Chongqing owners clash with public security over parking space dispute Residents : Riot police shoot to suppress

In Chongqing, more than 10,000 owners of the Evergrande Jinbi World neighborhood clashed with hundreds of security guards on Wednesday (14) over parking fees. Authorities deployed more than a thousand public security officers to crack down. Some local residents said they heard gunshots during the clashes, and some protesters said they had their arms broken by police.

The scene: “The police are beating people up!”

Thousands of homeowners in the Evergrande Jinbi World neighborhood in Chongqing’s Jiangjin District clashed with hundreds of security guards hired by the real estate on Wednesday (14) over the issue of parking spaces. The clash lasted from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. Wednesday. A local resident said, Evergrande 14 early in the morning sent many buses with security guards stationed around the community, the authorities also sent hundreds of riot police to suppress the incident, many people were arrested.

From the scene people filming footage can be seen, there are people were carried to a large tour bus type police car, was beaten on the head, the man returned fire, after the two sides in the car beat each other: “fight. National Security beat people ah.” Many owners were outraged and came out on the main road outside the estate, once surrounding the police car, the police had to escort the police tour bus away hand in hand. During the period, a local resident said he heard a loud bang, said someone shooting: “fighting, all fighting. Shots were fired. Wow, all shooting.”

Injured owners: security guards pushed me to the ground and broke my arm

The police did not pay attention to her, but surrounded her and did not allow other owners to approach.

The injured woman: “I was lying there for so long, there was no security, no police came to control me. The police also put me in a circle inside the human wall circle. Do not let others to control me. One person wanted to take a cardboard to me to lie down, the police were not allowed to take it into the human wall circle they surrounded. The person who took the cardboard said that it was very hot on the asphalt road in Chongqing in July, so he took a cardboard for him to sleep on, but the police wouldn’t let him. (The injured man revealed his left shoulder) My bone is broken in this place, (X-ray) film is visible, the doctor can see. My neck is also injured.”

Local residents said Evergrande Group sold parking spaces at a high price but the spaces were originally free

Local residents Mr. Luo said to this station, Evergrande Group earlier the original free parking spaces, from July 14 to start charging, parking spaces are even sold at a high price. Another resident said that the monthly rent of the parking space is 270 RMB and the management fee is 50 RMB.

Mr. Luo: “Many owners questioned the (real estate) arrangement of the parking space, but then the police sent thousands of people to suppress it, and the public had tens of thousands of people. This is also a kind of popular venting, I guess.”

A “Letter to Owners” was circulated online, disclosing the reason for Evergrande’s parking space price hike. The letter mentions that last year Evergrande sold owners’ parking spaces at prices ranging from RMB 88,000 to RMB 98,000, when the price was raised because of the tight parking spaces, but then because there were fewer owners buying parking spaces, making it difficult for Evergrande to recoup its funds, Evergrande reached an agreement with the manager of Evergrande’s real estate department to sell each parking space for RMB 39,000 to RMB 42,000 to the real estate manager, after which the manager then resold it at a high price of RMB 75,000 per parking space The manager then resold them at a high price of 75,000 yuan per parking space.

The incident was blocked by the authorities, and videos of the incident on social media, including Weibo and ShakeYin, were deleted. Authorities also clamped down on WeChat groups and set up checkpoints at intersections in Jiangjin to prevent foreigners from entering or leaving the area and to investigate “suspicious characters.

Comment: Developers “repeat sales” of parking spaces, local governments can get tax benefits from it

Mr. Huang, a local network commentator, said to this station that the developer had incorporated the parking space into the public area when planning the house as early as possible, so that the owner had to bear the public construction cost when paying for the parking space, but through various post-adjustment techniques, the public parking space was vacated and “repeated sales for the second time”, and as the developer or the owner who bought the parking space The developer or the owner who bought the parking space has a certain degree of monopoly over the parking space, “then they can rent it to the community owners at a very high price”.

Mr. Huang: “The local government has a bundle of tax benefits for land sales and developer sales. In this kind of conflict, the local government is reduced to the developer’s hand, and the developer becomes the local government’s ‘mother hen that lays golden eggs’. In the end, those who suffer losses, those who are beaten, and those who suffer property losses are actually the people who are unarmed and have no ability to defend their rights.”

It is also not uncommon for property owners and owners to clash over parking spaces. In 2014, a large housing estate in Nanning, Poly City, was protested by hundreds of owners for changing the parking lot from a monthly fee to a sectional fee, during which the police violently dispersed and pepper sprayed the protesting owners.