Beijing evicts Chinese migrants in droves, prompting outcry
BEIJING — Zhou Xinci left her hometown in China’s struggling rust belt four years ago for Beijing with little more than the clothes on her back and a dream to one day save enough money to buy a home.
That dream is now fast unraveling as Zhou, 35, watches as her neighbours — other low-income Chinese migrants like her — are being hurriedly evicted from their homes on the outskirts of the capital by the government.
Authorities in Beijing have launched sweeping evictions of workers who have migrated from elsewhere in the country, triggering a public outcry over the treatment of people the city depends on to build skyscrapers, care for children and take on other lowly paid work.
Zhou, whose husband is a factory worker in Beijing, knows their family will soon be next and wonders how they will stay in the city and keep their 9-year-old son safe and in school.