Another Beijing street protest against forced evictions, as documented by Hua Yong
Yesterday’s demonstration inย Feijia Village ่ดนๅฎถๆ in northeast Beijing — where hundreds took to the streets to protest the city’s forced evictions that have left tens of thousands homeless — may have been the largest of its kind so far, but it wasn’t the first.
An artist named Hua Yongย ๅๆถ documented a small-scale protest on Thursday in Xinjian Village ๆฐๅปบๆ in Xihongmen Town ่ฅฟ็บข้จ้, Daxing District ๅคงๅ ดๅบ, in south Beijing.ย Hua says in thisย short video that he was just passing by when he saw villagers gathered on the street.ย Among their chief complaints was lack of heating in their apartments.
Xinjian, if you’ll remember, is where Beijing’s current cleanup campaign all started:ย A fire on November 18 reportedly killed 19 people, prompting authorities to order an evacuation. This was followed by a hastily announced 40-day citywide “safety check“; in many residences, water and electricity were reportedly prematurely shut off.
Below, Hua asks a villager,ย “Why isn’t there food, heat?”
ไธญๅฝ๏ผๅไบฌ๏ผๅคงๅ ดๅบ๏ผ๏ผ๏ผ๏ผ pic.twitter.com/20P68ikSYk
— ่ๆจ (@kIbCENCnptRftj0) December 7, 2017
“Governmentย subsidies for heat were siphoned away by local officials” is the reply.
“Siphoned?”
“Yup.”
In the next video, amid honking and the presence of police, a woman angrily tells Hua, “How are we regular folk implicated in the Xinjian fire? The government needs to resolve this question, isn’t that right? What does the fire have to do with us? The industrial park [where the fire happened] doesn’t have a penny’s connection with us.”
A woman in a red coat next to her curses “them” for being poisoned with corruption.
https://twitter.com/suxinPL/status/938706616408510464
“Why would they evict us ordinary people? We’ve been freezing for two months, with no solution even now. This ain’t right. Right? There’s a two-year-old below, upstairs, there’s a 96-year-old man, they’re all freezing together. They won’t resolve it.”
Hua points out the cops and asks if they’re afraid.
All three ladies on camera say no. “I hope they take us away,” says the woman in red.
In addition to the demonstrations in Xinjian and Feijia, there were (unconfirmed) reports of a third protest on Sunday in the area ofย Nanxiaojie ๅๅฐ่ก on theย border of Daxing and Fentai districts, also in south Beijing. As in Feijia, Nanxiaojie’s demonstrators also appear to be holding banners that read “Forced evictions violate human rights” (ๆดๅ้ฉฑ่ตถ๏ผไพต็ฏไบบๆ).
https://twitter.com/szstupidcool/status/939726580925980672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupchina.com%2F2017%2F12%2F10%2Fanti-eviction-protest-feijia-village-beijing%2F
Hua, who lives in Beijing’s Songzhuang Village and calls himself a vagrant/bum, released a video yesterday (embedded below) in which he says he is currently onย the run from police, relying on friends to shepherd him from one city to another.
He addresses a wide range of subjects in the 40-minute video, including the Daxing fire — in which he questions the official casualty figure of 19 — Beijing’s lower class, social media’s effect on art, and the city’s recent skyline cleanup campaign, in which 27,000 billboards and signs are slated for removal.
“If you still say, ‘Don’t pay attention to politics,’ then you’re not paying attention to your life,” he says. “Your life, your human dignity, if you don’t pay attention to that, then I tell you, you’re not fit to be anything, you’re not fit to be human.”
Hua notes that Sunday was Human Rights Day, and makes an appeal for truth. “If you ask people to not speak the truth, are you not creating terror and lies?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmo3bzq7m1s
“Do I have the right to speak?” he asks. “At least I don’t have freedom of speech, to say anything real.”
Hua calls himself an “insignificant ant” who only observes what’s in front of him, and says he doesn’t want to leave China, despite opportunities that have presented themselves. His most recent tweet from two hours ago — which he also posted to his Facebook page — is this letter:
2017-12-11 ๅๆถๆฅๅนณๅฎ pic.twitter.com/aqmrZPfpcy
— ่ฏๆนง (@HuaYong798) December 11, 2017
It reads:
As it stands, living or dying is no longer important, I deeply love my motherland and see hope!ย If I must die or go to jail, I’d be willing to on my native soil.
Thank you to my friends for their concern, please donโt donate any money for me. I’ll disobey my country even more, I want to see daybreak in my native land!
