Blow Your House Down

Lon

gshan's residents are not given to complaining, though they inhabit one of the world's most inhospitable corners. Here, in this frozen stretch of wasteland in Heilongjiang province on the Chinese side of Siberia, the scenery is so desolate that its most notable features are heaps of coal piled so high they look like mountains. Many of the townspeople are laid-off coal miners, hopelessly cut off from the fruits of China's heralded economic boom. Still, hardship has taught them not to gripe about their lot in life. "What pleasant weather we're having," says the local bathhouse owner, ignoring that it's 30 degrees below zero. "We eat leeks and coriander now instead of just cabbage," enthuses a local kebab seller over his simple lunch of dumplings. "Coal mining," insists a retired miner, "isn't such tough work once you get used to it."

But even folks as hardy as these can be pushed only so far. When the Youbao No. 2 Well Company started mining coal beneath their homes and the town school in 1993, they quietly endured the racket of underground dynamite blasts and watched the cracks spread in the walls of their brick houses. By the beginning of last year, however, part of the school had to be demolished because its foundation had become too unstable, and the walls of many houses had split. Finally, the locals determined to speak out, never figuring it would cost some of them their jobs and earn others a stretch in jail.

Last February, 45 Longshan residents walked to Youbao's headquarters to confront its owner, Wang Jilong. Su Xiange, a 37-year-old former miner who was among them, says Wang offered to buy new houses on the other side of town for residents whose homes had been damaged. "We thought that settled it," says Su, "and we went home satisfied." In April, 50 townspeople returned to Wang's office to see what arrangements had been made for their move. "But this time," says Wang Hao, a 65-year-old retired miner, "the boss said he wouldn't help us." Ten of the petitioners that day were Youbao employees. Over the next two months, all were fired, though Wang Jilong claimed it was for skipping work.

		LATEST COVER STORY Bali Confessions January 27, 2003 Issue Past Issues Mind & Body Jan. 20, 2003 ----------------- North Korea Jan. 13, 2003 ----------------- People of the Year Dec. 30, 2002 ----------------- Forecast 2003 Dec. 23, 2002 ----------------- Burma's Drug Army Dec. 16, 2002 ----------------- Diabetes Dec. 9, 2002 ----------------- Lure of the Rings Dec. 2, 2002 ----------------- Bali Bomb Suspects Nov. 25, 2002 -----------------   ASIA  Japan: A Time to Fight?  Viepoint: North Korea  China: Blow Your House Down BUSINESS  Piracy: Fake CDs in China ARTS  Books: Trailing Genghis  Q & A: Stanley Stewart  Culture: A New Chapter  Food & Wine: Getting Saucy NOTEBOOK  Indonesia: Mega Power Outage  N.Korea/Vietnam: Love in the Time of Kim  India: Naipaul's Friendly Fire  Milestones TRAVELER  Awakening to the wild wonders of Kamchatka CNN.com: Top Headlines

By chance, a national crackdown on China's infamously dangerous mines had recently gotten underway, with Beijing requiring the mines either to close or meet more-stringent operating standards. So officials from the local coal safety-inspection department arrived in Longshan in late April to check the town's six private mines. Youbao shut down for two months during the inspection, and the locals thought their problems might be coming to an end. It wasn't to be. By late June, Youbao had secured a license to operate—and Longshan's houses started to shake again.

Since then, the Longshan townspeople have made at least six appeals to county and city authorities. Some officials offered help but never gave it; others ignored them. Hoping the provincial government might act even if local officials wouldn't, Su traveled 11 hours by bus in July to the Heilong-jiang provincial capital of Harbin and filed a complaint with the Land Natural Resources Department. The province referred the matter back to the county.

Undeterred, 20 towns-people decided to travel to Harbin in late October to plead with the provincial authorities. While waiting for their bus, they were accosted by five county leaders, five police cars and 25 cops. The secretary of the local Public Security Bureau, Bai Qingzhu, asked them who their leaders were, but they said they didn't have leaders. Bai ordered five of the 20 detained, including Su. "They told me we were guilty of illegal organizing," says Su. The five were held in the county jail for 20 days. "We had to sleep on the ground," recalls Zu Youming, 30. "But I wasn't too scared. After all, we hadn't done anything wrong." Secretary Bai disagrees, recalling that the group was "making trouble." Before their release on Nov. 19, the fiveprisoners had to pay $40 each to cover the cost of their prison food: two steamed buns for each meal.

Mine owner Wang, who inherited the business from his father, insists he's not to blame for the locals' travails. "The houses in the town are cracking because they're old," he says, not because of his mining operation. The complaints, he adds, "have passed the limit of my forbearance." Nonetheless, Wang says he's willing to pay damages "because the county government is determined to settle this quarrel." So far, the petitioners have received none of the cash they've been told to expect.

One day in mid-January, 10 of these unlikely crusaders gather around the bed in Su's bare-walled house to recount their misfortunes. Wang Hao displays a pile of photographs of houses rent apart at the seams. Zu Youming reads from a handwritten sheet listing the times he's been rebuffed by local officials. On the bed lies a petition with red thumbprints beside each signature. Suddenly, from below the house comes the startling sound of exploding dynamite. Su's home heaves upward and his windows rattle. "Don't worry," says the bathhouse owner. "That's just the miners, back from their lunch break." Wangshakes his head. "You see," he says, "This is really no way to live."