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Jun Mai

The banging at the door came without warning.
A salesman who would only identify himself by his surname Ma living about 3km from Beijing’s main airport was at home at around 8.30pm on Monday when the police pounded at the door and told him to get out.
“They were not knocking on my door, they were banging and kicking,” Ma said. “I had around 10 minutes to pack my belongings and leave before they sealed my home.”
Like hundreds of others, Ma and his girlfriend who works at the airport were forced out onto the street in freezing temperatures with most of their belongings still inside their two-storey home.
The area, Liqiao township in Shunyi district, is home to thousands of people working at Beijing Capital International Airport, which employs about 60,000 people.
Welcome to Beijing: where helping the homeless can get you evicted
The neighbourhood in the city’s northeast is just one that has been caught up in a 40-day crackdown on safety after a fire in a residential building in Daxing on the fringes of the capital killed 19 people just over a week ago.
Often violently and sometimes without warning, officers have mounted raids in areas where many of the city’s migrant workers have rented housing, leaving tens of thousands homeless at the start of winter.
There have also been multiple reports of water and electricity being cut to force occupants to move out.
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.
Ma said he had no idea that his home would be raided.
“We were not notified of any evacuation before they came,” he said, adding that he was told he could go back after three days to collect his belongings.
Beijing’s migrant workers sent packing in safety crackdown after deadly blaze
Around half a dozen residents of the area reported a similar experience.
A security screener at the airport surnamed Hao said she was also forced out of her home on Monday night and had decided to leave the city for good.
She said the case was the same for more than 10 of her colleagues at the airport, an exodus of staff that she said had affected the facility’s operations.
“It’s not only the security screening section [that is hit], but also other departments,” Hao said.
A flight attendant with an overseas airline said she had been staying at a friend’s place since she was forced out on Monday night.
“It’s just ridiculous. They banged on my door and told me to pack my valuables in around a quarter of an hour,” she said.
Police detain 18 in Beijing after blaze that killed 19
“People who live here are mostly security screeners and other ground staff living on modest salaries ... An airport of this size will need all of these people. It will certainly be affected.”
Landlords in the neighbourhood, where monthly rents range from around 500 yuan (US$75) to 1,000 yuan for a room, said they were not notified of any new fire security requirements before the raids took place.
“They picked a few houses a night, and went like, ‘get your ID and move’,” one landlord said. “I’m very scared every day.”
Calls to the airport’s security company and catering firm – a big employer of migrant workers – went unanswered.
The evictions come as Beijing tries to limit demand on resources in the capital by forcing out “low-end” industries such as textile wholesaling and manufacturing. But the campaign has been derided as inhumane by many in the community in the last week.
All was quiet in Liqiao on Tuesday with no raids carried out that night.
However, the township’s Communist Party chief did lay down the law about fire safety, requirements that landlords said would be impossible for tenants to meet.
“They said they will ban induction cooking indoors, but who can afford to eat out for every meal?” one landlord said. “The fire safety regulations apply only to the tenants, not to us locals. I think it’s very obvious they’re trying to drive these people out.”
The villagers were also told to limit tenants to around one-third the present number.
The landlord said most contract workers at the airport did not have employer-provided housing and the neighbourhood one of the few placed they could afford to live.


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‘They came banging and kicking’: Beijing airport workers swept up in fire safety crackdown

Police mount a night raid near the Beijing airport, evicting occupants from their homes as part of a safety crackdown. Photo: Handout

Welcome to Beijing: where helping the homeless can get you evicted

People move out of a residential building on the outskirts of Beijing close to where a fire in a two-storey structure killed 19 people this month. Photo: Simon Song

epa06326076 Chinese security guards block a gate to stop people from entering a clothes wholesale market which is closed due to Beijing's new urban planning policy, Beijing, China, 13 November 2017. Beijing's new mayor Cai Qi has vowed to cut the city off all the functions unrelated to its status as the national capital, in an effort that is seen as pushing the growing population into the surrounding provinces. Wholesale markets and urban villages where the migrants work and live are being torn down in what reports state is an attempt to force lower-income residents out of the city. EPA-EFE/WU HONG EPA-EFE/WU HONG

All the shops have been closed on the street at the area where a fire killed 19 people on Nov. 22, 2017, in Beijing. A big fire broke out on Nov. 18 afternoon at Jufuyuan Apartments, a two-storey building used as rented accommodation in a village in Daxing, an outer district to the south of Beijing city centre, killing 19 people, and burnt several others. 22NOV17 SCMP/Simon Song

Beijing’s boss warns against official haste as migrant workers reel from wave of evictions

Law enforcement officers seal a hotel during a citywide safety inspection after a deadly fire in a residential block in Beijing earlier this month. Photo: Reuters

View of a bulletin saying the tenants must move out by Nov. 22 after local authorities started to close overcrowded rental housing following a deadly fire at the Xinjian Village, Xihongmen Town, Daxing District, in Beijing, China, 25 November 2017. Photo Imaginechina

Cai Qi (centre) speaking at the meeting on the safety of the capital, which followed a residential fire that killed 19 on November 20 , Cai Qi said those evicted should be given time to move out. (image taken from: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/)

Residents walk on the street after local authorities started to close overcrowded rental housing following a deadly fire at the Xinjian Village, Xihongmen Town, Daxing District, in Beijing, China, 25 November 2017. Photo Imaginechina

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Police descend on neighbourhood popular with workers at the capital’s airport, with some staff saying they will leave the city for good


‘They came banging and kicking’: Beijing airport workers swept up in fire safety crackdown

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Police descend on neighbourhood popular with workers at the capital’s airport, with some staff saying they will leave the city for good

Police descend on neighbourhood popular with workers at the capital’s airport, with some staff saying they will leave the city for good