China

Typhoon Fitow hits China’s south eastern coast causing deaths and damage

Published in Monday October 7th, 2013 In In the media

Authorities evacuated some 786,000 people from Zhejiang province and at least 177,000 from Fujian to safety. Tens of thousands of boats were also called back to harbor across the region.

Tags ,

Migrants to Beijing struggle to afford rent, adequate housing: report

Published in Thursday July 4th, 2013 In In the media

Migrant workers in Beijing live in worse conditions and have more housing pressure than official residents of the capital, according to a report issued Tuesday.

Tags ,

Will Brazil be left counting the cost of hosting the World Cup and Olympics?

Published in Thursday June 13th, 2013 In In the media

BRIC countries have tried to use these mega-events to boost development by accelerating investments in infrastructure and lifting services, governance and local business to international standards. However, the cost to the public purse and the communities affected can be enormous, prompting criticism that the money would be better spent at grassroots level, on improving health and education, rather than on awarding prestige projects to construction companies.

Tags ,

Five Years After A Quake, Chinese Cite Shoddy Reconstruction

Published in Tuesday May 14th, 2013 In In the media

The fear is that the post-quake buildings may also have been built with substandard materials and too hastily, since they were completed in just two years, one year ahead of the target date, as local officials vied to impress their superiors with their efficiency.

Tags ,

Reconstruction work begins in China’s quake-hit area

Published in Friday April 26th, 2013 In In the media

Chinese authorities in Sichuan province Friday began the reconstruction process in the wake of a deadly earthquake that killed 196 people and injured thousands. As teams kept up a desperate search and rescue effort for survivors in the southwestern province, hit by a 7-magnitude quake Saturday, provincial officials said post-quake reconstruction work cannot wait.

Tags ,

Residents of Guangzhou new town’s last urban village battle against eviction

Published in Thursday April 25th, 2013 In In the media

Angry Guangzhou natives in the ramshackle village of Tan, the last urban village left standing in the posh Zhujiang New Town, have stepped up their fight in court this week to protect their ancient homes. Four families from Tan appeared before the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court on Wednesday, trying to get their eviction orders overturned. And more than 200 people showed up from Tan and other urban villages that are seeing forced evictions without what the residents consider fair compensation.

Tags ,

Home ownership dreams in booming Beijing

Published in Thursday January 10th, 2013 In In the media

It was a bargain China’s zealous real estate buyers couldn’t refuse: at the East Asia Impressions Lake compound in suburban Beijing, apartments were selling for just 13,000 yuan ($2,086; £1,282) per square metre.
Similar apartments located closer to Beijing’s central business district cost approximately 20,000 yuan per square metre, according to Savills, a global real estate broker. In comparison, an average flat near London’s financial centre costs 50,000 yuan, while in New York the figure rises to a whopping 68,000 yuan.

Tags , ,

Battle to balance urbanisation with ecological sustainability in China

Published in Thursday December 13th, 2012 In In the media

By the time you finish reading this article, more than 400 Chinese people will have left the countryside and put down new roots in a city. China’s cities, which already house a tenth of the world’s population, are swelling every minute. It is the largest migration in human history, and is a driving force behind China’s demand for everything from steel to sugar to electricity. Perhaps more surprisingly, cities have become a key front in the country’s fight against pollution and efforts to shift toward more sustainable growth.

Tags ,

China to flatten 700 mountains for new metropolis in the desert

Published in Friday December 7th, 2012 In In the media

In what is being billed as the largest “mountain-moving project” in Chinese history, one of China’s biggest construction firms will spend £2.2bn to flatten 700 mountains levelling the area Lanzhou, allowing developers to build a new metropolis on the outskirts of the north-western city.
The Lanzhou New Area, 500 square miles (130,000 hectares) of land 50 miles from the city, which is the provincial capital of arid Gansu province, could increase the region’s gross domestic product to £27bn by 2030, according to the state-run China Daily. It has already attracted almost £7bn of corporate investment.

Inner Mongolia: ‘We Strongly Demand The Return Of Our Sacred Land’

Published in Monday October 29th, 2012 In Social movement news

October 10, 2012 Herders from Inner Mongolia, who rely on grazing herds to make a living, were protesting the “illegal leasing” of land by local government officials to large corporations. According to a previous report by the SMHRIC, the Chinese government is currently in the process of forcing three ethnic minority groups to abandon the […]

Tags ,