On September 28, 2024 (Epoch Times reporter Xiao Lvsheng reporting): “I have lost my home now, you have destroyed my home, I am now homeless, unable to return to a home. What image do I have left? What dignity do I have left?” Minfen (pseudonym), a resident of Zheng’an County, Guizhou Province, said, “I woke up and found our house destroyed again. I feel like the sky has fallen. I had just finished renovating and hadn’t even spent a day living in it.”
In the early morning at around 3:20 on September 26, a building in the Zheng’an County Zhengyuange community in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, was hit by huge rocks after a neighboring construction company detonated explosives, directly penetrating some residents’ homes. The wall of the building showed significant cracks. Residents captured on their home CCTV the moment of the huge impact and the tremors of the building. However, when the residents sought justice, they were threatened by the authorities.
Minfen, who was away from home at the time, is a resident of the affected building. On September 27, she told Epoch Times that through surveillance cameras at home and information from neighbors, she learned that their house was hit by the rocks. At the time, many residents were still asleep in their homes.
“At 3:20 in the morning, bang, bang, bang, the whole building shook, and the rocks hit our house,” Minfen said. “Some people fell off their beds. One person is already in the hospital, still there. The rocks smashed into the second-floor residents’ homes, piercing through their living rooms.”
Second-floor resident Chen Hui (pseudonym) told Epoch Times that his wife was at home when the incident happened and was so scared that she had to be hospitalized.
Chen Hui described that the master bedroom, a spare bedroom, and the living room were all severely damaged, with rocks crashing in; the two pillars on the balcony were completely broken; one of the major columns next to the shear wall (also called earthquake-resistant wall) was also severed, “the shear wall was split in half, breaking through to where the TV in the living room was hanging.”
The authorities claimed that the incident was caused by a landslide that brought down the rocks, but the residents do not believe it.
Chen Hui said he is certain that it was due to the developer’s blasting activities. “During normal daytime construction, there would be some small explosions, but that night, it was a large-scale explosion,” he said. “The homeowners all smelled a strong residual explosive odor, and could even see some traces of the explosion. The government does not acknowledge this; it just says it was a mountain landslide.”
Resident Ling Sheng (pseudonym), who lives on the twentieth floor, told Epoch Times that the developer intended to remove the mountain, which had been blasted several times before, but no one paid attention to the issue then, saying it was essentially illegal operation.
Ling Sheng said that his wife was also frightened at the time; after the incident, cracks appeared in their home’s walls. He explained that the building had more than twenty stories, and there were over a hundred and seventy households currently residing there.
Minfen added, “It hasn’t rained, how could the mountain become loose? During the day, there were many excavators making loud noises up there, and some residents heard bangs at night and smelled a strong gunpowder odor.”
According to Minfen, this gunpowder smell is likely explosives because a construction company next to their building was excavating the mountain to build an “aerial garden.” According to other homeowners, the “aerial garden” was government-funded.
Public information shows that the Zhengyuange community is located in the North Yuan community of Fengyi Street, Zheng’an County, Zunyi City, with the neighboring construction named “Qianyun Zhenfu,” developed by Guizhou Zhida Huitong Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. The company was registered with the Zheng’an County Market Supervisory Administration in Zunyi City on November 3, 2015, with a registered capital of 50 million RMB, the legal representative being Wu Dan Ni, located within the Yuanhe Distillery of Zheng’an County Development Zone in Guizhou Province. The project began construction on April 8, 2024.
The Zheng’an County government website’s “Government Work Report” had previously disclosed that the county was constructing residential projects like Yizhong Square, Pinghu Qiuyue, Qianyun Zhenfu.
Epoch Times tried to contact the developer, but they did not answer the call. Journalists called the Zheng’an County government multiple times, with just one call being answered. The staff on duty stated that they were not aware of the specific situation regarding the incident, residents’ feedback, and subsequent relocation, suggesting that the official announcements should be considered as the standard.
What angered the residents the most was that their legitimate rights were violated, and yet the authorities demanded their silence.
Chen Hui said that the government had contacted them through various channels, even having relatives make calls, “asking us to delete Douyin (TikTok videos), not allowing us to post.” The authorities also prohibited them from disclosing information to foreign media, and so on.
Minfen also stated, “We find it very difficult to defend our rights; we have been constantly threatened and suppressed by the government over such a major incident.” The authorities used various means, even contacting her ex-husband’s family who she has been divorced from for over ten years, demanding her to delete Douyin and WeChat-related videos.
“They told me not to stand out, saying all standing out will get shot. I said I am defending my rights, where have I lied or exaggerated?” Minfen explained, “If you sort out the housing issue, we will definitely delete all posts on these platforms immediately.”
She expressed that under current pressure from the authorities, if homeowners delete the truth videos from social media platforms, the matter might be overlooked in the future, “Where can we go to seek justice then?”
Minfen said that if residents do not delete related videos on social platforms, the authorities threaten them. “They want to catch us. They say we are spreading rumors, but we have not said a single falsehood; we are victims,” she said. Anyone sharing Douyin videos will be individually summoned for a conversation with local authorities, where they are demanded to delete the content.
“Many people have been summoned for talks. Without media exposure, we would not have a good outcome,” Minfen said. The officials played on the emotions, saying everyone is from Zheng’an County, part of the same family, and that posting videos would harm the county’s image. “They have destroyed my home, where is the image? The people can’t even return to their homes, where is the dignity?” she said.
Ling Sheng revealed that the current condition the authorities are discussing is to have experts assess the situation. If the houses are deemed safe, the residents can move back in. Chen Hui said that he learned residents who refuse to stay in the hotels provided by the government will receive a monthly subsidy of 1250 RMB per household.
Residents explained that these houses are their only residences in the county town. Chen Hui said their current demand is “to return our homes and to know if we will be compensated for our losses.”
While some residents have homes at their hometown, Minfen, feeling like an orphan, only has this one place to live, a property she worked hard and saved for over the years.
Minfen started working at ten years old, spending over two hundred thousand purchasing the house, with over thirty thousand invested in renovations. Now, due to the renovations, she still owes over a hundred thousand in debts.
“I had just renovated the place and didn’t even get to live in it for a day. Now, I wake up, and it has all collapsed. The house is destroyed.” she said.
Now, this house is deemed unsafe, but the authorities insist it can be fortified and lived in. Minfen said, “When it has already collapsed like that, where would we dare to live? Where could we live? Our intention is either compensation for a new house or monetary compensation.” “Anyone can see that the house has been smashed, visibly crooked, isn’t that severe enough?”
Minfen, who previously suffered a back injury, returned in April this year to renovate the house, leading to a herniated disc, nerve compression, rendering her unable to walk, a condition that persists to this day.
With tears in her eyes, she said, “I feel like the sky has fallen.” “I can’t go back, can’t handle this situation. I really don’t know what to do.”