Just three days after Beijing ordered local governments to do everything to encourage the private sector, 2,300 traders in the northeast city of Shenyang have lost millions of yuan from erratic and apparently irrational official policies.
The story in the China Business Times illustrates vividly how far the country has to go to give a fair deal to private business.
The traders ran stalls in 'China Snack City' in a large market in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province.
Then suddenly on October 26, the city government ordered them to move and designated one place, in the Hunhe building, for them to go.
Two days later the official press published notices of the move and said that the traders would have to move quickly.
Enraged, nearly 1,000 traders went to protest to the city government, saying that the decision was too hasty and left unresolved many financial issues, such as leases they had signed for keeping stocks that still had time to run. They protested that the Hunhe Building was unsuitable and was in a bad area.
The government relented a little and on November 4 published a new order which said they could choose where to go as long as they left the original site.
