Forced demolition and water grabbing, infringements are everywhere, and farmers' resistance has never stopped.

Caption / Supportive netizens use this to remind everyone not to forget 328. (Image provided by the Taiwan Alliance for Victims of Urban Renewal)

Editor's note: The Shilin Wang family (Wenlin Yuan) urban renewal case had been making waves for a long time, and yesterday it came to an end amid a government deployment of a large police force and excavators forcibly carrying out the demolition on behalf of the developer. Although the ancestral home they were so eager to defend is gone, the Taiwan Alliance for Victims of Urban Renewal says this battle is not over yet, and asks everyone to continue to bring the power of public attention to bear.

At the same time, the water diversion project of the Fourth Phase of the Central Taiwan Science Park in Xizhou showed no intention of stopping work even after the National Science Council issued an official stoppage document. Yesterday, when members of the self-rescue association went north to visit the Legislative Yuan, excavators and machinery were even driven up in front of the township office to carry out construction, with an obvious intent to intimidate. According to information from an urgent contact between self-rescue association members and National Science Council Deputy Minister Ho Chen-hung, the National Science Council had already called Lu Lu-shan, chairman of the Changhua Irrigation Association, several times asking him to suspend this project first, while the Changhua Irrigation Association kept claiming that it had never received the stoppage document.

The brutality of the tactics used by the government and local politicians to achieve their goals has left a mark in many people's hearts. Some say 328 is another 228 for Taiwan, and must not be forgotten; some veteran journalists also urge people to rally: "There are still hundreds of urban renewal and land expropriation cases; practice a bit, keep fighting, and one day there will have to be a bloody apology. Get to work! For justice! For our homes!"

"Rural youth" Deng Zhu-yuan, who has long followed this case, also wrote down her feelings after living through the day of 328:

(For related reports, see the appendix at the end of the article)

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After a night of emergency mobilization, the Shilin Wang family home was still emptied out by demolition. Friends who guarded it all night and were carried onto buses by police returned to the scene this evening and said: only the wreckage of a bit more than one floor is left. The Cizihbi Canal water diversion project, which also sounded the alarm in the morning, managed to drive off some excavators in the afternoon, yet still kept rushing the work without pause.

All day long, even sitting in a quiet, empty corner of the school, my ears kept ringing, and in that ringing were the sounds of the great police force pressing in and shouting to beat and kill, the sounds of excavators, and the slogans of the people united, with the background mixed with the rumbling of the MRT passing by, or perhaps the sound of stream water and field water flowing? In a daze I could no longer quite tell whether the scenery around me was a Taipei street or a field in Xizhou, Changhua. I only knew that the land beneath my feet, which seemed about to split open, was Taiwan; and that what was coming at me with blades sharpened was a state apparatus said to stand for "democracy" and the "rule of law."

These two events, not close in location and seemingly unrelated, appearing on the same day may seem merely accidental, but placed together with the large and small struggles from countryside to city over the past two years, it is not hard to see the same chapter structure and scenes: for science parks that clearly are no longer needed, for urban plans that clearly lack any possibility of development, for building projects whose designs clearly could be changed, the state nonetheless raises the banner of "administration according to law" and comes barging in to carry out its will, digging up fields, digging up houses, digging up irrigation canals..., and also digging up people's lives by the roots; in the face of state violence, the small people around you and me (or perhaps you and I ourselves) raise hands as powerless as a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

The Fourth Phase of the Central Taiwan Science Park has been announced by the National Science Council to be re-examined and temporarily halted. Yet the water diversion project in Xizhou shows no sign of stopping, and the Changhua Irrigation Association claims it has not received the stoppage document and must continue construction (Image source: Guard the Canal FB)

 
Yesterday at the Shilin Wang family home, more than three hundred supporters gathered, shouting the slogans "Forced demolition is unconstitutional, peaceful protection" and demanding an end to the unconstitutional forced demolition order (Image provided by the Taiwan Alliance for Victims of Urban Renewal)

 

Regarding yesterday's forced demolition on behalf of the developer at the Shilin Wang family home, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin said: "Today the whole process of exercising public authority was fairly peaceful and smooth; I think this is a good phenomenon." Compared with the actual scene, this is quite ironic (Image provided by Chung Sheng-hsiung, reporter for PTS PNN News)

For example, this morning, Auntie Wang and the friends who came to support her were all blocked outside the cordon, anxiously watching the students and the Wang family surrounded by police inside the line. She suddenly turned around, pointed at the police behind her, who had their hands on their hips and were taking photos with cameras, and said: "My parents are inside! ...Their memorial tablets are inside! ..." I cannot remember what else she said afterward, but I cannot erase the posture she left in my mind: so grief-stricken and indignant, so forceful yet powerless, so trembling.

