Mountainside villas demolished amid China's anti-corruption crusade

World
Europe

02:31

At the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains in northwest China's Shaanxi Province lay more than 2,000 villas. The largest one, spanning around 9,000 square meters, was home to two fishponds and a stunning garden decorated by sophisticated stone carvings and jade statues. Despite their architectural beauty, the villas were eyesores to local villagers, occupying farmland and damaging the environment.

The lavish villas, largely built upon farmland and forest, were constructed illegally by individuals and real estate developers starting in 2002. Claiming that they would use the land to build gardens, developers reached a deal with local villagers without getting the approval of relevant authorities.

In 2003, the Shaanxi provincial government issued the decision to ban all individual and business entities from using the land in the Qinling Mountains for individual property construction and real estate development. Nonetheless, the construction continued.

A bird's eye view of the villas located at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, September 7, 2018. /VCG Photo

To save the environment

The Qinling Mountains, which covers some of the largest remnants of densely forested land in China, is referred to as China's "central green lungs" for cleaning the air due to its high concentration of plants. The mountain range is a natural demarcation between the northern and southern part of China and is immensely important as a biodiversity area, as well as home to the habitats of many wild animals including giant pandas and golden monkeys.

A campaign to demolish the illegally constructed villas to restore the environment was first launched in 2014. In May, Chinese President Xi Jinping first gave directives to look into the case, which, however, was not given due attention by provincial authorities.

The Shaanxi provincial government, after a brief investigation into the matter, reported to the central government in 2014 that 202 illegal constructions were identified, claiming that "the work on demolishing illegal construction has finished."

But in the end, 1,194 villas were found to have been constructed illegally.

Trees are planted at the land where the illegally built villas were demolished at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains in northwest China's Shaanxi province, October 11, 2018. /VCG Photo

To fight against corruption

"The reasons behind the illegal villa construction are the government-business collusion and power-for-money deals between local government officials and property developers," said Xu Lingyi, deputy head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, in an interview with CCTV News.

To protect the environment, the Shaanxi provincial government issued a notice in 2013 prohibiting any individual or company from building apartments and villas on the northern side of the Qinling Mountain Range. However, some of the cultural tourism projects launched by the Xi'an municipal government opened the floodgates for illegal construction.

"Some of those tourism projects developed into real estate projects after certain authorities in charge of land planning and natural resources development gave the green light," said Wang Yongkang, the Communist Party Secretary of Xi'an.

In March 2014, the illegal villa construction was revealed to have devastated the local natural environment. Nearly three months later, a campaign was launched to rectify the problem.

More than 2,000 villas are built at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, September 11, 2018. /VCG Photo

At that time, the 202 illegally built villas were dismantled or confiscated. However, many more villas were built between June 2014 and 2018.

The probe, led by Xu at the end of July 2018, found 1,194 illegally built villas. So far, 1,185 of those villas were demolished and nine were confiscated.

"I feel regret for not performing my duty in prohibiting the illegal building. I should not loosen the restriction because I took money from the property developers," said He Hongxing, who is in charge of the planning and development of the Qinling Mountains.

Officials who were found to have violated laws and regulations in this case are now under investigation.

(The article is translated and edited from CCTV News, The Beijing News, The Paper, and the Xinhua News Agency.)