The Demolition Incidents

My readers may be familiar with a story published on my websites about three years ago. The basis of the story didn't make the national headlines in China because it was a local matter; although, it represents a rather pervasive phenomenon. Several large advertising towers along the highway belonging to Dawu Group were demolished on June 16, 2018 by government departments. 

The circumstance reminded the author of his experience at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1993. He asked his doctoral students to imagine they were starting up a business in their particular field of expertise. The project was to design a poster which would advertise their business. Out of his own funds he purchased the posters which were to be used. 

It was amazing the degree of enthusiasm and skills the students applied to their project. This was magnified because most of the students were in theoretical rather than applied sciences. They actually had to think about the real world and what they might do after they graduated. 

Their teacher was quite proud of their achievements. He displayed their posters on the walls of three classrooms. However, he ran out of space. Therefore he also posted them on the walls of the stairwells. 

The Party had them all torn down within one-half hour. It may not be called demolition, but it is definitely censorship of free speech. They asked him why the posters had been put up. He explained to them that his kindergarten teacher used the same method. And everything he learned was in kindergarten--especially social skills. They didn't quite know how to respond to that reply.

Dawu Group put up large advertising signs along the highway to direct motorists to their businesses--especially out of town travellers who wanted to find the water park. They asked permission of authorities to put up the signs and they received permission. Another hundred businesses did the same thing. 
​​

Yet, one day the government arbitrarily tore down the signs without using legal procedure. They even confiscated property in the same manner. Anyone else-- except those in authority--might regard it as vandalism if not theft. The signs were sold for their scrap steel value. Of course,  the government used a third party so that they could distance themselves from illegal theft. The point is that the distinction between getting permission and not getting permission is blurred because the government can act arbitrarily and even claim legality based on vague laws. However, if the government is teaching its citizenry to act as it does rather than what it says then it may unexpectedly get exactly what it wishes. 

One might say that the government's dismantlement of the billboards was predicatable based on two factors. The most important was the Xiong'an New Area 雄安新区 which was established in April 2017. Xiong'an's development is taking place under the direct oversight of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. This means private signs were sacrificed by the State in the interest of public good as interpreted by the State, part of a beatification program or for any other reason. 

The second factor involves precedent. The city of Beijing had announced on December 17, 2017 that 27,000 illegal signs would be demolished. These were along the 4th Ring Road which was fininished in 2001. The author is familiar with this road because he travelled on it for 45 minutes by bicycle to CAS in Zhongguancun, Haidian District so he could teach a 3 hour class and then returned on the same road in the opposite direction to teach a 3 hour class at CASS in Chaoyang District. 
​
The battle of 4th Ring Road, so to speak, was waged on four fronts; namely, signs, safety, beatification and demolition of homes. Tens of thousands of rural migrants and workers were kicked out of their homes and forced to move back to the countryside. One woman was thrown out of her home, thrown out of a hostel the next day and thrown out of another hostel on the third day. 

The dismantlement of billboards in the Xiong'an area in 2018 was also a harbinger of things to come. Billboards are basically signs. However, symbols are much more important.  Dawu SUN, Dawu Group and Dawu City are related symbols. They symbolize freedom, family enterprise, democracy, constitutionalism and moral principles. The three symbols are perceived as threats to the Communist Party because of their proximity to the the Xiong'an New Area.

Dawu City is a socialist, utopian paradise of common prosperity. It is based on goodness rather than evilness. The model encourages people to be good and it begins with the family and earlier with ancestors and rites. On the other hand, the Party's model is top down. It assumes that force is necessary because people are born evil. Of course, it may be said that evil is in the eye of the beholder. 

It can be perceived that SUN Dawu is much like Confucius who searched for a ruler to serve. According to a new book called of The Shortest History of China  by Linda Jaivin, Confucius  asked seventy-two different rulers if he could serve them. Ironically, it seems, he also had seventy-two pupils who mastered his thought, but they were not rulers. 

