By . Jill Reilly . PUBLISHED: . 04:32 EST, 30 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 05:30 EST, 30 October 2013 . A teacher who ignored Chinese authorities’ orders to evict her parents has been forced to divorce her husband and lost her job. Lin Xin was told she needed to remove her parents from their home and demolish it earlier this year. She ignored the 'ridiculous' local government orders and has now paid the price by losing her lifestyle. Refusal: A teacher who ignored Chinese authorities' orders to evict her parents has been forced to divorce her husband and lost her job (file photo) Ms Lin, who is a teacher at the Minhou No4 Middle School in Fujian province, said that when she was first handed the edict she thought they wanted her to persuade her parents to leave their home. But it soon became apparent they wanted her and her husband to demolish it. 'I feel this is too ridiculous. If I had only been asked to perform ideological work on my parents I would have done, but asking me to demolish it with my own hands is simply incredible. I am a teacher. I can't do it. I am supposed to be a model for others. I would be cursed to death by students and how could I teach in the future,' she said. It is still not clear why the land is needed - land seizures rank as among the biggest . causes of social tension in China, spotlighting an ugly side of the . urbanization drive that has raised it to the world's second-biggest . economy. Ms Lin ignored the local Party Committee request during the summer, but was shocked to be told by the headmaster when she returned in September that she had been suspended and would not be allowed to teach until her parents' home was demolished. Although she had not broken any rules, the decision had been taken according to a document signed by local officials. Ms Lin's husband is also a teacher at the school and to make sure he was not embroiled in the messy sage she took the difficult decision of divorcing him last month. The pair live apart and take the childcare in looking after their toddler separately. Last month it emerged that when another woman called Xu Haifeng's home was razed three years ago, she went to China's capital Beijing to complain about the city and county governments that ordered the demolition. Land disputes are one of the main causes of the tens of thousands of protests across China each year . Since then, she says family members have been kidnapped at least 18 times, typically having black bags thrust over their heads before being taken to a hotel-turned-illegal jail in the eastern city of Wuxi and locked for weeks in a tiny, windowless room. Xu's story is shocking even in a country that has become used to tales of arbitrary and sometimes violent land expropriations. It illustrates how the stresses from the deep indebtedness of China's local governments extend beyond banks into the lives of ordinary Chinese, as hard-up authorities resort to any means they can in a desperate scramble for funds. 'Our Wuxi is now steep in debt,' said Xu. 'The Wuxi city today relies on drawing from residents' financial wealth and stealing residents' land to survive.' Her 74-year-old mother, she says, has been abducted nearly a dozen times and held illegally for almost a year in a campaign to silence the family's demands for proper compensation. Amnesty International said in a report last year that land grabs have increased as the economy slows and local governments have sought cash to pay off debt, though other experts dispute the finding. There is no official data on land grabs. According to reports, local authorities across China derive between 20 and 90 percent of their income from selling expropriated land. Land disputes are one of the main causes of the tens of thousands of protests across China each year. Most go unreported, although some, like a revolt in the southern village of Wukan in 2011, have attracted a high profile and prompted promises of action by Beijing. Last month a four-year-old girl was killed by a bulldozer that was razing her home during a land grab in the southeastern province of Fujian, local media reported.
Lin Xin was told she needed to remove her parents earlier this year .
She ignored the 'ridiculous' local government orders but is now suffering .
By . Jill Reilly . PUBLISHED: . 04:32 EST, 30 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 05:30 EST, 30 October 2013 . A teacher who ignored Chinese authorities’ orders to evict her parents has been forced to divorce her husband and lost her job. Lin Xin was told she needed to remove her parents from their home and demolish it earlier this year. She ignored the 'ridiculous' local government orders and has now paid the price by losing her lifestyle. Refusal: A teacher who ignored Chinese authorities' orders to evict her parents has been forced to divorce her husband and lost her job (file photo) Ms Lin, who is a teacher at the Minhou No4 Middle School in Fujian province, said that when she was first handed the edict she thought they wanted her to persuade her parents to leave their home. But it soon became apparent they wanted her and her husband to demolish it. 'I feel this is too ridiculous. If I had only been asked to perform ideological work on my parents I would have done, but asking me to demolish it with my own hands is simply incredible. I am a teacher. I can't do it. I am supposed to be a model for others. I would be cursed to death by students and how could I teach in the future,' she said. It is still not clear why the land is needed - land seizures rank as among the biggest . causes of social tension in China, spotlighting an ugly side of the . urbanization drive that has raised it to the world's second-biggest . economy. Ms Lin ignored the local Party Committee request during the summer, but was shocked to be told by the headmaster when she returned in September that she had been suspended and would not be allowed to teach until her parents' home was demolished. Although she had not broken any rules, the decision had been taken according to a document signed by local officials. Ms Lin's husband is also a teacher at the school and to make sure he was not embroiled in the messy sage she took the difficult decision of divorcing him last month. The pair live apart and take the childcare in looking after their toddler separately. Last month it emerged that when another woman called Xu Haifeng's home was razed three years ago, she went to China's capital Beijing to complain about the city and county governments that ordered the demolition. Land disputes are one of the main causes of the tens of thousands of protests across China each year . Since then, she says family members have been kidnapped at least 18 times, typically having black bags thrust over their heads before being taken to a hotel-turned-illegal jail in the eastern city of Wuxi and locked for weeks in a tiny, windowless room. Xu's story is shocking even in a country that has become used to tales of arbitrary and sometimes violent land expropriations. It illustrates how the stresses from the deep indebtedness of China's local governments extend beyond banks into the lives of ordinary Chinese, as hard-up authorities resort to any means they can in a desperate scramble for funds. 'Our Wuxi is now steep in debt,' said Xu. 'The Wuxi city today relies on drawing from residents' financial wealth and stealing residents' land to survive.' Her 74-year-old mother, she says, has been abducted nearly a dozen times and held illegally for almost a year in a campaign to silence the family's demands for proper compensation. Amnesty International said in a report last year that land grabs have increased as the economy slows and local governments have sought cash to pay off debt, though other experts dispute the finding. There is no official data on land grabs. According to reports, local authorities across China derive between 20 and 90 percent of their income from selling expropriated land. Land disputes are one of the main causes of the tens of thousands of protests across China each year. Most go unreported, although some, like a revolt in the southern village of Wukan in 2011, have attracted a high profile and prompted promises of action by Beijing. Last month a four-year-old girl was killed by a bulldozer that was razing her home during a land grab in the southeastern province of Fujian, local media reported.
Lin Xin was told she needed to remove her parents year. She ignored the 'ridiculous' local