Where is Chinese Medha Patkar. Will any of them survive people's friendly commie regime there protesting resettlement. 3.3 lakh people, and resigned to fate for greater good. Now that is what would be a real commie.
XIANGFAN, Hubei, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Moving water from the Yangtze River across half of China to its parched north is a massive technical undertaking -- but authorities are finding a greater challenge in resettling the people whose homes are in the path of the project.
The water will be diverted via three routes: eastern, middle and western. The middle route alone involves relocating about 330,000 people in central China's Hubei and Henan provinces.
Hubei announced a successful trial relocation of 12,000 migrants May 24. The trial took nine months.
But with plans to relocate 31,293 people by Aug. 31, signs of discontent are already leaking through the cracks of a massive social program to relocate them.
To demonstrate the problems they face, Hubei relocation authorities Monday outlined their policies to help migrants, including:
-- A grant of 0.1 hectare (1.6 mu) of land per person compared with the provincial average of 0.05 hectare.
-- An annual subsidy of 600 yuan (87.84 U.S. dollars) per household for 20 years.
-- Free vocational training, favorable employment policies and a pension scheme.
-- Compensation for their fixed assets above-market rates.
-- A free biogas pit to convert human and livestock waste into methane gas for each household.
SACRIFICES
However, much of the compensation is not as valuable as it appears, say some migrants.
Relocated migrant Zhang Yonglong is resigned to his fate, but not happy about it. "We have to make sacrifices for the greater good," he admitted.
Zhang, who is waiting for his new home to be built, said he received more than 124,000 yuan (18,155 U.S. dollars) for his 1.4-hectare orange grove and more than 90,000 yuan for his old building back in his hometown Jiangju village, Danjiangkou City.
Zhang's 178-square-meter new home in Gucheng County sits in the center of the county, an hour's drive from his hometown near Danjiangkou Reservoir.
The cost of Zhang's house was about 630 yuan per square meter, but it was resold to Zhang at around 520 yuan a meter with a government subsidy, said a Gucheng government spokesman.
In the old town, Zhang said, his orange grove earned him more than 50,000 yuan a year, and he could make a living from fishing, growing traditional medicine herbs and raising livestock.
Now he had 0.1 hectare of flat land that he had no clue how to plow. Even if he did, it would earn far less than his orange grove. Local farmers say a plot of its size would normally bring 3,600 yuan a year, 5,000 at most.
"Though the compensation package, which is worth more than 240,000 yuan, is fairly handsome, my income from the orange grove was stable and lasted for generations," Zhang said.
The oranges produced near the Danjiangkou Reservoir were a prized export to Japan, Korea and Russia.
It took time for the migrants, who mostly lived on the mountains, to get accustomed to life and work in their new homes. The government was working hard to help them get familiar with new skills and the environment, said Xu Tengfang, the provincial relocation official.
Some officials and local residents say the migrants are exaggerating their incomes to bargain for more favorable polices.
"It's human nature to think of what's lost as the most precious. It's also human nature to speak for one's own benefit," said Li Guangxian, a relocation official in Xiangfan, Hubei's second largest city.
REBUILDING LIVES
But for others, it's not just about money.
Wang Li, 30, and her parents are to be moved from Wudang Mountain, a world cultural heritage site and sacred Taoist mountain.
"We love our tranquil life here," Wang said. Her wood-brick house on lower Wudang Mountain is sheltered by tall trees and faces a vast stretch of water.
Taoism is part of Wang's life. She visits the Taoist monasteries and listens to the preaching of monks at least once a week. But she worries most about her parents who have lived on Wudang Mountain for decades.
"My parents are so used to living in harmony and unity with nature, as promoted in Taoist philosophy. I wonder if they can fit into the worldly environment at the resettlement site."
Provincial authorities Monday insisted they were doing their best to accommodate the migrants.
"We do not force the people to move; we persuade them by trying hard to meet their demands and relieve their worries," said Xu Tengfang, a spokesman for Hubei's relocation authorities. ( persuasion as in Tienanmein square)
Xu said the migrants, mostly farmers, generally had better and bigger homes, more land, better infrastructure and brighter prospects after relocation.
LEADING THE WAY
Hubei Vice Governor Tian Chengzhong said the provincial government would help at least one member of each relocated family to find a job as long as he or she was willing and fit to work.
The families were resettled in more developed areas near cities or roads with better access to jobs, markets, schools and hospitals, he said.
In Hubei, about 180,000 people are to be relocated by 2014 when the water level of Danjiangkou Reservoir and the Hanjiang River, from which water will be diverted, will rise from 157 meters to 170 meters.
About 80,000 people will have to leave their counties, which involves more changes in life, work and environment.
"I can promise that the 80,000 migrants, who have to leave their hometowns, will lead Hubei's 30 million farmers in improving their incomes, living conditions and long-term well-being," Tian said
"We succeeded in persuading the people to relocate by listening to their demands. And that makes the relocation humane," Tian said.
Hubei offered a choice of 519 resettlement sites, enough for 130,000 people, Wang Yuanliang, head of the provincial relocation bureau said. "In principle, they can live where they choose."
A committee of elected representatives voted for the villagers in choosing the sites. Their losses from the relocation were also taken into consideration in arranging the sites, Wang said.
The government invited a member of each family to visit the sites to check the resettlement conditions before making the choice. They also had a say in the size and design of the homes, he said.
The buildings within a site are mostly the same. The designs are collectively decided by the villagers through a vote. Most of the houses are one or two-storey buildings.
In a new resettlement site in Gucheng County, the relocated villagers voted for buildings in a traditional style usually seen in east China's Anhui Province.
"Villagers, not the government, sign contracts with the builders. They are the employers who made the final decision. The government acts as consultant," Wang said.
Members of each family took turns to oversee construction work in makeshift shelters in the sites. The local government provided free meals and accommodation.
The quality of the homes was jointly inspected by provincial, municipal and county authorities. Village representatives were invited to witness the whole inspection process, Wang said.
NEW NEIGHBORS
However, many of their new neighbors say the government is being "way too generous", including a 60-year-old local woman farmer under the alias of Yang Chunhua.
Yang's family of four worked a 0.93-hectare plot before half of it was transferred to the migrants.
The land, which was leased to state-run Zhangluogang commune, was purchased back by the local government at the price of 23,000 yuan every 0.1 hectare, Yang Zhiyong, head of Xiangfan's relocation authorities, said.
"The farmers were not entitled to the payment because they had no rights on the land."
As employees and retirees of the commune, they were duly paid salaries and pensions, and their crops were purchased by the commune at fair prices, local relocation official Li Guangxian said.
From the 0.93-hectare land, Yang Chunhua's family used to earn 1,400 yuan per month. "With that much land, we still could not afford our son's college tuition. How can we live with just 0.47-hectare of land?
"The land is life to us, but it's nothing for the migrants."
Yang Chunhua said the migrants, who came in March, did not like the place and were mostly living elsewhere, leaving the houses and land idle.
"Less than 10 families have resettled in a community of 41 houses. What a waste."
An official with the Xiangfan municipal relocation department said the houses were empty because the migrants had gone back to their old places, which were yet to be submerged, to harvest oranges and other produce.
Most of the houses had no interior decorations or furniture.
Some migrants bought properties near their hometowns and moved back, leaving parts of the resettlement empty, Li Guangxian, the local relocation official said.
Right next to the rows of villa-like empty homes is a two-room unpainted building haphazardly piled up with bricks on a patch of uneven black soil -- home to Yang Chunhua and her husband.
"Everyone cares about the migrants, who cares about us?"
