China's central government has sent a team of inspectors to some provinces to halt local government land grabs. The Ministry of Land and Resources is targeting the municipal governments of Beijing and Xiamen, the northern Hebei Province and the southeastern province of Fujian.
 
"Empowered by the State Council, the inspectors will supervise local land use and administration and advise local governments to correct irregularities," said Gan Zangchun, the country's deputy land inspector-general.

However, the inspectors are not authorized to exert authority over local officials or interfere in their work, Gan said. The central government approved a national inspection system to strengthen its control of local land use in July. The move came in response to increasing discontent in rural areas over arable land expropriated by local governments for development.

"The system will make sure the central government's macro-control policies are effectively implemented by local governments," said Cheng Chengbiao, director of the planning office with the Department of Land and Resources of Fujian Province. In the first 11 months of the year, China saw real-estate investment rise 24 percent on the previous year to 1.64 trillion yuan (US$205 billion).

The government has issued new laws which will come into effect on January 1 to regulate land sales, raise land-use taxes and compensation for people who have lost their land, and order land administrators to double fees for new construction projects.

However, local governments often help companies get round the macro-control policies, lending their support to illegal investment projects in pursuit of economic growth.

Since 1999, local government involvement has been responsible for 20 percent of the country's illegal land use cases, involving 60 percent of the total land area that has been exploited illegally. China has sent officials to 12 provinces to whip local governments into line.

Earlier this month, a land official in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, was sentenced to five years in prison for taking bribes and approving irregular land deals.

Source:佚名