Abstract:
In 1997, the municipal government of Beijing began planning how to widen a congested arterial road that ran through the Chinese capital's historic center, just blocks from the palaces of the Forbidden City. This case describes the somewhat stormy process of public consultation which centers on the extent to which some of Beijing's oldest--but arguably most substandard--residential structures should be demolished to allow for the widening of the road.
Learning Objective:
This case raises the questions of how and whether planners must take into account the politics of community concern and protest, whether such protest should simply be dismissed as self-interested, and, most broadly, what the relationship should be between technical experts (in this case road planners and engineers) and the political process. For non-Chinese audiences, this case breaks new ground in describing-through the use of first-hand interviews-contemporary municipal and community politics within the People's Republic.
