While land expropriation has become a top causer to Chinese
farmers' mass petitions, a property law under deliberation by
national lawmakers for approval may give them a helping hand to
safeguard their rights.
The draft of the property law, aimed to grant equal protection
to state and private property, was submitted to nearly 3,000
legislators for examination Thursday morning when the second
plenary meeting of the annual session of the National People's
Congress (NPC), China's highest legislature, was held at the Great
Hall of the People in Beijing.
The draft stipulated specific provisions on land expropriation
and ensuing compensation, which can be cited to defend farmers'
interests, said NPC deputy Yao Tian'en from Jiaozuo City, central
Henan Province.
As a result of rapid industrialization and urbanization, Chinese
farmers are losing their land but are seldom sufficiently
compensated, though the central government has repeatedly
underlined the protection of arable land and farmers' rights.
Official figures show that nearly 200,000 hectares of rural land
are taken from farmers every year for industrial purposes, and more
than 65 percent of "massive incidents", or petitions and protests
that involve a large group of people, in rural areas are attributed
to land expropriation.
In addition to provisions on "tight" control over arable land's
expropriation for industrial and construction use, the draft
property law stipulated that farmers must be compensated for lost
land and farming losses, subsidized for resettlement and insured
for social security, according to a text of the draft distributed
to reporters at the NPC's meeting.
"Such regulations will provide farmers a powerful lever to
safeguard their rights and interests when they have to give up
their land," said Yao.
As part of the draft civil code, the draft property law was
submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for the first review in
2002 after nearly 10 years of preparation. After an unprecedented
seven times of reading, NPC Standing Committee decided last
December to put it for voting at the Fifth Session of the 10th NPC,
believing that the draft "represented a crystallization of the
wisdom of the collective and was about to be mature".
The draft is expected to be voted by the lawmakers on March 16,
when the NPC session ends.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2007)