EXTREME development (a picture of China's growth)

[Dover]

'The coolest nail house in history'
By Kent Ewing

Hanging on by a nail...



HONG KONG - It appears to teeter precariously on a narrow mound of earth surrounded by a massive excavation pit that would be a shopping mall. In the southwestern Chinese municipality of Chongqing, the modest two-story brick structure - a dot on the decimated landscape - is called the "nail house" because it seems to be nailed to the ground by its owners' stubbornness.

And the woman who is largely responsible for the three-year battle with a property developer and local authorities that has - so far, anyway - saved her home from the wrecking ball is called "the stubborn nail".

After accepting compensation offers, 280 other homeowners long ago moved out of the rapidly developing neighborhood of Yangjiaping, leaving Wu Ping and her husband, Yang Wu, in a lonely David-versus-Goliath struggle. Their widely publicized ordeal has tapped into widespread resentment against greedy developers who collude with local officials to run roughshod over ordinary citizens in the name of profit and progress.

Land seizures in the name of development are commonplace in today's China, as are demonstrations, often violent, against those seizures. In many cases, outside the media spotlight, property developers and local authorities have hired thugs to enforce their will...cont'd

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IC31Cb01.html

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Chinese developers jump the gun

Home buyers have been warned that it has become common practice in rapidly urbanizing China for developers - with the complicity and encouragement of local officials - to build housing on sites before the land has even been approved by the provincial government for such use. - Olivia Chung (Mar 28, '07)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IC29Cb01.html

[Dover]

1. And of course Carlyle Group wants in on it...>

Carlyle saga puts spotlight on China takeovers
By Olivia Chung

HONG KONG - US private-equity fund Carlyle Group's marathon negotiations on acquiring a major state-owned construction-equipment manufacturer in China has been widely seen as a barometer of the Chinese government's attitude toward foreign mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Last week, Washington-based Carlyle signed another agreement with Xugong Group Construction Machinery Co under which the group would reduce its proposed stake in Xugong to 45% from the previous 50%.

Under the new agreement, Xugong would be 55% owned by Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG), which is owned by the Xuzhou city government. Xuzhou would have five seats on the nine-member board of the new entity, while Carlyle would have four.

But as the Chinese government is tightening controls on foreign M&As of SOEs, and as the case of Carlyle's love affair with Xugong has been in the spotlight with critics accusing the deal as "selling cheap state assets", it remains uncertain whether the latest offer by Carlyle could seal the deal as it has yet to be approved by higher authorities...>

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IC24Cb02.html

[Vexatious Ape]

2. Good for her.

I'll never forgive the Supremes for that eminent domain ruling a few years back, here in the land of the free.

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. Property owners are condemned by the Washington Post and NYT routinely for this

They are called "greedy holdouts" who are "spiking development" and their
properties -- standing in the way of ANTI-URBAN whole-block consolidation
projects -- are called "spikes".

Often, the petty bourgeois neighbors (one area I feel free to use the terminology of
class warfare is in the inner city, where it is real and extreme) condemn them for
"standing in the way of progress" and their anti-American unwillingness to make a buck.