China may look to end its state monopoly on farmland sales and take on staggering rural government debts in a drive to rid the countryside of discontent, a leading Chinese adviser said yesterday.
The office director of the Communist Party's "leading group" for rural policy, Chen Xiwen (
But Chen told a news conference that farmers may eventually be allowed to sell land directly, cutting out officials from taking the lion's share of profits from often corrupt land deals -- a problem that has fueled rising rural unrest.
"It's true that the attention of society has been turned toward conflicts arising from the use of farm land for some time now. It's also true that it's currently a factor in bringing about instability in some rural areas," he said.
According to the government's own statistics, more than 200,000 hectares of farmland is turned into factory floors or residential areas every year.
The clashes typically erupt because farmers feel they are not adequately compensated.
"Eventually, we have to propose steadily reforming the land acquisition system itself," he said.
"Here the crux is whether land for development must be all monopolized by the state, so that the state acquires the land and then passes it on to developers."
Any move to lift the current state stranglehold on farmland sales would break with policies the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (
Chen said that the government would move carefully on land reform.
"If it went out of control, there would be major losses of China's precious land resources," Chen said.
Chen advises Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and other top party officials on rural policy, and helped draft China's ambitious plan to build a "new socialist countryside" and narrow the stark gaps in income, health and schooling that have divided urban and rural citizens.
Last year, rural residents earned an average 3,255 yuan (US$400) each in annual income, while urban residents earned an average 10,493 yuan, Chen noted.
Reducing that still widening gap would be a "long process, but the gravity of the problem has attracted serious attention from all sides," he said.
Clearing away mounting rural government debts and directing more government revenues and bank loans to farmers would be "crucial" to the government's plans, he said.
In the late 1990s, those debts reached 360 billion yuan (US$44.7 billion), as local officials rushed to increase staff and build showcase projects, Chen said.
"Financial support for agriculture is crucial, and at present it appears to be clearly insufficient," Chen said.
He added that the government would embark on a nationwide audit of rural government debts and then decide how to deal with them.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS