Chinese estate firm threatens residents with bullets

BEIJING - A real estate company in China, which wanted to rebuild and expand a few buildings, allegedly threatened residents with bullets to force them to move out.

The Mingze Real Estate Company asked the residents of Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, to move out so that they can expand the buildings, and said they can move back later but only after paying the company a certain amount of money.

When the citizens refused to do so, they were reportedly served with a demolition notice to which was attached a real bullet, the China Daily reported Tuesday.

“If you don’t move back, they pay you some compensation, which is not as high as market value. If you want to move back, you have to pay them the price difference between an old and a new apartment,” a local resident named Liu said.

“It’s absurd that someone is forcing us to move out so that they can rebuild our building and sell it,” he said.

When the residents went to the city’s demolition office, which issues approvals of demolishing people’s houses to real estate companies, they were reportedly told: “Why don’t you residents cooperate with the company and make things easier?”

“We don’t know what to do. More and more people are moving out, leaving the poor and elderly here with nowhere to go,” said Liu.

The company has, however, denied they issued any notice with bullets.