Between a dam and a hard place
- Source: Global Times
- [22:11 August 05 2010]
- Comments
Fan Daiyou and his wife Yang Yongjin. Photos: Xu Donghuan
Closed shops
Walking downhill toward the river, Nanzheng Street, the former market center of the 440-year-old town, looked deserted. The flagstone pavement, smoothed by the feet of people over many generations, was covered with a thick layer of dust. Although the government has closed the street, a few shops are still in businesses.
"We don't know where to go," said Yang Heming, owner of a bedding shop. "It's hard to find another place for business."
Toward the other end of the town, the Pingshan County Resettlement Bureau is the government's main office for handling resettlement issues. Every Monday and Thursday, staff members are available to hand out resettlement pamphlets and answer questions from displaced migrants.
It was 9 am Tuesday, July 27. At the ground level of its four-story office building, a blackboard, which has the name tags of all the 82 staff members, indicated that bureau director Tan Zuorong and all his deputies were at their offices.
At the reception office on the top floor, a receptionist surnamed Liu insisted that all the leaders were in meetings and unavailable for an interview. After examining an introduction letter from the Global Times and the journalist identification card, she called the publicity department at the County Party Committee, which is a 10-minute walk away.
"Resettlement work has strong political nature, is extremely policy-guided and very sensitive," said Zeng Xianzhang, deputy director of the publicity department, over the phone. "Since the Hanyuan incident in October 2004, the provincial government has strict regulations on the coverage of resettlement for hydropower projects."
During the Hanyuan incident, 20,000 villagers protested the low resettlement compensation for the construction of the Pubugou Dam on the Daduhe River in western Sichuan. Upon requests from top Chinese officials, construction was later put off for a year.
