Comment

When a former demolisher becomes star 'nail'

By Xu Fan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-28 10:47

I witnessed recently a scuffle between demolishers and people who refused to be evicted. In a dramatic show, an angry man waved a white flag to the onlookers and shouted "This house can only be demolished over my dead body". Behind him, four to five sturdy looking young guards stared at him menacingly.

He was a professional "nail", hired by "nail households", or restaurant owners, who refuse to move without being properly compensated.

"Nail households" are now common as people refuse to be evicted and stick out like a "nail". In this case, the restaurant owners were a young couple who had sold an apartment partly financed by their parents to start their restaurant business.

After realizing that they couldn't solve the problem through legal means, the desperate couple decided to hire a professional anti-demolition "nail", 45-year-old Lu Daren.

Ironically, Lu was given the job because he had been a demolition team leader for four years, which had prepared him to deal with the situation skillfully.

Before the subletting company switched off power and water, Lu had stored candles, coal and drinking water. When the guards tried to pull Lu out of the restaurant by force, he threatened self-immolation by lighting a dozen gas cylinders.

It's sad to see that people resort to such extreme measures to solve a civilian dispute. There is an old Chinese saying that goes: "The baby who cries loudly will be fed first." Chinese adults also like to make a big noise when they fight for their interests.

People may argue that it's not fair to blame the "nail" and "nail households" for staging such dramatic scenes. Many property companies are aggressive when acquiring and developing land, with the encouragement of local authorities.

In the most serious cases, homeowners set themselves alight in protest of perceived social injustice.

The standoff between the "nail" on behalf of the restaurant owners and the subletting company is a slap in the face for the drive for national harmony.