Unfortunately for Sun--China has only one ruler. China is ruled by only one thought. It is Xi Jinping Thought. It is a situation reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution under Mao Tse-tung who wanted to preserve Chinese Communism and his own authority by imposing Mao Tse-tung Thought as the dominant ideology. 

There is a difference though between Confucius and SUN Dawu with respect to the times they lived.  Confucius lived in the Spring and Autumn period of the Zhou Dynasty. He was   arrested only temporarily because of misidentification. However, if Confucius had lived in the Qin Dynasty he likely would have been persecuted or perhaps executed through burial along with 460 Confucian scholars. The author classifies Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Thought as "Tough Thought".

It was not enough for the Party to establish a committee at Dawu Group. It was not enough for the Party to require  systematic government access to private-sector data at Dawu Group as they have required throughout China. It was not enough to hold a local meeting of the Party at Dawu Group around the time of the trial. 

What  was required was the arrest of more than 20 family members and company executives of Dawu Group along with the seizure of the Dawu Group Ltd. What was required was replacement of all 30 managers of the subsidiaries with officials sympathetic to the Party if not outright Party members. What was required was the conviction of SUN Dawu and others on charges of "Picking quarrels" 寻衅滋事 which the author calls "Peking quarrels" even though those quarrels were provoked by organs of the State. What was required by the Party was the Annihilation of the Dawu Group Family Enterprise reminiscent of the Annihilation of the Kong (Confucius) Family Enterprise in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution. 

The trigger for the arrests and seizure of Dawu Group 大午集团​ were the land dispute incidents of 6.21 and 8.4 against Xushui State Farm in 2020 which are known in Chinese as 2020年针对徐水国营农场的6.21和8.4土地纠纷. Three of the charges relate specifically to the 8.4 incident of August 04, 2020. The following abbreviated account is provided through the courtesy of China Change. 
​

"The “August 4 incident” specifically refers to a series of collective rights’ protection actions by Dawu Group employees on August 4, 2020, when the Xushui District Public Security Bureau (徐水区公安局) intervened with excessive force in the land dispute between Dawu Group and a state-owned farm.

At the end of July 2020, the Dawu Group built fences and prefabricated mobile houses on the Sijiatai (四家台) lot for farming and management needs in accordance with the land contract signed with Langwuzhuang village (郎五庄).

On August 4, 2020, the state-owned farm obtained the protection of a large number of police from the Xushui District Public Security Bureau (PSB) through a mere written request without prior notice to Dawu Group, without negotiating with Dawu or taking other legal approaches. The state farm personnel unilaterally demolished Dawu's enclosure and mobile houses valued at 18,000 yuan..." 


In retrospect, one can see that the demolitions began outside of the Dawu Group on the highways leading up to it. It involved the destruction of billboards or property owned by Dawu Group which were used for advertising purposes. The company had legal permission to erect those billboards. Dawu Group's staff claimed the demolition was done by government departments. The mayor actually said "Your Dawu Company must support the work of the government!" Basically, the Dawu response was as long as it complies with the law. The author seems to recall that the total loss to the Dawu Group amounted to $100,000 US and the loss to business is incalculable. 

On August 04, 2020 another demolition took place at Dawu City. It was a building owned by Dawu Group. The building had been erected a few days earlier. This was done in accordance with a land contract with Langwuzhuang village (where SUN  Dawu was born). However, the building was demolished without notice under a police protective umbrella. While the damage done amounted to only about $3000 US; nevertheless, the demolition was planned in advance as a provocation by an organ of the State. A civil disturbance and resistance ensued. In the immediate aftermath, Dawu Group employees were arrested. No one who was responsible for the demolition was arrested. No police were arrested. All of this resulted in the midnight arrest of the Great Noon (SUN Dawu) and executives of the company by police wielding submachine guns on November 11, 2020.  In effect, the entire Dawu Group Ltd. was also seized by the State. 

