[masonic]

... and China's more ruthless powers of Eminent Domain to acquire land

[oefrha]

Having your home demolished for a development project in China used to be like hitting the jackpot, because it meant your cheap old property will often be exchanged for expensive new apartment(s) in addition to massive cash compensation. There’s literally a nascent social class in China called 拆迁户 (relocated households, roughly) known for getting ridiculously rich overnight. A shitty old family home in the right place in Shanghai could net you something like $10-20m, for instance.

I heard that compensation has been vastly scaled back since a year or two ago, but I don’t know the details.