How will Beijing look without its low-income population?

published: 2017-12-02 05:29:27

Nineteen people were killed after fire swept through a low-rent and overcrowded accommodation block in Beijing near the airport on Nov. 18. Most of the residents were migrant workers from China’s rural areas. Beijing authorities launched a 40-day eviction campaign targeting similar substandard cheap living quarters. The group worst affected by this campaign are migrant laborers, many of whom are now homeless, just as the temperature is plummeting in the capital. Others are returning to their hometowns with as many of their possessions as they can carry. Was the sudden eviction of so many people the best possible response? How reliant is the economy on migrant workers? And how will China realize President Xi Jinping’s vision of a moderately prosperous society for all?