Migrant Workers

2017 Year in Review: Beijing's Changing Urban Landscape and a Few Predictions for the Coming Year

2017 Year in Review: Beijing's Changing Urban Landscape and a Few Predictions for the Coming Year

2017 was a year of change for Beijing, but then again what year since 1421 hasn’t been a year of change for the city?

Dangerous Benevolence

Dangerous Benevolence

The Beijing municipal government threatening organizations that assist displaced migrants is bad policy, but official ambivalence toward private charity dates back at least to the imperial era

The Beijing Migrants Crackdown: A ChinaFile Conversation

The Beijing Migrants Crackdown: A ChinaFile Conversation

Since mid-November, police and security officials have evicted tens of thousands of migrants from their apartments, and pictures of the newly homeless from all across China sitting outside in the Beijing winter have spread widely on social media. Why did the city government take this step? And what does this mean for the rights of China’s so-called “low-end population”? 

A Tale of Two Tragedies

A Tale of Two Tragedies

A devastating fire which killed 18 migrant workers in Daxing and a child abuse scandal at a kindergarten in an upscale neighborhood expose the fault lines of economic class in China’s capital