SHENYANG, China: Cattle wander between the concrete shells of half-finished mansions in northeastern China, some of the only occupants of a luxury complex whose crumbling verandas and overgrown arches are stark symbols of a housing market crippled by its own excess.
Property giant Greenland Group broke ground on the development nestled in the hills around Shenyang, an industrial city of 9 million, in 2010 — when the real estate sector’s lightning growth was in full swing.
But around two years later, the State Guest Mansions project — lavishly planned as 260 European-style villas complete with swanky facilities for visitors of the provincial government — was abandoned.
Local farmers now plow land that was envisaged as manicured gardens for the wealthy and politically connected, while feral dogs patrol crudely built poultry pens and double garages crammed with hay bales and farm equipment.
The reasons for the project’s failure remain unclear, though locals have their suspicions.
“Frankly, it was because of official corruption,” a farmer named Guo told AFP as he dug for edible weeds beneath a creaking 10-meter-high metal fence screening the development from a nearby highway.
“They cut off the funding and cracked down on uncontrolled developments, so it was left half-finished,” the swarthy 45-year-old said, as other people carried off buckets of water from the complex’s artificial lake.
A person who answered the phone at a regional Greenland Group office said they would pass a request for comment to a superior, but the company did not engage any further.
Since coming to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a sweeping crackdown on corruption in the ruling Communist Party and fostered a social aversion to conspicuous wealth.
“These (homes) would have sold for millions — but the rich haven’t even bought one of them,” said Guo.
“They weren’t built for ordinary people.”
The wider Chinese property sector continued to boom until the end of the decade.
But the government clamped down on excessive borrowing and rampant speculation in 2020, leaving several developers grappling with massive debt and flagging demand.
As a result, ghost towns like the one in Shenyang — known as “rotten-tail” homes in Chinese — now pockmark urban landscapes across the country.
Central government data on their number is not publicly available, but a report by a research group affiliated with an official association in Shanghai said just under four percent of housing projects nationwide had been left half-built as of June 2022.
This is equivalent to 231 million square meters of real estate.
Inside the former sales center at State Guest Mansions, graffiti on the flaking walls suggests farmers are not the only visitors.
Interest in the ghost towns is thriving as intrepid urban explorers visit derelict districts and post their findings online.
“This place is great for exploring, so I like to hang around here... and film a few clips,” said a black-clad drone flier as he rested on the marble floor beneath a vast, tarnished chandelier.
Around him, gloomy alcoves stored haphazard stacks of dust-caked furniture in styles that evoked France’s Palace of Versailles.
“Everything here has been left abandoned,” the man said, declining to give his name.
“It all feels quite creepy.”
Chinese ghost town of mansions reclaimed by farmers
https://arab.news/mp4ak
Chinese ghost town of mansions reclaimed by farmers
- Local farmers now plow land that was envisaged as manicured gardens for the wealthy and politically connected
- Interest in the ghost towns is thriving as intrepid urban explorers visit derelict districts and post their findings online
Court ruling jeopardizes freedom for pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil
- The panel ruled a federal judge in New Jersey didn’t have jurisdiction to decide the matter at this time
- The law bars Khalil “from attacking his detention and removal in a habeas petition,” the panel added
WASHINGTON: A federal appeals panel on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that released former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from an immigration jail, bringing the government one step closer to detaining and ultimately deporting the Palestinian activist.
The three-judge panel of the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t decide the key issue in Khalil’s case: whether the Trump administration’s effort to throw Khalil out of the US over his campus activism and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional.
But in its 2-1 decision, the panel ruled a federal judge in New Jersey didn’t have jurisdiction to decide the matter at this time. Federal law requires the case to fully move through the immigration courts first, before Khalil can challenge the decision, they wrote.
“That scheme ensures that petitioners get just one bite at the apple — not zero or two,” the panel wrote. “But it also means that some petitioners, like Khalil, will have to wait to seek relief for allegedly unlawful government conduct.”
The law bars Khalil “from attacking his detention and removal in a habeas petition,” the panel added.
Ruling won’t result in immediate detention
It was not clear whether the government would seek to detain Khalil, a legal permanent resident, again while his legal challenges continue.
Thursday’s decision marked a major win for the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign to detain and deport noncitizens who joined protests against Israel.
In a statement distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Khalil said the appeals ruling was “deeply disappointing, but it does not break our resolve.”
He added: “The door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability. I will continue to fight, through every legal avenue and with every ounce of determination, until my rights, and the rights of others like me, are fully protected.”
Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s lawyers, said the ruling was “contrary to rulings of other federal courts.” He noted the panel’s finding concerned a “hypertechnical jurisdictional matter,” rather than the legality of the Trump administration’s policy.
“Our legal options are by no means concluded, and we will fight with every available avenue,” he added, saying Khalil would remain free pending the full resolution of all appeals, which could take months or longer.
The ACLU said the Trump administration cannot lawfully re-detain Khalil until the order takes formal effect, which won’t happen while he can still immediately appeal.
Khalil has multiple options to appeal
Khalil’s lawyers can request the active judges on the 3rd Circuit hear an appeal, or they can go to the US Supreme Court.
An outspoken leader of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia, Khalil was arrested on March 8, 2025. He then spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail, missing the birth of his firstborn.
Federal officials have accused Khalil of leading activities “aligned to Hamas,” though they have not presented evidence to support the claim and have not accused him of criminal conduct. They have also accused Khalil, 30, of failing to disclose information on his green card application.
The government has justified the arrest under a seldom-used statute that allows for the expulsion of noncitizens whose beliefs are deemed to pose a threat to US foreign policy interests.
In June, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that justification would likely be declared unconstitutional and ordered Khalil released.
President Donald Trump’s administration appealed that ruling, arguing the deportation decision should fall to an immigration judge, rather than a federal court.
Khalil has dismissed the allegations as “baseless and ridiculous,” framing his arrest and detention as a “direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
Dissenting judge says Khalil has right to fight detention
Judge Arianna Freeman dissented Thursday, writing that her colleagues were holding Khalil to the wrong legal standard. Khalil, she wrote, is raising “now-or-never claims” that can be handled at the district court level. He does not have a final order of removal, which would permit a challenge in an appellate court, she wrote.
Both judges who ruled against Khalil, Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, were Republican appointees. President George W. Bush appointed Hardiman to the 3rd Circuit, while Trump appointed Bibas. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, appointed Freeman.
The majority opinion noted Freeman worried the ruling would leave Khalil with no remedy for unconstitutional immigration detention, even if he later can appeal.
“But our legal system routinely forces petitioners — even those with meritorious claims — to wait to raise their arguments, the judges wrote. “To be sure, the immigration judge’s order of removal is not yet final; the Board has not affirmed her ruling and has held the parties’ briefing deadlines in abeyance pending this opinion. But if the Board ultimately affirms, Khalil can get meaningful review.”
The decision comes as an appeals board in the immigration court system weighs a previous order that found Khalil could be deported. His attorneys have argued that the federal order should take precedence.
That judge has suggested Khalil could be deported to Algeria, where he maintains citizenship through a distant relative, or Syria, where he was born in a refugee camp to a Palestinian family.
His attorneys have said he faces mortal danger if forced to return to either country.
