The Dark Side of Urban Renewal: Beijing’s Purge of Low-End Population
City officials in Beijing have been evicting migrant workers and demolishing what they consider as illegal structures.
In Beijing’s Daxing District, excavators methodically demolish what remains of Xinjian Village (新建村), until recently home to thousands of migrant workers from across China. The demolition marks the latest chapter in Beijing’s aggressive urban transformation campaign, revealing the stark contradictions in one of the world’s fastest-developing cities.
The village, long viewed as an eyesore by local officials, epitomized the challenges facing China’s capital: overcrowded housing, poor sanitation, and concentrated urban poverty. Following a deadly fire that claimed 19 lives, municipal authorities launched a “Safety Evacuation Campaign,” using the tragedy as catalyst for mass evictions. In the depths of Beijing’s winter, thousands of residents found themselves suddenly homeless.
Behind this campaign stands Cai Qi (蔡奇), former mayor and current Secretary of Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC. Earlier this year, he announced plans to “gut the city of all functions unrelated to its status as national capital” — bureaucratic language for pushing the growing migrant population into surrounding provinces. The evacuation of what officials term the “low-end population” became a primary objective, with Xinjian Village serving as the first major target. Within days of the fire, authorities ordered local businesses to close and residents to evacuate, many forced to leave the city entirely.
While Beijing Daily, a government mouthpiece, denies that the evacuations target the “low-end population,” the campaign’s true nature is transparent. Urban villages (城中村) have long played a crucial role in China’s urbanization, providing affordable housing for migrant workers on city outskirts. These dense neighborhoods, characterized by multi-story buildings, narrow alleys, and informal economies, have become essential support systems for workers struggling to survive in expensive metropolises. Yet for officials like Cai Qi, these communities represent an impediment to Beijing’s vision of modernization, making Xinjian Village’s destruction a template for future “urban renewal.”
The Global Times’ recent article “Beijing justifies eviction as safety measure” reveals how this campaign enjoys support from the highest levels of government, fitting into a broader strategy of urban gentrification across China. More troubling, however, is the normalization of the term “low-end population” in official discourse. This language reveals how the Chinese government has embraced a harsh social Darwinism, explicitly labeling lower-income workers as societal “losers.”
Perhaps most disturbing is the widespread public support for these evictions among Beijing’s middle and upper classes. Rather than expressing empathy on social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo, many residents celebrate the removal of “undesirable” elements from their city. This reflects a broader shift in Chinese society, where success is increasingly measured solely in terms of wealth and power.
The cruel irony lies in how this campaign targets the very workers who built modern Beijing — the construction workers, cleaners, delivery drivers, and service workers who keep the capital functioning. As the city pursues its vision of a “world-class” capital, it seems determined to erase the very people who made its rise possible. While Beijing’s gentrification campaign may succeed in transforming the city’s image, it comes at a profound human cost, revealing the harsh realities behind China’s urban dream.
