Some residents of Puyang county, Henan province, divorced, or are planning to, their public servant spouses in a bid to save property from being demolished.

The county will demolish buildings and build new ones, as part of an upgrade, before the end of the year, according to a regulation in Puyang city, which administers the county.

Some wives are refusing to have their homes demolished and have divorced their husbands who are government workers.

After the divorce, they hope to be the sole owners of the apartments, which means their former spouses will not have a say in whether the homes are demolished or not. But there is a catch. Only those who have been divorced for two months will be recognized as being allowed to possibly stay. Any more recent divorces may not be recognized.

Wang Haitao, an employee with the house expropriation office of the Puyang city government, said: “Harmonious demolition is the principle and nobody has visited the office to complain about demolition.”

However, the demolition project has met opposition from local residents.

Buildings covering nearly 1.7 million square meters have to be demolished this year. But the latest statistics available show fewer than 300,000 square meters had been demolished by Sept 30, according to cnr.cn, a major news portal in Beijing.

“The county is implementing a project to tackle the pollution of the Majia River which flows through it. One part of the project is to demolish houses,” Wang said.

The 4.6-km long project will demolish 370,000 sq m of buildings, 125 meters from each side of the river.

Departments from the county committee and government jointly issued a document last month, stating that government workers and officials would have their jobs suspended or be removed from office if they did not support demolition.

Tian Yuena, for example, had to move away from her apartment in the residential quarter of China Construction Bank in the county. Tian's former husband works in the county bureau of culture, radio, television, news and publication.

As the bureau was in charge of the demolition of the residential quarter, the bureau chief tried to persuade the couple to leave their apartment. The couple finally divorced in late October.

On Nov 4, Tian had to sign an agreement endorsing demolition, as leading officials in the county stated that that only those who divorced two months earlier could still stay, she said.

Chen Cunyi, former head of the county's local tax bureau, is more than 70 years old. Although many leading officials have asked him to move to make way for the harnessing of the Majia River, he has refused.

He said nobody could tell him what the land would be used for after his house was demolished.

Wang said: “People who sign a contract endorsing demolition will receive between 700 and 800 yuan ($115 and $131) a month as rent for a makeshift residence.”

Wang Xiangting, a former deputy chief of Chen's bureau, said people in the county were concerned over whether they could get new homes from the government in time once their apartments were demolished.

“We are told we will have new apartments in two years. But we are also told we will receive more money for renting apartments if we cannot get our own new apartments in two years,” he said.

Wang Cailiang, a lawyer in Beijing known for his support to victims of forced demolitions, told China Daily that government financing was relying too much on sales of land, and this was to blame for many forced demolitions nationwide.