Tragic Timeline
Aug 22, 2003: Weng Biao sets himself on fire to prevent the demolition of his house in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. He is taken to hospital but dies in the evening.
Sept 15, 2003: Zhu Zhengliang, a farmer in Qingyang county, Anhui province, sets fire to himself in Beijing's Tian'anmen Square after his repeated appeals fail to get him compensation for his razed house. He suffers severe burns.
June 5, 2006: Li Minsheng hangs himself because the compensation paid to him for his requisitioned house in Heze, Shandong province, is too low. He leaves behind a son and a jobless wife.
March 22, 2007: Ma Xueming kills two workers and seriously injures another to prevent them from razing his house in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. He is sentenced to death for murder.
Feb 13, 2009: Wang Na, of Chifeng county in Inner Mongolia, sets fire to the room where she has shut herself in protest against the demolition of her house. She is admitted to hospital.
June 5, 2009: Jin Qinghu is chained by police and forced to watch his house go under the wheels of a bulldozer in Dongning county, Heilongjiang province. His daughter sets herself on fire. She is taken to hospital.
Oct 28, 2009: Zhang Xia sets fire to herself in front of a joint demolition team of the local government of Jiaozhou county, Shandong province, and a real estate developer. She barely survives.
Nov 13, 2009: Tang Fuzhen commits self-immolation in protest against the forcible demolition of her house in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
Dec 16, 2009: Xi Xinzhu, of Beijing's Haidian district, sets himself on fire after a demolition crew moves out his family and starts tearing down his house. He is still in hospital.
China Daily
(China Daily 12/22/2009 page9)
