Just 2 days ago, a business woman burned herself in protest when the Ningbo city management team tried to pull down her "illegal building". This news  is not at all an isolated case. These days we seem quite often to hear that such-and-such burned himself/herself to death in a certain area in order to prevent his house from being demolished. I was saddened each time I heard about this kind of tragedy in the news coverage. From all these cases we can see clearly how tense the relationship is between the real estate company or local government and the farmers/city dwellers concerned. No matter how these incidents occurred, the lost lives can never be restored.

In North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, there even appeared a demolition notice attached with a bullet. The notice said all the households in a district in Hohhot should complete procedures related to the upcoming demolition by the end of a certain month and all “nails” (people who refuse to relocate) still living there after a certain date would get a “gift” ---- a bullet, which was taped at the end of the notice. The seal of an Inner Mongolia real estate company could be seen, but the company denied doing so. This might be a practical joke, yet it did tell us something that should never be treated as a joke at all.

China is undergoing a major social change---urbanization. More and more factories are being built; more and more farmers are leaving their land to work and live in towns and cities. So it is just natural to relocate some farmers from their original place. The problem is how we deal with the relocation issue in an appropriate way. Farmers say they just want to safeguard their legal rights while real estate companies complain that they are asking for compensation which, in their words, is unreasonably too high. It is likely in China that some real estate companies have threatened them by doing some “dirty” things secretly, in an effort to force them to accept their terms. It is also likely that some farmers made unreasonable demands. Aren’t there any other solutions when the negotiations fail?

I remember reading an article on the internet telling a story to this effect: The famous Prussian emperor, Wilhelm I, built a palace not far from Berlin. When he climbed up and admired the view of the distant city of Potsdam, he found that a mill was incompatibly blocking his view. Instead of ordering this building to be demolished, he sent an official to talk with the owner of the mill, offering a high price to buy the building.

However, the miller just didn’t know how to appreciate favors. No matter how they reasoned with him; no matter how high the offer was, he stubbornly refused to sell that mill. The emperor was shocked and got angry, so he ordered his guards to pull the mill down. Interestingly, the owner was not as angry as some people are nowadays. He didn’t make a tearful scene, let alone tried to burn himself.

The next day the miller went to court and sued the emperor! Surprisingly, the court undertook the case and finally pronounced that the emperor lost the case. The court verdict also said the emperor should restore the original building and all the costs should be borne by the losing party. So the emperor had to act in compliance with the court verdict while the miller happily counted the money without having to worry about the possible revenge.

Many years later both the emperor and the miller died. This time the young owner of the mill wanted to sell the mill. Naturally he thought of the late emperor, so he sent a letter to the new emperor, Wilhelm II. And the young emperor replied in his letter: “Dear neighbor, I’m sorry to know that you’re having a rough time financially. However, I don’t think it wise to sell the mill. After all, it has become the symbol of judicial independence. It should remain your property generation after generation. If you are badly in need of money, I’ll send you 3000 marks. If you feel hard to accept, just take it as something I lend you. Yours, Wilhelm II.

The story happened in the 19th century and today we are in the 21st century! To many of us, the story sounds like a fairy tale, beautiful but unable to believe it was real. When shall we enjoy the same justice as Germans did almost 200 years ago?