Two years ago in Kunming an orange seller stabbed a chengguan who was seizing his orange cart near the popular university district. The chengguan died and the orange seller was arrested and never seen again. Both the death (deaths?) and cart seizure seem like they could have been avoided with clearer property laws. Hopefully China can work this out sooner rather than later.

You brout out an important issue. Property law is to protect property and the rich have more property so the law are used more frequently by them. This is true of every country in the world, not just in China.

In most cases I have personally witnessed, confiscation by Changguan guys are done with kind of force not allowed by law.

I have not checked in details about laws in this area but my basic legal sense told me, they were doing wrong.

One night walking home through Nanjing Normal's campus towards the back gate I noticed a huge group watching another huge group of people yelling down on the street. The chengguan had come and filled a truck with all the street carts that were out and took off with them. Now they randomly drive down the street and people flee up back allies like they are criminals.

No one was hurt, but I find myself feeling angry for them. I know they make the streets dirty and can clog traffic, but I guess I see it as a "well, doesn't really matter at this point anyway" sort of thing. Plus, there is a real demand for food at night by the students and people getting off work. People expect them to be there. It seems like they could find a way to make it work. Street food/fruit/etc is a part of living here!

Additionally, the research that I am doing is about employment and development in China. Because of the huge oversupply of workers there are tons of unemployed people and there will continue to be. One of the main paths to reemployment and new jobs in China is to start your own business. Government vocational training centers are promoting this. And selling stuff from a cart on the street counts as a business according to these trainings.

So they seem to be shooting themselves in the foot. Pouring government money into training people to start businesses but also confiscating their carts at random and therefore, killing everyone's efforts?

This is a huge dilemma.

Laws are made with the idea that people should obey them but those 'chengguans' may be tireless frustrated with the repeating cycle of seeing the same vendors appearing illegally over night and providing food that unsanitary to eat and garbage that seems to pile up everywhere they set up.

And the vendors has 'nothing to lose' as their sole income and livelihood depend on making a mere buck selling food and nik-knacks. Agreed, this needs to be worked out sooner than later, as its a cycle that not cease until better property law and small business guide and support be established.

Jeez, how ridiculous to defend for a murder and call his violent action reasonable in the name of protecting his property right? Do you ever think about the killed chengguan’s right to life? Do you ever think about his family? What if he is the only income source for his family? No excuse for any kinda killings at all.

Street vendors should be regulated according to my opinions and my personal experience. I don’t have to repeat the fact that they make the street dirty, whats worse is they don’t even pay tax to clean the street? Who pay for the street cleaners? Taxpayers, including me.

Moreover, cuz they aren’t under any regulations, they can do whatever they want to cheat customers on weight (if you are buying fruits), to sell unsanitary food, low quality products. Of course, these kinda behaviors aren’t only among illegal street venders. But at least in regulated business, you have a place you can turn to for complaints. The point is, under regulations, venders are tend to be more honest. What countries in the world allow illegal business? In what countries can business be operated without license?

For the sake of our city environment, for the sake of less traffic blocks in our city, for the sake of the interests of taxpayers, for the sake of consumer rights, for the sake of establishing a more moral business environment, street vendors have to be regulated in certain areas and under laws.

Only at this point, their rights can be protected. Im sure vendors with proper license have their property protected under laws. Those illegal street vendors are not committed to obligations, how can they ask for enjoying their rights?

Of course, I have to admit that misuse of powers by chenguans happened sometimes. Maybe all chengguans should be asked to wear a Number tag when they are implementing their duties, if there is any misuse of power, victims can complain to related authorities with the numbers. Also, maybe all illegal street vendors can retrieve their confiscated property after registering with business operating license. Just a few thoughts to the current situation.

I think, that is interesting for all.