More than 2,700 officials had been referred for prosecution on
land use violation charges after investigations by the discipline
and supervisory authorities, said the Ministry of Land Resources on
Monday.
These people, with another 1,000 still being investigated, were
allegedly involved in 31,000 land use violation cases involving
more than 3.3 million mu (550,000 acres), said Minister of Land and
Resources Xu Shaoshi at a televised conference on the
results of a 100-day campaign.
The campaign, launched on Sep. 17 last year, was implemented to
crack down on local governments that illegally transferred
household land to property developers. It targeted officials who
failed to seek permission from higher authorities for land use and
those who flouted decrees to expand the size of development
zones.
About 300,000 mu (50,000 acres) of land were taken over in the
name of leases, one million mu (166,667 acres) involved expanded
development zones and two million mu (333,334 acres) was used
without authorization, said Xu.
The courts had convicted more than 300 people, punishing them
with fines and confiscating properties worth up to two billion yuan
(274 million U.S. dollars).
He said the campaign proved land supervision must win support
from local governments. "Perpetrators should pay high price for
what they have done."
He also urged more efforts in establishing a warning system of
land violation behavior and stronger liaison among departments such
as the police, courts and supervisory watchdogs.
Land violation has evolved into a controversial issue in China
and in 2004 the central government order promulgated to implement
"the strictest land management policy". Since then, the order has
hit many snags at local level.
Some government officials still sought to attract capital and
technology by offering investors cheap or even free land, a
practice that was rife along the east coast early in China's
economic reform and opening-up. Land yields remain a steady source
of fiscal revenue for local governments.
Some governments have stealthily restored development zones
closed down years ago or allowed management of legal development
zones to invite business for abolished ones.
Since a national overhaul to shut down inefficient or idle
development zones started in 2003, the number of development zones
had shrunk by more than 70 percent to 1,568 and their aggregate
land size diminished to 9,949 square kilometers at the end of
2006.
But rapid urbanization has triggered outrage from some farmers
who were not properly compensated for appropriated land. It also
led to a drastic decline in the area available for cultivation,
prompting the government to set a minimum area of 1.8 billion mu
(120 million hectares) of arable land.
In 2004, domestic policy makers started to track the speed and
scale of new land supply in non-agricultural sectors annually to
control land supply and boost overall macro-economic control.
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2008)