Authorities take away resettled Chinese villager's cattle kept on fifth floor balcony

A Chinese villager from southwestern Sichuan province, who was resettled in a residential compound by the organs of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), kept his cattle on his fifth-floor balcony. A video which went viral on Chinese social media showed seven calves enjoying their meals on the residential building's balcony.

However, this unusual situation didn't last long, as neighbours complained to authorities about the constant mooing and foul smell emanating from the balcony. The urban management officials intervened on July 14, andthe officials then removed the cattle from the premises, Phoenix Weekly reported.

The party secretary of the community, Zhang Dayou, stated that each of the calves weighed between 10 and 20 kilogrammes.

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Since the removal, there has been an intriguing twist to the story. The property management staff and guards have been engaged in a struggle with the owner of the cows, who has been attempting to secretly bring them back into the flat.

South China Morning Post reported on people's reactions on Chinese social media over the bovine incident.

"I am sure the cattle never imagined they could live in a building one day," one person is reported to have said.

"Poor calves, being squeezed onto such a small balcony," said another.

Meanwhile, many social media observers empathised with the villagers who have losttheir way of life after being resettled by the organs of the Chinese Communist Party.

"People there have spent their life living in the countryside, and were used to keeping poultry and planting vegetables in their yards," said one person.

China's drive against poverty and resettlement woes

Resettlement has emerged as a major tool in Beijing's efforts for the purported welfare of the impoverished peasantry. Some 9.6 million farmers have been resettled in urban settlements during the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (2016–2020) focused on alleviating poverty, according to research by the University of Waterloo's Chen Yang and Zhu Qian published in the International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development.

"The resettlement in China is a complicated phenomenon manifested in various forms, including the land dispossession during urban expansion, the redevelopment of urban villages, the regeneration of inner urban areas, and much intricated ‘sedentarisation of herding communities," the research paper adds.

Millions of newly settled urbanites are deemed involuntary urbanites, as they were resettled by some means of force.

The resettlement involves the transformation of collective-owned rural land to urban land for market purposes and the resettlement of landless farmers.

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