the Huangpu river, have complained they have been forcibly relocated and not given adequate compensation for high-cost Shanghai.
See also AP’s “Beijing mayor urges slum demolition for Olympics” carried by China Daily; and the Washington Post’s “Villagers riot in China over dike’s demolition” carried by azcentral.com
