{"id":171550,"date":"2014-04-17T14:29:44","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T21:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=171550"},"modified":"2014-04-17T14:29:44","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T21:29:44","slug":"official-praises-demolition-workers-lovable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/official-praises-demolition-workers-lovable\/","title":{"rendered":"Official Puts Demolition Workers On Pedestal"},"content":{"rendered":"
A district Communist Party secretary’s adulatory tribute to a group of demolition workers last December was “propelled to national levels of scrutiny and ridicule”<\/a><\/strong> after the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolitan Daily picked it up on Wednesday.\u00a0From Austin Ramzy at The New York Times:<\/p>\n Shao Chunjie, a district Communist Party secretary, told a gathering of demolition workers that they were the city\u2019s \u201ckindest, most venerable, most lovable, most capable of moving one to song and tears, most praiseworthy people,\u201d according to a statement\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0on an official website.<\/p>\n Mr. Shao\u2019s tribute was fulsome, and all the more striking because the praise was for workers who carry out one of the most controversial policies in China. The removal of residents from their homes to make way for construction projects provides the opportunity for huge returns for developers and local governments, but it also sets off disputes that can turn violent and at times deadly.<\/p>\n […] \u201cI think the Xinyang secretary\u2019s words are heartfelt,\u201d Yuan Yulai, a lawyer,\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0on his Sina Weibo account. \u201cAnd that shows the depths to which our society has sunk.\u201d [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read more about forced demolitions in China via CDT<\/a>, including a 2012 report on forced evictions by Amnesty International<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A district Communist Party secretary’s adulatory tribute to a group of demolition workers last December was “propelled to national levels of scrutiny and ridicule” after the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolitan Daily picked it up on Wednesday.\u00a0From Austin Ramzy at The New York Times: Shao Chunjie, a district Communist Party secretary, told a gathering of demolition workers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":171551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14744,14745,14746,100,5],"tags":[5284,15386,4618,7523],"class_list":["post-171550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-demolition","tag-forced-demolitions","tag-government-officials","tag-local-officials","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n