From Shanghai Daily, via chinaelections.org:
The high-profile holdout homeowners in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality said that they want to meet the city’s Party Secretary to talk.‚Ä®‚Ä®Yang Wu, hailed as China’s “hardest holdout homeowner” on the Internet, told the Beijing News that he would allow the authority to demolish his house even without compensation as long as Wang Yang, the city’s Party chief, comes to visit his home.‚Ä®‚Ä®”I will come down from my house immediately if he shows up,” Yang said, “I have lots of complaints to talk about.”‚Ä®‚Ä®
He also said the housing developer has connections to the local government, the report quoted him as saying.‚Ä®‚Ä®Yang has to climb up to his house with the help of two iron tubes every day, as the developer has dug a vast area around his house by 10 meters. ‚Ä®‚Ä®He also raised a Chinese national flag atop the two-story home and displayed a banner that says: “Legitimate rights to private properties/assets shall not be infringed upon,” an apparent citation of China’s new property law, which was passed on March 16. [Full Text]
Also from Chinaelelctions.org:
Alas, the biggest threat to China at the present might be the 49-year-old restaurateur with ” dramatic look of precisely combed and pinned-back hair, a form-flattering bright red dress, high cheekbones and wide, excited eyes “.
Ms. Wu Ping is causing an abrupt incident and international exposure this famous Chinese mountain city does not want to have. This showdown of one family against a city government that decides the welfare of over 30 million people not only sheds light on the pain and misery of millions of ordinary Chinese who have lost their properties in very arbitrary ways and highlights the dilemma of both central and local government officials who are susceptible to bribes and kickbacks from illegal developers but it is also a test of how the Chinese government will observe the just passed property law. We can also see the increasing role the Internet is playing in Chinese people’s fight for justice that seems elusive oftentimes without first causing media attention.
