Seeing the torn isolated island under the expropriation of Section 02 of Shezi Island, the relatives competed for property and the head of the village was ousted, and the contradiction broke out once in 50 years.

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(Continued from the previous paragraph) At the weekend, next to the social market, red banners were hung and large signs were issued proclaiming "The dismissal of Fu An Li Chang Xie Wenjia". Members of the recall action frequently greeted the residents who came and went, signing "Immediately develop the social island" and "Remove the Li Chang."

At the other end, walking into the alley at the bottom of Xizhou on Shezi Island, the door of Fu 'an Li Chang's office was filled with supporters who came to offer condolences. Li Chang Xie Wenjia kept receiving consolation calls. The other end of the phone repeatedly promised support, while Xie Wenjia repeatedly thanked him, which smelled of smoke during the election.

In 2015, due to the redevelopment plan proposed by Taipei City Government, due to the complexity of property rights and the large number of land owners, tug-of-war competitions were also formed in favor of and against the island. The former established a promotion association and the latter established a self-help association. The entanglement between urban development and residential justice has led to a case of deposing the village chief who tore apart this peaceful village.

Aerial photo of Shezi Island (provided by Taipei City Government), where Taipei's last village is located,"Ecological Shezi Island" plans to collect all over the region

Shezi Island is not really an island. It is located in the northwest corner of Taipei's Shilin District. It is an alluvial plain formed by the confluence of the Tamsui River and the Keelung River. Because of the 50-year ban on construction, Shezi Island seems to have been sealed in the old days, retaining the early waterfront culture and intertidal wetlands. Every holiday attracts many citizens to ride bicycles along the embankment of Shezi Island, but few people enter the island like a maze of winding paths to explore.

Few people know that Shezi Island is full of countryside, and for many years it has been the vegetable production base of Greater Taipei. Residents openly tease themselves, laughing that "Shezi Island is the last place where Taipei is located", which seems not to mean "Zhuangjiao", but to retain a strong sense of human pride.

During his term as mayor, Hao Longbin proposed the "Taipei Manhattan" project, which was expected to develop Shezi Island with high intensity, but did not pass the EIA. After Ke Wenzhe took office, amid the controversy over i-voting's low turnout rate, he reluctantly passed the "Ecological Society Island" plan and planned to expropriate the whole district to develop a new urban area with both landscape, industry and residence in ten years.

Expropriation scope of Shezi Island section. Source: Mingri Shezi Island (Shezi Island Project Office of Taipei City Government). It is both a city and a township. The property rights issue broke out in the past 50 years.

However, the development case immediately faced the problem of land property rights accumulated over the years in Shezi Island. Xie Wenjia, the 19th generation of Shezi Island's exploration and development, said,"It is precisely because Shezi Island belongs to the land use habits of rural society that the problem of land holding is complicated."

In the early settlement of Shezi Island, it was common to live in groups according to relatives, take care of each other, leave land for relatives and friends who had not moved to expand their residence, and separate the ownership of houses and land was very common. Moreover, because of flooding and construction bans, the environment is old, and because rents are low, immigrants from urban and rural areas in central and southern China have settled in. After generations of inheritance and transfer, many residents are unable to tell who owns the land they live in.

However, from the perspective of land development, Shezi Island has a vast area of 300 hectares at the edge of the urban area, which is tantamount to a crime. As the city expands, the development potential increases, and real estate developers and investors continue to acquire the lost land holdings on Shezi Island. The problems caused by complex property rights in Shezi Island emerge one after another, and as development projects advance, lawsuits will occur frequently.

Li Chang's point of view: Most developers are foreign investors, and most local residents stick to their homes

According to Xie Wenjia's estimation, among the more than 4,000 households in Shezi Island, more than 1,000 households belong to landless households, plus 396 low-income households, which will lose their homes in the process of zone expropriation. Even if they are lucky enough to be allocated housing, and the government provides full loans, they still have to bear about 10 million mortgages, which is an unimaginable burden for many residents who barely make ends meet.

As an elected mayor, Xie Wenjia repeatedly demanded at the development case promotion meeting: "The resettlement problem of existing vulnerable residents must be solved before development can be carried out." He also pointed out the biggest contradiction between the pros and cons: "Most of the promotion associations are foreign investors or landlords, while the self-help associations are mostly local residents."

Chief Xie Wenjia and his wife Xie Suzhen, who served the people together for 14 years, were threatened with dismissal for the development case (Photo/Lin Jiyang)

On one side are investors, and on the other side are residents who live together day and night. "Development should be about taking care of the people who actually live here, not about investors." As the village chief, of course, you have to take care of the weakest person in the village." he said.

