China grapples with thorny issue of rural land rights
1/9/2006 15:43
To complicate matters, local officials' promotions are tied to high rates
of growth or foreign investment, rather than the provision of adequate social
services.
"Without secure, long-term land rights, most farmers have little
incentive to make mid- to long-term investments on their land because they have
no guarantee that they will be able to recoup the value of their investments and
make a profit," said Li Peilin, deputy director of the School of Sociology of
the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
As a result, he said, the vast
majority of rural people who have been left in poverty have been forced to find
work in the cities where they end up as cheap labor in sweatshops, construction
sites or even as sex workers.
Premier Wen Jiabao early this year warned that
illegal seizures of land without compensation and resettlement are a key source
of instability in rural areas.
"It is sparking mass incidents in the
countryside," said Wen. "We absolutely cannot commit a historic error over land
problems."
The central leadership has taken some positive steps in this
regard. When the central leadership introduced China's 11th Five-Year Program
(2006-2010), it included general policy statements on strengthening farmers'
land rights under the household contract responsibility system.
The draft
Property Rights Law, which would give private property the same protection as
government assets while affirming the "dominant role" of state industry,
submitted to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for a fifth
review in August, includes a key chapter on rural land rights.
This fifth
version of the draft law emphasizes farmers' rights to their contracted land is
a "usufruct" right: the right to use and enjoy the profits and advantages of the
land for 30 years.
However, this chapter of fifth draft law, just like the
first four, does not grant the farmer the right to use the land under his
"usufruct" right as collateral for either a loan or for sale. Such an
enhancement to the farmer's current existing land rights might increase the
marketability and market value of land and was mooted when the law was first
issued in July 2005 for public consultation. However, opponents argued the
introduction of these kinds of market forces into the rural economy might leave
more gullible farmers homeless, jobless and penniless. The new draft will be
deliberated at the 5th Session of the 10th NPC next March.
The central
government has also tried to help by experimenting with programs that boost land
compensation for farmers and channel money more directly to the farmers meant to
receive it.
China's southern Guangdong Province has mapped out compensation
standards for farmers who lose their land. Implemented from July 25 this year,
farmers in Guangdong can receive compensation ranging from 234,000 yuan
(US$29,330) to 1.03 million yuan (US$129,100) for one hectare of land, based on
different zoning.
Provinces like Jiangsu and Zhejiang in east China have
improved the social security system for local farmers, with more than 3 million
enrolled.
Any solution to these issues must include, as a central element,
greater land tenure security for farmers, observed Dr. Zhou Qiren, a professor
from the China Center for Economic Research at Beijing University. "This
requires significant legal and policy reforms, and their concrete implementation
at the grassroots level," he said.
"Land represents the single asset of
greatest significance to the rural population in China," said Dr. Zhou. He
believed that if the vast majority of Chinese farmers enjoy secure, long-term
and marketable land rights, their investments into the land will increase
substantially as well as the volume and value of their agricultural
production.
"Their increased wealth and consumption power will narrow China's
rural-urban income gap," he said. "If farmers are rich, then the country will be
prosperous. If villages are stable, so will be the whole of
society."
xinhua
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