Chinese authorities will demolish 40 square kilometers of alleged illegal facilities in Beijing, a decision that will impact thousands of underpaid workers in the middle of a road. In addition, Mayor Chen Jining announced, quoted by the BBC, "we will continue with the closure of small shops operating from illegal openings in the wall". Already last November, shacks and makeshift shelters had been razed to the ground in Beijing where thousands of internal migrants who flocked to the metropolis lived in the hope of a better job. The official motivation of the authorities had been safety: a fire that broke out recently in Daxing, an overcrowded suburb south of the capital, had caused the death of 19 people. But the intent is not simply to prevent new accidents: Beijing aims to contain the growth of Chinese metropolises by limiting the number of residents, fearing the deleterious effects of an excessive population on the supply of goods and services, such as roads, hospitals, water and similar. For the capital, the Economist recalled at the time, the maximum housing limit according to the Chinese authorities is no more than 23 million inhabitants by 2020: an almost impossible goal to maintain - already today there are almost 22 million - less than do not hit hard internal migrants and push them to return to their provinces of origin. According to the World Bank, by 2030, as many as 70% of the Chinese population will live in cities.
