{"id":394771,"date":"2018-01-24T15:30:50","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T15:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=394771"},"modified":"2018-01-24T15:30:50","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T15:30:50","slug":"beijing-demolish-thousands-illegal-structures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=394771","title":{"rendered":"Beijing to demolish thousands of &#8216;illegal structures&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Authorities in Beijing have unveiled plans to demolish 40 sq km (15 sq miles) of alleged illegal structures, a move set to displace thousands of low-paid migrant workers.<\/p>\n<p>The city&#8217;s acting mayor said they would &#8220;ensure zero increase of such structures&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2017, Beijing tore down buildings that violated safety codes, evicting tens of thousands of workers.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear how many workers will be displaced this time.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese capital will also continue to &#8220;close small shops operated from illegal openings cut in the wall&#8221;, according to an annual report released by acting mayor Chen Jining.<\/p>\n<p>Officials believe these are illegal modifications to traditional buildings.<\/p>\n<p>Although the campaign is being presented as a way to improve the city, critics accuse the government of targeting a vulnerable population with few rights.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/13D1E\/production\/_99728118_china4.jpg\" alt=\"A bulldozer clears debris from buildings demolished by authorities in a migrant housing area on the outskirts of Beijing.\" width=\"976\" height=\"500\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>Millions of migrant workers have moved from the Chinese countryside to cities in recent decades. The World Bank predicts that by 2030, as many as 70% of Chinese people will live in cities.<\/p>\n<p>However, in recent years Beijing has been trying to\u00a0reduce the population in some parts of the city by 15%\u00a0to ease pressure on its infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities in Beijing have unveiled plans to demolish 40 sq km (15 sq miles) of alleged illegal structures, a move set to displace thousands of low-paid migrant workers. The city&#8217;s acting mayor said they would &#8220;ensure zero increase of such structures&#8221;. In November 2017, Beijing tore down buildings that violated safety codes, evicting tens of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":394773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[947,139],"class_list":["post-394771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-beijing","tag-china"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=394771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/394773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=394771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=394771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=394771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}