On Monday, Xizhou farmers went north for the nth time to block the water diversion project that was being dug day and night. The older sister stood in the corridor outside the courtroom, speaking of the pressure they are now under and the life of not knowing what to do. As she spoke, with hands almost equally powerless and equally angry, she covered the tears running down her cheeks. Their powerlessness comes from being unable to resist, and also from being unable to understand: why can the state forcibly demolish houses? Why can the state forcibly seize the agricultural water that farmers rely on for their livelihood? For whom? The law should serve here as the line of defense for the people against state infringement, yet when news of the Wang family's demolition came out, I heard more than one legal professional sighing over the law's limitations and uselessness; then what else can the people rely on?

At the most despairing moments, what surfaced before my eyes were those murals reading "Xizhou reveres water, do not sell water," and the patchwork banner hanging on the outer wall of the Shilin Wang family home reading "Home, neither for sale nor for demolition." State violence appears indiscriminately in many places, and although it is disheartening, it often also crystallizes an even stronger collective force to resist it. This time, the Wang family incident, with strong police force and excavators breaking through the door and a complete disregard for public safety, drew a rare wave of overwhelming public condemnation in recent times; perhaps this is the starting point of change.

Xizhou farmers paint slogans on the street to protest the Fourth Phase of the Central Taiwan Science Park forcibly seizing agricultural water (Image provided by the Anti-CTSP Water Grab Self-Rescue Association)

 
The Shilin Wang family home, forcibly demolished yesterday afternoon (Image source: PTS PNN News, provided by Chen Yu-wei)

 
On March 22, the press conference on the fourth day since the demolition date was announced for the Shilin Wang family home. Colorful balloons were hung on the rooftop on site, asking everyone to wish the Wang family an "Up" miracle. Yet compared with successful cases abroad, the Wang family in Taipei did not have this kind of "luck" (Image provided by the Taiwan Alliance for Victims of Urban Renewal)

 
When the government openly violates the constitution and uses public authority and public resources to serve consortium developers. Liao Pen-chuan, associate professor in the Department of Real Estate and Built Environment at National Taipei University, said: "Please, the tens of millions of people of Taiwan, do not yield, please! Please!"
Veteran journalist munch also urged the Wang family and supporters: "Papa Wang and Mama Wang, please do not be sad. The Wang family home was torn down by the government and the consortium! But it has long been built in the hearts of Taiwan's passionate citizens. Everyone agrees that it was the warmest and most moving home. Please stay strong with your family! Students and citizens, what does being carried away once count for? There are still hundreds of urban renewal and land expropriation cases; practice a bit, keep fighting, and one day there will have to be a bloody apology. Get to work! For justice! For our homes!" (Provided by munch)

Related reports compiled:

Wenlin Yuan urban renewal case explainer  / Taiwan Alliance for Victims of Urban Renewal
Consortiums rule the city, consortiums rule the state  The dictator must be made to pay a price  / Coolloud 2012.3.28
Wenlin grievance / Environmental Reporting 2012.3.28
High walls and eggs / pnn  2012.3.28
The Wang family's night vigil battle: democracy becomes the loser / Taiwan Lihpao 2012.3.28
Violent urban renewal demolishes the hearts of the people / Taiwan Lihpao 2012.3.28
Urban renewal series reports / pnn
Urban renewal 4 major Q&A / Cheng An-chi

The Fourth Phase of the Central Taiwan Science Park falls apart - the shattered Xiangsi Liao can never go back / munch 2012.3.27 (and further reading at the end of the article)
The water grab project pushes ahead by force: where is the credibility?/ Zhuang Fang-hua 2012.3.25
Central Taiwan Science Park water intake project: central government calls a halt, local authorities ignore it / United Daily News
When a decision must be made, make it: Erlin Park is reorganized and sets out again / Economic Daily News 2012.3.13