A Stitch in Haste has a running thread of posts entitled “China is Still a Dictatorship…” which brings to light many grievances we ought to have with the world’s largest totalitarian regime. As of September, 2005, Kip noted that nearly 300,000 Chinese had been evicted in order to make room for Olympic Village.

The news today, according to Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights & Evictions, ups the ante, to a staggering 1.5 Million.

Not to worry, though. China’s version of Big Brother maintains that they’ve all been compensated, and that no one was forced to move – a statement qualified with “out of Beijing.” Which simply means, “we’ve forced you to move, but you get to choose where you want to go.” What else could it mean to the person whose homesite is now a long-jump pit or luxury box?

To be sure, a million and a half of Chinese undoubtedly have been forced to surrender their homes, and move to new ones, the prices of which have been inflated by the looming Olympics, bound to bring peace and prosperity to the country for a glorious two-and-a-half weeks. After which time, the value of the properties they’ve recently bought will begin to collapse, leaving them up shit creek, sans paddle.

Never you mind all the spurious economics behind the “public welfare” arguments – most studies indicate that publicly funded venues are not the boon to the local economy that their proponents maintain. These arguments aren’t even generally true in the USA – let alone a pseudo-communist regime like China. The more controlled is the economy, the less free the people, the more likely it is that whatever profits rents accrue due to the Olympics will fall disproportionately into the hands of politically-well-connected individuals and firms, i.e., those who are already very wealthy, at the expense of everyone else.