House in Chinese stand-off pulled down

        * April 03, 2007

A CHINESE couple who stood firm against authorities for three years have finally had their house pulled down in a case that captivated the nation.

The home of Wu Ping and Yang Wu was one of 280 earmarked to go to make way for a redevelopment project in the booming southwestern city of Chongqing in 2004.

But the couple refused to budge, holding up the contruction for three years until today, when bulldozers turned it into dust within three hours, the Associated Press reported.

In recent weeks, the building had been perched precariously on a small island of land surrounded by a vast construction site.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Mr Yang had been holed up in the house, surviving on deliveries of food and water, before leaving the house yesterday afternoon

Mrs Wu had said she had been offered $US258,000 ($316,000) in compensation or two higher floors in the planned complex - both of which she turned down because she wanted lower levels in the new building so she could run her restaurant.

The couple had agreed to move to another apartment elsewhere in Chongqing, Xinhua said, but the couple could not be immediately reached to confirm the deal.

Images of the house have been plastered in newspapers for several weeks and have been the focus of editorials and cartoons. Discussions have flooded Chinese Internet chat rooms.

Property disputes and illegal land grabs have accelerated in recent years as China's economy expands at double-digit rates and farmland is gobbled up for industrial parks and skyscrapers.

Government officials often have sided with developers, touching off riots and protests.