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China Crackdown on Illegal Construction Hits Wealthy Homeowners in Beijing
Suburb

Yibing Feng

   BEIJING - Last week in Xiangtang Village, a suburb of Beijing, hundreds
   of men dressed in black arrived, accompanied by a fleet of excavators.
   They handed residents notices, informing them the government concluded
   that their properties were illegally built, and that they had seven
   days to pack their belongings and move out as their homes would be
   demolished.

   Eyewitnesses said many tried to protest but were subdued by the guards.
   Yang Yusheng, a law professor at China University of Political Science
   and a resident at the village, started a hunger strike and wrote online
   about his anger and frustration with the government's decision. Soon,
   his electricity and water were cut off, apparently in retaliation, as
   temperatures outside dipped below freezing.

   The episode marked the latest faceoff between China's central
   government authorities and an informal housing financing system called
   the Small Property Rights Housing (SPRH).

   Small Property Rights Housing

   The Small Property Rights Housing system has been an important, but
   informal, part of China's growth for years.

   "There are a lot of SPRH in China for the last 30 years because
   development took place at such a rapid rate that the law and approval
   of the land couldn't keep pace with development," said Lynette Ong, an
   associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
   "So SPRH is a way to bypass that bottleneck."

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