The tent set up by the owners of the subdivision on the ruins.
For more than a month, the owners of Jiuhua Agricultural Science Demonstration Park in Xiaotangshan Town, Changping, Beijing, have sued the town government dozens of times in the Changping District Court for the district being demolished by the town government, but the court has not filed a case. Currently, more than a dozen residents, including Palace Museum scholar Zong Tongchang and owner Li Qiang, who was previously taken away by government officials, are living in tents and cultivating crops on the ruins of the plot in an attempt to guard their right to use the land.
A few days ago, a peculiar scene appeared on the ruins of the Jiuhua Agricultural Science and Technology Demonstration Park in Beijing’s Xiaotangshan Township, which was completely destroyed due to forced demolition. More than ten owners set up tents on the ruins of the community, planted crops, and put up simple fences around the land they were farming. In a video recorded by the owners on April 10, two owners had the following conversation.
Zong Tongchang greets the community owners with a smile on his face in the video.
Owner A: The simple fence was rebuilt.
Owner B: We want to plant vegetables, flowers and fruits on it, we insist, we are determined not to give up!
Owner A: Yes, good! (Applause)
According to our previous tracking report, on November 17 last year, hundreds of black-clad men hired by Wang Hongmin, the secretary of Xiaotangshan Town of the Communist Party of China, broke through the owners’ obstruction and carried out a forced demolition of the Jiuhua Agricultural Science Demonstration Park. Despite the resistance of the residents of the community by various means, the community was completely destroyed in January of this year. Subsequently, the homeless owner Li Qiang went to sleep with his mother in front of the town government and was taken away by the town government staff in March this year. Currently, with the end of the “two sessions” in Beijing, Li Qiang has been released and is living and farming on the ruins of the community with more than a dozen other homeowners.
On April 10, 2021, Li Qiang, the owner of the community, circled his farming land on the ruins of the community. (Video screenshot)
On April 19, Ms. Luo, a subdivision owner who now lives in the United States, introduced the reason why the owners are farming on the ruins: “There are already a dozen neighbors who have returned to the land for cultivation because the land is still in our effective contract period, while our neighbors found that the village committee and the town government are organizing some people to conduct surveys as if they are going to start reselling the land again. “
According to Mr. Song, the owner of the district, previously told the station that the local government has been rumored to have sold the land of the district “to a company for development”. At present, in order to guard their contracted land, more than a dozen owners returned to their homes, clearing debris, planting crops, so as to prevent the government to resell the land. The reporter called the Xiaotangshan town government several times on April 19 to confirm this, but the phone has not been answered.
As early as December 1998, Xiaotangshan Town Hulu River Village Economic Cooperative and Jiuhua Investment Consulting Company had signed a contract, the former leased a piece of agricultural land to the latter, allowing the latter to use 10% of each mu of land for a “pilot tourist housing site”, the use of which is 50 years. Since then, the Jiuhua Investment Consulting Company then used the land for real estate development, resulting in the Jiuhua Agricultural Science Demonstration Park, and the owners of the community also received a land use right certificate stamped by the town government and valid for 50 years.
Ms. Luo told reporters that last year, the Huluhe Village Economic Cooperative had sued Jiuhua Investment Consultants in an attempt to recover the leased land. “The lawsuit against Jiuhua Consultants has been withdrawn, indicating the validity of our contracting of this land.”
Left: Legal document showing the withdrawal of the lawsuit by the Huluhe Village Economic Cooperative against Jiuhua Investment Consultants on March 9, 2021. Right: A plot owner’s land use right certificate with the town government’s seal.
According to the document provided by the owner, the withdrawal of the lawsuit by Huluhe Village Economic Cooperative was dated March 9 this year.
Ms. Luo also said that since early March, the owners of the district have been suing the Xiaotangshan Township Government in the Changping District Court to protect their rights. So far, the lawsuit has reached dozens of times, but the court has refused to file. She said: “so we have been dragging, is extremely abnormal behavior, we must fight this lawsuit, the domestic fight can not, to foreign countries to fight, we do not believe that there is no place to reason.”
For this reason, the reporter also repeatedly called the Changping District Court, but the phone is also unanswered.
At present, the residents of the community who are farming on the ruins are maintaining an optimistic mindset. In a video provided by the district’s owners on April 18, two owners and fellow owner Zong Tongchang, a scholar at the Palace Museum, greeted other owners in their tents with smiles on their faces, saying, “Neighbors, look who’s here, we’re so good here, it’s so good! Sharing our joy with you.”
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