Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court Forced 77-Year-Old Senior Citizen to Petition Naked

• Author: Cang Hai

77-year-old senior citizen Zhuang Jinghui owned a private clinic before it was demolished. In 2002, the senior citizen was cheated by Pudong New Area Land Reserve Center into signing her name on a blank contract, but in fact she had not received any compensation at all for the demolition. In 2006, under pressure caused by Zhuang’s petition to Beijing, Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court was forced to respond with a ruling of “stop the lawsuit, stop the enforcement”.

In 2008, Pudong New Area Land Reserve Center demolished the house owned by Zhuang in breach of the Court’s order. Zhuang petitioned for numerous times but all to no avail, and so the only option left to her was to show up on the doorsteps of the local government office and to protest naked. In the end she was compensated with a house with street frontage. However, the house had not undergone an environment impact assessment (EIA), had no running water, electricity and heat, and had no hope of obtaining a Housing Ownership Certificate. The senior citizen’s clinic therefore had to cease operations.

On 18 August at approximately...