D. Carlton Rossi
October 18, 2021



Beijing is rapidly demolishing its own city, and 27,000 billboards are next,
Tara Francis Chan Dec 4, 2017
https://www.businessinsider.com/beijing-after-mass-evictions-comes-billboard-campaign-2017-12

Briefing on the Seventh Day of Dawu Trial
Dawu Legal Team, July 21, 2021
https://chinachange.org/2021/07/24/briefing-on-the-seventh-day-of-dawu-trial/

民营企业“大悟公司”大型广告牌被拆除（博讯2018年6月22日转载）
The large-scale billboard of the private enterprise "Dawu Company" was demolished (Reproduced by Boxun on June 22, 2018. 
https://bnn.co/news/gb/china/2018/06/201806222201.shtml

Linda Jaivin, The Shortest History of China, Published by Black Inc.: Carlton Australia, 2021.

Land Disputes

Land Dispute 1963

孙大午：你想做个干净的人，你就做不成
原作者：编辑： Yve -
来源：中国数字时代
2020年12月7日 

1.恐怖的大抓捕


南方周末采访的匿名人士称，警方通报中的“破坏生产经营”，源自于孙大午所在的郎五庄村与徐水国营农场的土地纠纷。1963年，郎五庄村曾将740亩土地交由徐水国营农场耕种。实际上，后者占用的土地超过2000亩。为了土地确权，双方数年争执不下。后来，郎五庄村把土地租给了大午种植业公司。今年6月21日和8月4日，大午集团人员与徐水国营农场人员先后发生了两次冲突。第二次冲突中，徐水区公安介入，并与大午集团员工发生肢体冲突，大午集团 20多名员工因此受伤，39名员工被抓。

https://www.ipkmedia.com

Sun Dawu: If you want to be a clean person, you can't do it
Author: Edit: Yve -
Source: China Digital Age
December 7, 2020

 
1. The Great Catch of Terror

An anonymous person interviewed by Southern Weekend said that the "disruption of production and operation" in the police report originated from a land dispute between Langwuzhuang Village, where Sun Dawu is located, and Xushui State Farm. In 1963, Langwuzhuang Village once handed over 740 acres of land to Xushui State Farm for cultivation. In fact, the latter occupies more than 2,000 mu of land. In order to confirm the land rights, the two sides have been arguing for several years. Later, Langwuzhuang Village leased the land to Dawu Plantation Company. On June 21 and August 4 this year, Dawu Group personnel and Xushui State Farm personnel clashed twice. In the second conflict, the Xushui District Public Security Bureau intervened and had a physical conflict with Dawu Group employees. More than 20 employees of Dawu Group were injured and 39 employees were arrested.

According to a report by VOA, Sun Dawu said in an interview later that the police clearly favored the Xushui State-owned Farm, "it was deemed that they belonged to the state, but in fact they were a group for personal gain in the name of the state."


* Mou, Chinese unit of land measurement that varies with location but is commonly 806.65 square yards (0.165 acre, or 666.5 square metres). 



The central issue between Xushui State Farm and Dawu Group is a land dispute. There are thousands of land disputes throughout China every year. In most cases, they result in confiscation of the land at some point. Social unrest is created in the process. 

The fact is that this particular land dispute began in 1963 or 58 years ago. The issue is not so much what happened in two incidents referred to as “6.21事件”and 和“8.4事件”in 2020 at a village in Langwuzhuang leading to eight charges against only one side in the dispute. Two questions should be asked. Why has the government not developed a satisfactory mechanism in 58 years to resolve disputes like these? Why hasn't the law been adequately reformed to avoid disputes? 

2020年8月4日

China Business News: Sun Dawu’s new puzzle: What is a state-owned farm?

October 10, 2010

This expressway is called Rongwu Expressway. It runs from Rongcheng in Shandong to Wuhai in Inner Mongolia. It is an east-west trunk line in the "13 vertical and 15 horizontal" planned and constructed by the state. It runs through the whole of Hebei and passes through the Dawu Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Group. It is located in Xushui County, Baoding.

However, the Dawu Group, which covers an area of 225 acres, has not received the corresponding compensation for land acquisition, which makes Sun Dawu puzzled. "According to the "Notice of the People's Government of Hebei Province on the Implementation of the Land Price Requisition" (Jizheng [2008] No. 132), I should be able to get 80% of the land compensation." He told reporters, "But now only for the land For the compensation for attachments, the compensation for land acquisition has not been paid.” The reason given is that Dawu Group is not the owner of the right to use these land.

