'Western-looking' tenants only, says Chengdu developer

• Source: Global Times
• [02:17 January 29 2010]
• Comments

By Lin Meilian

The developer of a residential complex in Sichuan Province said only certain types of people are welcome to move into his new apartments: foreigners with a Western look.

The residential community in Chengdu, will have a church, international schools and a Western style hospital, and if the developer has his way, no Chinese, even if they were born and raised in the US.

The developer said such rules are necessary to ensure the "purity" of the community. As a result, priority will be given to certain Europeans and Americans.

But not just any American or European.

"The foreigners we are talking about are those Western-looking people," said a worker surnamed Wang from the marketing department at Chengdu Hi-tech Investment Group, which is involved with the project. "We want to ensure that the international community is pure."

Wang didn't explain what he meant by "Western-looking."

"Others may be welcomed later," he told the Global Times Thursday.

Foreign passport holders who look like a Chinese, and residents from Hong Kong, Macao and other Asian countries like Japan and Korea, may not be allowed to move in there either.

Wang said the apartments would be rentals to allow them to keep the tenant population "pure."

But many Chinese criticized the developer for engaging in discrimination, while some foreigners said they would not live in such a place.

Some Chinese expressed frustration at the idea they called ridiculous.

"I think they are practicing 'racial segregation' by keeping out Chinese," Gao Song, a local resident, told the Global Times Thursday.

In the early 1930s, when China was occupied by foreign powers, Chinese people were not allowed to travel or live in certain parts of some cities.

Foreigners also disapproved of the idea.