Tang Fuzhen

Tang Fuzhen was born in 1962 and was a female entrepreneur in Jinhua Village, Tianhui Town, Jinniu District, Chengdu, Sichuan. In 1996, answering government calls for investment, she and her husband invested millions of yuan to construct a garment factory and a three-story commercial complex on wasteland. In 2007, Jinniu District government launched municipal projects and attempted to seize the land, offering compensation less than half of construction costs while arbitrarily designating the approved premises as 'illegal construction'. On the morning of November 13, 2009, without reaching any agreement, hundreds of urban management personnel, police, and demolition crews surrounded the building with bulldozers. Tang and her relatives retreated to the rooftop, repeatedly pleading for dialogue to halt the assault. As demolition thugs broke in and assaulted her family, a desperate Tang doused herself with petrol and self-immolated. After clinging to life for 16 days, she succumbed to severe burns in hospital on November 29, aged 47. Authorities labeled her protest as 'violent resistance to law' and detained her grieving family members, sparking immense public outrage that prompted Peking University legal scholars to demand the repeal of China's brutal demolition regulations.