A senior Chinese official promised yesterday to crack down the seizing of farmland for redevelopment that is fueling unrest, saying as many as 1 million Chinese farmers lose their land each year and admitting they are paid too little for it.
Every year, commercial development eats up over 266,666 hectares of farmland, causing perhaps 1 million Chinese farmers to lose their land, Vice Minister of Agriculture Yin Chengjie (尹成杰) said.
"In building a new countryside, one of the most important issues is protecting rural resources, especially farmland, and we must implement the strictest farmland protection system," he told a news briefing during China's national parliament, which has focused on its struggling countryside.
In recent years, Chinese villages have often erupted in protest against land grabs by officials, especially around expanding cities. And some officials have said the country has been losing even more farmland than Yin estimated.
In 2004, the Ministry of Land and Resources said China had lost 6.7 million hectares of arable land -- 5 percent of the country's total -- in the previous seven years to tree planting, ecological deterioration and commercial development.
Yin said farmers who lose land must be given jobs and adequate compensation, and he promised reforms to China's land system, which the government acknowledges has encouraged abuses.
Yin said that the government was considering stifling official profiteering by increasing compensation for land taken for public purposes, such as roads, and demanding that land is sold for commercial development "through market mechanisms." But he did not explain what specific reforms the government had in mind.
Also yesterday, plans were unveiled for a massive reshuffle of local politicians, linking promotion to how well they adhere to the central leadership's bid to address social imbalances, an official newspaper said.
The moves may affect more than 100,000 officials in township, county, city and provincial posts ahead of a party congress next year that is likely to seal changes in the country's ruling circle under President Hu Jintao (
"The criteria for promotion will not only look to GDP growth and other political achievements, it will also look to the level of popular satisfaction with their administration," the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's mouthpiece, said.
It said the decisions about promotions and demotions would apply the "scientific outlook on development" -- the party's catchphrase for balanced economic and social growth that places fresh emphasis on social equality, especially for China's poor farmers.
"The goal is to properly select appropriate officials to provide an organizational guarantee for China's future development," the daily said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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