When you're a Communist country . . .

[Randy W]

you can do this kind of thing. In the WSJ

 

Cutting China’s Capital Down to Size Years of rapid growth have caught up with Beijing; now, authorities are trying to curb the population

 

China’s capital, suffering from growing pains following years of breakneck expansion, is embarking on a radical plan to rein in its population by kicking people out of the city’s center.

Beijing’s government is shutting down businesses and moving others out of the central part of the metropolis in the hope that people will follow. Entire markets deemed unfit for the capital have been closed or moved and services shut down.

The heavy-handed approach is a response to years of rapid urban growth that has brought worsening congestion, pollution and water-supply problems.

 

 

 

 

The Difficulties of Moving Millions of People

 

Much of the activity ​​centers on one Beijing district called Fengtai​.​

Now, some vendors​ in five markets​​ ​there who lost their livelihoods when their markets were closed last year are suing the markets for breach of contract.

Meanwhile, a village located within Fengtai that owned and leased land to the markets is suing​ their operators for failing to pay last year’s rent.

​What’s more, ​five Fengtai ​markets​, where thousands of people worked,​ are pressing the local government for compensation​ ​after their ​properties were demolished.

“We are supportive of the local government’s efforts [to close the markets]. We just want them to play it fair,” said Wang Ruisen, ​who​ manage​d one of the markets.

Beijing is​ moving​ low-end businesses such as wholesale markets to Hebei—the province that surrounds Beijing​. The plan dovetails with President Xi Jinping’s push to create sprawling metropolitan areas akin to those in New York or London.