I haven't looked it up, but I've heard from a local that if you are displaced by a government project you will "be rich". In his eyes it was similar to winning the lottery, if less extreme.

It does depend on the area

I remember coming across a few blocks of old densely packed single-family brick buildings in Shanghai that were about to be torn down. Each building had a large hand written banner above their entrance, half of them praising the communist party for its compassion or saying long live Chairman Mao (my interpretation was that they were hoping for mercy for being such loyal party members), the other half cussing out the party and local officials

I think the idea was that hanging pictures of Chairman Mao all over their building would make the government look bad if they knocked it down.

false, the chinese government cannot directly use police or government agents to force people out of their homes during what's called (cai fang/house demolition). instead i've heard the use of 3rd party mercenaries to clear the way, but dont quote me on that. for the record, the government does reimburse the individuals which is quite significant, but usually the amount pales in comparison to the land rental price. typically the reimbursement is some stipend per person living under the domicile plus the right to pruchase, at a significant discount, a new home farther away. for example, say you lived in san francisco and the government was re-zoning for a highway, you'd get cash plus the right to buy something in a suburb of sacremento at a pretty nice discount. agree with some comment about it being the equivalent of a lottery.

People are not stupid..nowadays some villagers in China get ~10M USD to move away for real estate construction.. this is the average number for an entire village in Shenzhen.. you call this laughable money?