In fact, the land was originally contracted and leased by Dawu Group from the local state-owned farm in Baoding. The contract period was 30 years, with 16 years before it expired. However, all land compensation was paid to the state-owned farm, Dawu Group Because he is not the owner of land use rights, no compensation will be given for the next 16 years.

"Freak" State Farm

In Sun Dawu's view, the state-owned farm is like a "freak": its business activities have nothing to do with superiors, profit and loss have nothing to do with superiors, and the amount of money earned is not handed over to the state or government. However, the superiors will still provide various compensations to the farms according to the agricultural land (the original situation was that farmers paid agricultural taxes, and the farms also paid agricultural taxes; now farmers enjoy a subsidy of more than 80 yuan per mu, and the farm also enjoys it), and the farm operates in a market economy. Being realistic I don't think it has anything to do with the State.



中国经营报：孙大午的新困惑：国营农场为何物？

October 25, 2010

这条高速公路名叫荣乌高速，从山东的荣成直至内蒙古乌海，是国家规划建设的“十三纵十五横”中一条东西干线，贯穿河北全境，也正好经过大午农牧集团所在的保定徐水县境内。

但是被占地225亩的大午集团，却没有得到相应的征地补偿，这让孙大午怎么也想不通。“按照《河北省人民政府关于实行征地区片价的通知》（冀政 [2008]132号），我应该能得到80%的土地补偿款。”他对记者说，“但现在只给了地上附着物的赔偿，征地补偿款分文未给。”给出的原因是大午集团并非这些土地的使用权人。

事实上，这些土地当初是大午集团从保定地方国营农场手中承包租赁而来，承包期为30年，还有16年才到期，但是，全部土地补偿款支付给了国营农场，大午集团因不是土地使用权人，未来的16年不予任何补偿。

“我们承包了30年却不是使用权人，这是什么道理？实在难以接受。”孙大午说，“这样的事全国不知有多少？国有资产居然不属于国也不属于民，到底属于谁？”

“怪胎”国营农场

在孙大午看来，国营农场就像一个“怪胎”：它的经营活动与上级无关，盈亏与上级也没关系，赚多少钱也不上交国家，也不给政府交。可是上级仍然会按照农用地给予农场各种补偿（原来的情况是农民纳农业税，农场也纳农业税；现在农民享受每亩80多元的补贴，农场也享受），农场在市场经济中经营生产、盈亏自负，看不出和“国家”有什么关系。

http://sundawu1.blog.sohu.com/161530405.html

50 million Chinese left homeless by developers

Sydney Morning Herald

October 24, 2011


It’s a reversal of one of the core principles of the Communist Revolution. Mao Zedong won the hearts of the masses by redistributing land from rich landlords to penniless peasants. Now, powerful local officials are snatching it back, sometimes violently, to make way for luxury apartment blocks, malls and sports complexes in a debt-fueled building binge.

City governments rely on land sales for much of their revenue because they have few sources of income such as property taxes. They’re increasingly seeking to cash in on real estate prices that have risen 140 percent since 1998 by appropriating land and flipping it to developers for huge profits.

“The high price of land leads to local governments being predatory,” said Andy Xie, an independent economist based in Shanghai who was formerly Morgan Stanley’s chief Asia economist. “China’s land policy is really screwed up.”

The evictions are alarming the nation’s leaders, who have taken steps to tackle the problem and are concerned about social stability. Land disputes are the leading cause of surging unrest across China, according to an official study published in June. The number of so-called mass incidents -- protests, riots, strikes and other disturbances -- doubled in five years to almost 500 a day in 2010, according to Sun Liping, a sociology professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.


