Land confiscation is the most frequent subject of petitions made
by Chinese farmers, with complaints about village finances and
environmental pollution coming next, a senior agriculture official
said on Tuesday.
Chen Xiwen, director of the office of the central leading group
on rural work, said that government officials "should not turn a
deaf ear to farmers' requests".
"Neither should government officials brush aside farmers'
petitions claiming that they are trivial," he said at a press
conference held by the Information Office of the State Council.
Chen urged governments at various levels to "get acquainted with
farmers' requests and endeavor to have their problems
resolved".
He warned that if governments failed to address farmers' issues
in a timely and efficient manner, a single petition could lead to
"a mass incident" involving public protests or even a riot.
The number of "mass incidents" attributed to Chinese farmers
declined last year and the numbers of those who died from such
incidents or got arrested were also down, Chen said, without
revealing specifics.
But chief judge Xiao Yang told a national judicial meeting
earlier this month that "mass incidents" should be given additional
attention because they have become a conspicuous problem that
disturbs social stability.
The Ministry of Public Security said that 87,000 mass incidents
were reported in 2005, up 6.6 percent on 2004 and 50 percent on
2003.
Although the central government has repeatedly underlined the
significance of protecting arable land, some farmers are still
losing farm land and not being sufficiently compensated.
The government didn't say what proportion of the farmers'
petitions were related to land confiscation. But Chen said that the
situation was improving as government regulations were
implemented.
Citing a central government document issued in 2004, Chen said
that compensation for farmers who lose their farm land must be
increased and that local governments are also responsible for
providing vocational training and re-employment services.
Under the document, the government would expand the social
security insurance which now mainly covers the urban population to
rural areas.
"All of these measures are gradually being implemented," Chen
said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2007)