China urbanizing

Continuing with a look back to a year ago, this week the subject is China's aggressive urbanization.  The following was posted originally June 24, 2013.

China's government is forcibly moving 250 million people from their farms and villages into cities.  Their thinking?  City people consume more, so more economic growth will ensue.

“In a lot of cases in China, urbanization is the process of local government driving farmers into buildings while grabbing their land,” said Li Dun, a professor of public policy at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

A frenzy of building is producing high rise apartment buildings for former farmers.  Some are glad to get a free apartment from the government, and some free initial money, but there may be social consequences when government uproots millions of people from their homes and way of life.

“For old people like us, there’s nothing to do anymore,” said He Shifang, 45, a farmer from the city of Ankang in Shaanxi Province who was relocated from her family’s farm in the mountains. “Up in the mountains we worked all the time. We had pigs and chickens. Here we just sit around and people play mah-jongg.”

"Relocated" . .  the government took her farm and forced her into a city apartment?  If it were me, I would really hate that.