Dozens of Beijing residents are being intimidated into leaving their homes to make way for state broadcaster China Central Television’s 600-million-dollar headquarters, locals said today. A handful of the residents living on the edge of the vast building site in central Beijing’s business district were dragged out of their homes early today by armed police and beaten by security guards, witnesses told AFP. “They were old people. Some of them were in their 70s,” said a man surnamed Liu, who witnessed the forced eviction. They were taken away in a police car, according to another resident Sun Da.
The residential blocks, originally living quarters for staff at a state-owned auto factory, were slated for demolition to make way for the grand construction project, which will cover an area of 187,000 square metres (two million square feet). Residents told AFP that they had been harassed by hired thugs during past months, who tried to intimidate them into agreeing to move out of their homes by smashing their windows and cutting their heating supply.
Other residents who live in blocks to be demolished in about a week’s time said they were offered inadequate compensation of 4,500 yuan ($563) per square meter, while the market price for housing in the business district was up to 100,000 yuan per square meter. “We have written many times to lobby the city authorities, but no one cares. We never got a reply,” resident Liu Fang said. “I’ve lived here for 35 years but now I can’t afford to buy a flat in this area anymore. We’re forced to accept however much we’re offered,” 65-year-old Lu Shuping said.
Many people had already accepted the compensation package and left their homes because they felt they had no choice, residents said. A banner hung outside one of the residential blocks on Tuesday read: “The collusion between officials and businesses is oppressing the ordinary people.”
The 230-metre-tall (759-feet) CCTV structure, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, will host studios, broadcasting and program production centres, as well as administration departments.
(Source: AFP)
