Welcome to Beijing: where helping the homeless can get you evicted
Chinese migrant worker Yang Changhe lost the roof over his head when he tried to help those suddenly forced out by a government crackdown on safety
When Yang Changhe decided to help migrant workers thrown out of their homes in a citywide safety crackdown in Beijing, he didn’t expect it would end in his own eviction.
Yang, who moved to the Chinese capital from Hunan in 2009, ran a drop-in centre for other migrants in his spare time and was one of many members of the public who rallied to help the tens of thousands of people given just days – and in some cases hours – to leave their homes on the fringes of the city.
“I saw there were so many people desperately in need of help, and I just wanted to do something for them,” he said.
The migrants were evicted as part of a 40-day campaign launched last week to address safety threats in the aftermath of a residential fire that killed 19 people this month.
The campaign corresponds with a bigger push over the last year to limit the size of Beijing’s population, a drive that has involved shutting down wholesale markets and warehouses and clearing slum areas.