This case has been repeatedly blocked, and residents 'dissatisfaction with the accelerated development has accumulated to an outbreak, so they launched the dismissal of Li Chang Xie Wenjia. However, there are also many villagers who oppose the development to the service office care and cheer up,"In the face of demolition crisis, In the past is I want to comfort villagers, Now everyone wants to comfort me." Xie Li Chang's heart was bitter and sweet, and it was rare for him to say emotionally.

Initiator of the recall case: Shezi Island does not even have a supermarket. Only when the living standard is improved will the residents move back.

Chen Zhengyong, a 44-year-old resident of Shezi Island, the initiator of Xie Wenjia's dismissal, named him as "responsible for the stagnation of the Shezi Island development case."

"The elderly tend to stay on Shezi Island, and many people are forced to move away from Shezi Island for the convenience of children's schooling and life. For the sake of the next generation, we must try our best to develop, so as not to miss another 50 years." only after development will the standard of living rise,"he stresses." go and see, shezi island doesn't even have a supermarket."

Will the expropriation lead to the displacement of vulnerable households? Chen Zhengyong believes that "the government has a resettlement plan, and those who are not eligible to purchase resettlement houses also have rental conditions. It is not true that expropriation will drive people out of Shezi Island." Moreover, the resettlement houses allocated by the municipal government are all in the same building, and the community has not been separated at all."

Moreover,"The purchase price of one ping is only 200,000 yuan, which is half the market price. You can even get a full loan. If you don't want to pay a loan of ten million yuan, you can still make a profit even if you get a resettlement house and sell it." For the younger generation of home buyers, not only can they get compensation through block expropriation, but they can also buy houses in Taipei City at a price close to half the market price. From a realistic point of view, they may not suffer losses.

Chen Zhengyong, the initiator of the recall of the chief. (Photo/Lin Jiyang) Development School: The problem of 50-year-old ban can only be solved once by section collection

In order to promote the development case, Yang Mingzhao, president of the "Society for the Promotion of the Rights and Interests of Shezi Island Residents", has repeatedly confronted each other in various meetings. He believes that "the mayor should find ways to let residents learn how to fight for rights and interests in the development case, rather than blindly resist or even take the lead in making trouble." He explained his reasons for supporting the dismissal of Xie Wenjia.

Yang Mingzhao himself is a practicing agent and has served as a village chief. He is very familiar with the complexity of property rights in Shezi Island. He argues that Shezi Island's chaotic and abnormal development can only be improved once and for all through expropriation, leveling and redevelopment.

"Even if Shezi Island is weak, the longer it drags on, the more problems there will be." He believes that at the end of the development project, residents always have to be careful to ensure their own interests."The purchase price of 10 million yuan per household is indeed a burden for ordinary families, but the government provides full low-interest loans, which is beneficial to live and sell."

"Only those who have houses can be allocated houses, and only those who have land can be allocated land. However, some people on Shezi Island don't even have property rights to houses, causing the current problem." Yang Mingzhao believes that many of these people who have no land and no property rights but claim the right to live are people who cannot walk out of Shezi Island or do not want to change the status quo, let alone block the progress of Shezi Island.

"Weak, weak, sounds reasonable, but will Shezi Island always be like this? Shezi Island is also a person from Taipei City. It's not fair to accept these illegal, weak, and low income." Yang Mingzhao believes that if only a small number of people oppose development, wouldn't there be only weak housing justice and disguised punishment of landlords? Moreover, the increase in land value and job opportunities following the development of Shezi Island actually benefit economically disadvantaged residents rather than drive them away.

Self-help society: limited to half a century, the city government should improve the environment, why has it become oppressing the people?

Residents of Shezi Island once thought that the municipal government plan was to improve the living environment of Shezi Island, but unexpectedly, the plan adopted the method of "zone expropriation" to redevelop Shezi Island in the way of "whole area demolition", and those who had no land ownership or could not afford housing loans would be forced to leave. Most of the residents then turned against the city's existing plan, advocating preserving the existing settlement texture and neighborhood relations, and developing Shezi Island under the maintenance of the existing nine settlement life circles.

"Even if there are housing allotments, brothers and relatives have reported at least a dozen cases to each other in order to compete for compensation and housing. Who caused these divisions and oppositions? That's the development project of the Taipei City government." Li Huaping, spokesman for the self-help association, said angrily.