Rural land policies tested in China's quake zone

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-10 20:18

Zheng Houpu, a villager from Weijiang village, has other concerns. His village has agreed to cooperate with a Beijing-based company to jointly build homes for quake survivors.

Shi Lin, general manager of Beijing Haohai Lide Tech Co. Ltd., agreed to build homes for 19 families in Weijiang village, with a building area of 43 square meters per person. The steel structured houses near Mt. Qingcheng have wooden floors, fully fitted kitchens and bathrooms.

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The company has invested 10 million yuan in the reconstruction of farmers' houses, says Shi, of which 4 million was used to build roads, water pipes, electricity lines and sewage system. Shi will also pay each household the market price of 400 kilograms of rice each year.

In return, the company will get about 200,000 square meters of land to build a hotel in the mountain woodlands.

Shi is confident of the tourism prospects at this picturesque mountain and the company plans to invest 30 million yuan in the hotel project.

"I had my concerns at the beginning because the policy was not very clear," Shi says. "What if, after we invest the money, the government says it is illegal?"

Villager Zheng Houpu worries that the company might fail and be unable of paying the price of 400 kilograms of rice.

Han Jun, director of the State Council Development Research Centre's Rural Economy Department, says such practices are unsuitable for other rural areas.

Han, who has just returned from doing research on countryside policies in Japan, says that the restriction of rural land is even tighter in Japan. "Japanese farmers are not allowed to sell their rural homes to city people and there is no way urban people can build houses on rural housing land."

Han thinks that such practices might trigger disputes in the future, but "since we are dealing with the quake zones, the situation is different."

Luo Zhaopeng says land use rights should be freely transferred as long as the use of the land is not changed. "We shouldn't worry too much that once the farmers sell their rural housing land or farmland, they will have no place to live in or nothing to eat," he says. "Instead we should give them enough freedom and let them decide what to do with their land. The key point is to improve the social security system for the farmers."

"We are dealing with a different situation here in the quake zone, it's possible that we will make mistakes, or even clash with other policies."

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