LEAVING THE LAND PART 3: PICKING DEATH OVER EVICTION

In the third installment to our series in the NYT on the trials of urbanization in China, we focus on the little-reported phenomenon of farmers committing suicide by setting themselves on fire. There’s been a fair amount of press on Tibetan self-immolations and while obviously it’s a bigger issue there because of the smaller population, the fact that Han farmers are protesting in this grisly manner is indicative of the problem. Story is behind a partial paywall here.