Shenzhen citizen Zou Tao started the "Not Buy House" movement, which has reportedly been banned.  According to some BBS posts, Zou Tao was taken away by the public security bureau before he boarded a plane at Shenzhen Airport on May 11.  Zou Tao's blog at Tianya has been shut down.  The whereabouts of Zou Tao is unknown.

I have previously predicted such an outcome.  It is a fool's dream to think that an individual's efforts can affect the huge interests with the real estate moguls and the government.  Housing prices in Shenzhen and Beijing are extremely high, and there are signs that certain groups of buyers are speculating to take profit while the real estate developers are jacking up the prices.  But there is nothing that we can do.  Individually, we can refuse to buy.  We can write essays to condemn this kind of behavior.  But if we organize several tens of citizens to take certain actions against certain things, it would be anathema to the government.  No matter how pure and good your motives are, you will be banned.

The "Not Buy House" movement originally appears to be directed against the bad real estate groups.  In practice, it has touched upon the related interests of the government.  Through auctioning off the land, the government obtains revenues.  Obviously, the higher the price, the better off the government will be.  If the developers have higher costs, they will seek higher returns for which the government will receive high tax revenues.  Under this win-win situation for the government and developers, it was a fool's dream for Zou Tao to hope that housing prices will come down.

Zou Tao appears to have left Shenzhen now.  If he does not want to leave, his life may be threatened.  Shenzhen changed him, or else he should not have been living in Shenzhen, a city between heaven and hell ...