There’s more to come. Some 60 million farmers will be uprooted over the next two decades as the urbanization that propelled China to the world’s second-largest economy gathers pace, according to an estimate by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. In many cases, officials take land they don’t use, an August report from the academy said.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/50-million-chinese-left-homeless-by-developers-20111024-1mg0p.html

康养小镇

Cheng Tiejun: Sun Dawu's "Capital Socialism" Dream (Part 5)

February 4, 2021

 Da Wu continued, “For another example, the state encourages farmers to exchange vacant homesteads for our commercial buildings, which is conducive to the use of idle land and promotes urbanization. I built nine elevator houses with the replaced land quotas. I also got approvals from the Land Bureau and the Urban Construction Bureau. The government also collected corresponding taxes and fees. Unexpectedly, the new district chief of land would not agree with the approval of the former leader. Acknowledgment, insisted that we were building illegally, and claimed to be blown up for us. After a reasonable argument, the city leaders intervened in coordination, and the dispute was settled. Let us make up for the "change of use" difference before it is settled. This turmoil. If the definition of land rights is very clear, the land use supervision is also clear and easy to understand, leaving no ambiguity. Will there be so many frictions and disputes?" In response to this ambiguity, I asked friends in the system, and they said out of the mystery, it turns out that randomness is directly proportional to rent-seeking space. The greater the arbitrariness, the more opportunities to make money. Therefore, urban streets are under construction almost every year. After digging and repairing, and digging after repairing, there are rebates available for every construction.



程铁军：孙大午的“资本社会主义”梦 （连载之五）

2021年2月4日


” 大午接着说，“再比如，国家鼓励农民，用空置宅基地交换我们的商品楼，有利于闲散土地利用，也促进促进城镇化建设。我用置换来的土地指标建了九栋电梯房，也从土地局和城建局拿到了批文，政府还收了相应的税费。没想到，新任区土地局长，对前任领导批准的事情不认账，硬说我们是违章建筑，声称要给我们炸掉。后经据理力争，市领导介入协调，才算平息了纠纷，让我们再补交点什么“变更用途”差价，才算摆平了这场风波。如果地权界定非常清楚，土地用途监管也明白易懂，不留模糊地带。还会有这么多摩擦和纠纷吗？”针对这种模糊随意，我询问了体制内朋友，他们道出了其中奥妙，原来，随意性跟寻租空间成正比。随意性越大，捞钱机会就越多。所以，城市街道几乎年年施工，挖了修，修了再挖，每次施工都有回扣可拿

https://yibaochina.com/?p=240568

   
Original title: Why was Sun Dawu arrested? Land disputes with state farms surfaced

November 15, 2020


Wu Danhong, director of the Difficult Evidence Center of China University of Political Science and Law and a part-time lawyer of Beijing Youbang Law Firm, recently wrote an article that the reason for Sun Dawu's sudden arrest after many years is most likely due to the aforementioned land dispute. Many years ago, Langwuzhuang Village had handed over 740 mu of land to the state-owned Baoding Farm for cultivation, but there have been people accusing the state-owned Baoding Farm for occupying more than 2,000 mu of land in Langwuzhuang Village. In order to confirm the land rights, the two sides have been arguing for several years. Later, Langwuzhuang Village leased the land to Dawu Seed Industry Company.

Since then, Dawu Group personnel and state-owned Baoding Farm personnel clashed repeatedly due to land confirmation issues, which eventually led to police intervention.




孙大午因何被抓？与国营农场土地纠纷浮出水面
2020-11-15

中国政法大学疑难证据中心主任、北京市友邦律师事务所兼职律师吴丹红近日撰文称，时隔多年，孙大午此次突然被抓的起因，大概率是因为上述土地纠纷。多年前，郎五庄村曾将740亩土地交由国营保定农场耕种，但一直有人在控告国营保定农场占用郎五庄村土地超2000亩。为了土地确权问题，双方数年间争执不下。后来，郎五庄村将地租给了大午种业公司。

此后，大午集团人员与国营保定农场人员多次因土地确认问题发生冲突，并最终导致警方介入。

https://money.163.com/20/1115/18/FRGCB76N002580S6.html

 



人身和财产权   Person and Property Rights
                                             

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