TheTang Fuzhencase
Nevertheless, China’s rapid economic growth is also accompanied by human rights
problems. One of the 2004 constitutional amendments provides:
The lawful private property of citizens shall not be encroached upon.
The state protects by law the right of citizens to own private property
and the right to inherit private property. The state may in the public
interest expropriate or take over land for public use and pay
compensation in accordance with the law.^26
This provision endorses the public opinion that private property in China should
be seriously protected, specifically by an article in the Chinese Constitution.
A tragedy foregrounded the issue. In April 2009 the enforcement section of the
city council in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, tried to demolish an
illegal construction by Hu Changming, but failed because of Hu and his wife Tang
Fuzhen’s resistance. Hu and his family threw bottles filled with gasoline at staff,
and the enforcement section desisted. On 13 November 2009 , the enforcement
section once again tried to execute the administrative directive to demolish Hu’s
shop in order to build a road. Again, Hu and his family threw bottles of gasoline.
This time the enforcement section was not called off. Furious, Tang burned herself
with gasoline in front of the public. The protest shocked the nation, and Tang
eventually died on 29 November 2009.
According to the Regulation for Demolishment and Relocation of Municipal
Construction, which was enacted on 13 June 2001 , the city council’s action was
legal. The 2001 regulation authorised the municipal administration to execute
construction demolishment if an administrative directive had been issued. But a
group of experts at Peking University pointed out that the 2001 regulation was
inconsistent with the 2004 constitutional amendment and the new Property Law
(Act) 2007. The State Council was advised to review the legality of the 2001
regulation to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
On 21 January 2011 , the State Council issued the new Regulation for Construction
Expropriation and Compensation. In the new regulation the State Council removed
the article that had authorised administrations to demolish people’s houses without
consent. Rather, the 2011 regulation requires the administrations to take a legal
action if they cannot make an agreement with the owner. The State Council accepts
that it is not reasonable to let one party to a conflict freely use violence, and the
impartial judiciary should decide which party’s claim has a legal basis.
The State Council also defined ‘in the public interest’. As in theTang Fuzhen
case, some may ask whether a road should be built ‘in the public interest’. The 2011
regulation narrows the definition to needs with respect to national defence, diplo-
macy, public service, council housing, etc. In expropriating people’s houses, there
(^26) The Twenty-Second Constitutional Amendment to the 1982 Constitution.