The number of illegal land expropriation cases increased sharply
last year, but so did prosecutions, the Ministry of Land and
Resources said.
The ministry revealed in a circular yesterday that 3,593 people,
including two ministerial and provincial level officials, were
punished after more than 90,000 cases of land use violations were
investigated last year.
The circular revealed 385 people were penalized for illegal
mining activities.
Meanwhile, the ministry said it detected and stopped some 35,000
illegal land use activities, saving a potential economic loss of
1.64 billion yuan (US$212 million).
The ministry also uncovered more than 130,000 cases of illegal
land use last year, an annual increase of 17.3 percent.
The illegal cases involved nearly 100,000 hectares of land,
nearly half of which was arable land, a 77 percent increase over
the previous year.
"This demonstrates the country has strengthened the crack-down
effort of illegal activities in the field of land management,"
Zhang Xinbao, director of execution and supervision department of
the ministry, said.
"The soaring number of these cases and the increasing area of
land involved in these cases showed a rebounding trend of
violations in land management regulation nationwide.
"The local government-led land acquisition in the disguised form
of rent is still the main form of violation in land use."
Zhang said the reason for the rebound was because local
governments' blind pursuit of economic growth remained
unchecked.
"Illegal land acquisition activities caused by the incomplete
system, like 'land use without approval', are stoked under the
mandate to pursue faster economic growth," he said.
Zhang said although local governments usually did not openly
defy laws, they often secretly allowed illegal land acquisitions to
lure more investment.
To curb the trend that local government was attracting
investment with the promise of very low land use fee, even a "zero
land use fee", the ministry has set bottom prices for land intended
for industrial use, starting from this year.
Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to get tough on land use
violations to better protect the country's diminishing arable
land.
Zhang said that many local governments had still approved
luxurious constructions like villas and golf courses, despite
bans.
(China Daily March 21, 2007)