Relocation is once again in the spotlight after two people, who were dissatisfied with their relocation offers, set themselves on fire in the past two months.

The first incident was on August 22 when Weng Biao, a resident of Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, burned himself and six relocation staff after his house was leveled to the ground.

The second victim was Zhu Zhengliang, from a county in East China's Anhui Province, who traveled to Beijing and set himself on fire in Tian'anmen Square on September 15. He had complained many times about his relocation to authorities in Anhui.

In fact, the relocation problem has long been a sensitive topic in many regions of China during the country's urbanization process.

In Shanghai, residential quarters are constantly being dismantled or being readied for dismantling to make way for Metro lines construction, road building, green belts or expensive real estate.

Low Compensation

After being refused interviews by the relevant governmental departments in charge of relocation work and by a relocation company, the Shanghai Star finally contacted and met with two insiders, whose work is to persuade residents to relocate.

"There are too many problems in the relocation work which are hard to explain," said one of the insiders, who asked to be identified as Wang.

Working in relocation for more than 10 years, Wang feels strongly that the job has turned out to be more and more difficult, with the conflicts becoming sharper.

"The key is that many relocated people today can hardly see any benefits in the relocation," he said. "In the past, there was no real estate market boom like today and there were enough new houses ready for relocated families to choose from."

Currently, relocated families can choose to receive relocation compensation or get a new house from designated areas.

"However, with the boom in the real estate market, rising housing prices are beyond the means of most ordinary people and the amount of the compensation is not enough to buy a new apartment," he said.

Meanwhile, second-hand house prices are also sky-rocketing in the city and even reach the price of new houses.

Furthermore, most new houses for relocated families are undesirable because of their distant location, poor facilities or terrible environment.

Accordingly, increasing scepticism towards relocation workers and relocation companies is leading to a rise in the number of disputes.

"The amount of the compensation offered is the biggest problem," Wang said. "For example, one family may ask why their neighbor or another household in a similar situation get more compensation than they do."

Wang said that different families may get different amounts of compensation but the compensation offered to each household could not be more or less than the standard stipulated by the regulations.

"In fact, differing levels of compensation is the sticking point," he said. "This badly needs to be improved."

Although some media show great sympathy for relocated households and blame relocation staff and relocation companies, Wang believes the sympathy is not wholly deserved.

"A relocation worker's duty is to persuade a family to move but not to offend them or to fight with them," he said.

"Violence would only make the problem more difficult to solve. The last resort is enforced demolition in the presence of law officers and court staff as stipulated in the regulations."

Fang, is another insider, who started work on relocations six months ago and who used to be a neighborhood worker.

"I had heard that the work is troublesome, but it is much harder and more complicated than I imagined," she said. "I really sympathize with these families. After all, they have to move out of their houses where they have lived for tens of years of even for 50 years."

However, Fang's duty is to ensure these families move out smoothly.

"Of the more than 30 families I am responsible for, only two have moved and this is really terrible," she said. "The relocation work started early in June and once I found I could not help weeping because of the great pressure on me."

She said she tried her best to satisfy each family within the scope allowed by the regulations.

"However, many residents are not that friendly and my colleagues may fail to enter their houses to have a chat," she said. “Some residents also may raise some unreasonable requests."

Wang said that the family of one of the "martyrs" had enjoyed special preference during relocation and had received an apartment in the downtown area with the same area as their old house.

"However, his sister insisted on getting the same preference, which was not reasonable at all," he said.

(Shanghai Star October 10, 2003)