Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
I'm not 'trying' to bash China....in fact I haven't even said much about the whole Tibet thing, even if I think it is wrong.
But I have a problem with the government having the right to do anything with your land/home/job/life.
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I hear, ya. I'm not trying to defend China either, because from my personal experiences within the country and having close family and friends living there, I definitely have problems with how some things are done. In fact, it would be a pretty long list.
Just want to point out things that I have observed contrary to what people have posted here to stem some of the confusion.
My take on the entire 3 gorges project. My understanding is that they were also compensated fairly for for the land. The biggest problem is that since that land isn't worth alot, the people displaced have a very hard time finding a place to land. A good analogy is if the Canadian government displaced you out of a small town in Alberta (say Didsbury) and say your only option is to relocate to Calgary. You'd be in quite the pickle, since the differences in living standards are an order of magnitude. It's an even a larger discrepancy in the Chinese case than in my analogy.
This is compounded by the fact that Chinese farmers don't make alot of disposable income. It's impossible to relocate to a decent city, where all the jobs are, given the market value given to them for the land and how much they have managed to save. Add in the general lack of social aid provided by the Chinese government, the situation gets even uglier.
My uncle was fortunate in the sense that he had already owned property in a relatively high valued area of China and he basically did a lateral move within the same city.