As the local government of impoverished provinces desperately sell the land to developers in order to shore up their massive debts, the poor are often on the receiving end of heavy handed treatment from government officials, who legally, cannot allow their administrations to go into the red.
"Our Wuxi is now steep in debt," said Xu. "The Wuxi city today relies on drawing from residents' financial wealth and stealing residents' land to survive."
Misguided if we build it they will come policies often mean that whatever is built on the seized land becomes even more worthless than if they had let people live there and pay their mortgages off. The new skyscrapers and industrial centers have few new tenants, and the cost of relocating the displaced families take such a financial toll that township toyed with the idea of docking the wages of the very officials that had forcibly uprooted entire communities to secure a property deal. Even when legitimate deals are made, not many contracts are honored.
Things turned ugly, Xu said, when she rejected the offer. Officials cut her water and electricity supply and Xu and her husband were threatened and beaten.
"One of them called and he claimed to be Hu Jintao," Xu said, referring to a man harassing her family. Hu is China's former president. "He said 'I am Hu Jintao'. So what if we are demolishing your home? What can you do?'"
Xu said her husband eventually signed the deal under threat, but the family has only received 1 million yuan in compensation. Their house was torn down by a work crew hired by the government for 200 yuan and a pack of cigarettes each, her husband said.
As the economy moves from investments to consumer buying, attempts to pay off a 9.7 trillion dollar debt will continue to center around selling land on the cheap for development projects that do little except stroke the egos of CCP members.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTYRpadFtYw#t=10
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