Farmers battling to preserve land

• Source: Global Times
• [03:41 July 09 2010]
• Comments

Wang Yongchao, a farmer in Tangdian township in Jiangsu Province, wants local authorities and a factory owner to relinquish his land. Photo: CFP and Xue Zijin

Violence growing

Pang Yangcai, director of the land protection department at MLR, said last month that 95 percent of new land used for construction in rural areas every year used to be farmland, and half of that amount was illegally "leased."

"The illegal 'leasing' will seriously hurt the nation's macro-control ability because the government wouldn't have the correct information since those lands, which have been turned into factories, are still registered as farmlands," Zhu said.

In addition, major incidents and clashes have erupted.

In January, hundreds of villages armed with bats and knives clashed with evictors hired by the local government in Pizhou, Jiangsu Province, resulting in one death and one seriously injured, according to Beijing News, which said 2,500 mu of land were "leased" to developers.

Starting this fall, all the top leaders would be held accountable and punished if the illegal land use is detected in their jurisdiction.

Li said the central government is playing it tough this time. "We will not only ask about the case, but also hold the person accountable," he said.

Getting tough

According to a regulation dubbed "Order 15" that was released by ministries of land and resources, human resources and supervision, if the new construction site takes up more than 15 percent of arable land in a specific area within a year, the top county official and those above would be held accountable.

As a consequence, officials face penalties or even dismissal.

"This would affect officials' careers so it might be effective this time," Zhu said. "But if we are still to use the GDP as the prime assessment for an official's performance, I would doubt its outcome."

Ying Tianlei, a lawyer with Hong Zhen Law Firm who is not representing Wang, said the farmer should negotiate with the local government and settle the case as "the government in this case has economic interests involved and even if he won the case, the chance of him getting back his land is still slim."

In response, Wang said he will not "surrender" and will "fight until he gets the land back."

Zheng Yi contributed to this story