Chongqing: beating is in the air

Chongqing is getting not the right PR. ESWN picked up this set of pictures of a security guard dealing with a potential client in a less than courteous way. Again, not the way to a harmonious society.

Chongqing organizes itself a mass incident

A small BBQ-stall owner, beaten up by local authorities, ignited a massive riot and a burning government car in Chongqing op September 4, reports Global Voices. Despite effort to surpress the news, the internet got hold of it.

The power of a blog: the nail house revisited

A 26-year old vegetable seller from Hunan province, Zhou Shugang, used his weblog last month to tell the story about the Chongqing nailhouse, a story he covered in person, after the traditional media were banned from writing about it.

Now the weblog has only gained in popularity, writes the South China Morning Post, in a follow-up story.

Homeowners across the country flocked to the site in hopes of attracting attention to similar causes, among them 45-year-old Shanghai resident Chen Jialiang, whose house was flattened in his absence last year.
Mr Chen's trip to Chongqing did not yield him any mainstream media headlines, but he did secure a lengthy report with pictures on Mr Zhou's blog for himself and 12 other households in his district. Mr Chen said the exposure might lead to a breakthrough in his dispute with the developer.
"I'm very grateful to Zhou Shuguang for putting forward the case about our houses. Our problems would have been solved long ago if we had got the same attention that the Chongqing couple did."

A court fights for its independence

the Chongqing nailhouse

ESWN translates a great feature story in the Southern weekend that uses interviews with the main parties involved in this the cause of the Chongqing nail house, including Mrs Wu Ping. It is a great case study on change in China, but I want to stress one interesting element: the Jiulongpo district court director Zhang Li, is one of the main players in this drama.

He said that the pressure of the "nail house affair" was something "he had never encountered in forty years of living and may be a once-in-a-life-time thing."

Zhang Li had just started his job in this district on March 17 and got a crash course in media relations and discovered the power of the internet:

"At the time, I felt that it was a troublesome thing to deal with the media. I was afraid that I might say something wrong. I turned down media interviews. In retrospect, I can frankly say that I regret that." Almost a month later, he reflected to the reporter.

Zhang Li effectively refuses to join press conferences with the local government. He insists that his court should remain independent and throws himself into some arguments. He gets support:

As district party secretary, Zheng Hong recognized this. "In other countries, government officials and judges will not sit down together. But foreign reporters do not understand party leadership in China." In the end, the court held its own press conferences. Similarly, when the government held its own press conferences, the court did not participate.

Hectic scenes display at the government offices and many officials, including Zhang Li have sleepless nights. He has to oversee the negotiations, since his relative independence as a newcomer in the district. Chongqing was able to avoid a worst-case scenario.
Really worth to read the whole article.

Deal on Chongqing house

Yee reports that China's most famous house, the nailhouse in Chongqing, is now being demolished after a deal has been reached.

New deadline for Chongqing nailhouse

Josie Liu points at her (fairly new) weblog at the press conference by Huang Yun, the Chongqing districthead in charge of China's most famous house. At the picture he shows how beautiful the area is going to be after the nailhouse has been removed.

Huang announced a new deadline for demolishion: April 10, the third time a court has issued such an order.

Mr. Yang and his wife Wu Ping have refused to accept more than 2.4 million yuan ($300,000) of cash the developer would pay to them, but asked for an unit of the same position and area as their current property in the new business compound to be built on the same location, which happened to be a major commercial area in the city.

Blogger Zola investigates

Zola and Mrs Wuping

Most webloggers just sit behind their computer and do not investigate anymore, is a much heard complaint, especially from traditional journalists. But there are exceptions, shows Yee, pointing at blogging hero Zola, who is investigating the Chongqing nailhouse now Chinese media cannot write about it anymore.

The favorite blogger (of this moment) Zola is at the spot and Yee translates.

Chongqing beats sex and porn

Traffic to this weblog is going through the roof, I just noted. The Chongqing stories seem to do very well, even better than the sex-related stories and that is rather new.

Chongqing nailhouse gets a music clip

(h/t China Blog)
According to the latest, the stand-off is still ongoing.

Chongqing house hit by publication ban

The State Council Information office has banned all publications on the Chongqing house. Chongqing media were already forbidden to report about the house, but now all national media have to comply. From Ziji Space Blog, translated by CDT.

All domestic print press have received urgent notices from the State Council Information Office at 1:30 pm, March 24, no more reporting and commenting on the "nailhouse" event. All domestic online media also received urgent notices from the Information Office of State Council at 1:45 pm, March 24, no more reporting and commenting on the "nailhouse" event. All news related to this event must be pushed to the backend. All special feature pages are deleted. All comments function on this news are closed. By 2 pm the same day, all internet portals including sina, netease, sohu and QQ have deleted their special reporting pages on this story.

More at China Digital Times.

Spoofing the Chongqing house struggle

Yan Bing, the husband of Wu Ping, has now also reached celebrity status. Another pick up from Global Voices.

Mrs Wu Ping receives the media

Citizens report from the Chongqing site

John Kennedy documents for Global Voices the fallout on the internet of the Chongqing house of Mrs Wu Ping.
Many first hand reports from citizens who went to the place themselves.

I just got back from the scene. It’s not as busy there as I’d imagined, about two-three hundred Chongqing residents standing nearby on the bridge, on the railway track, supporting old Yang, just sixty to eighty meters away from old Yang’s fortress! Someone named Lin is down there organizing everyone to shout to old Yang, ‘be brave..!’ Old Yang flashed the flashlight over a few times in response! Old Yang is staying strong, keeping calm!

Who needs TV here?

the Chongqing house

Also Mr. Wuping now jumps into action

Venture 160 is on top of things after he earlier today translated the CCTV-interview with Mrs. Wuping, now he has the story (and the picture) on Mr. Yang Wuping who has re-occupied the house, waving the Chinese flag from the roof.

Now the Wuping's have secured the help of the central government in their struggle, the case is fast becoming a dimension faster. Without doubts there will be thousands of potential Wuping's watching this repport, where the central and local political forces collide, rush out to buy a flag and wait for a crew of CCTV to arrive. This mouse is going to have a very long tail.

Mrs Wuping

Chongqing's incredible house gets a face

You might remember the pictures I published earlier (as this many others) on the incredible house in Chongqing and the many stories that were emerging on the internet.
While the local media could not publish about the most famous house in Chongqing, the stories kept on spreading on the internet, often hardly based on any facts. But that forced national media like CCTV to bring the story and Venture160 did a great job in translating the interview. It is a very nice combination of story-lines and illustrates how courts, property developers, local government and the media interact, with the internet as a major destructive force (from almost every perspective.)

The incredible Chongqing house

More pictures and stories are emerging since I posted this first picture of the amazing house in Chongqing earlier in the week. Venture 160 has done some translating here. Unlike earlier stories, this is not a protest, but the house used by the construction company:

One netizen said this wasn’t a holdout at all, it was actually the contractor’s temporary residence, there were also other netizens who supported this position.
After verification, this was determined as Chongqing city’s “Broadway” real estate construction site currently being put up in the residential quarter.