Inside China Today

Chinese farmers and lawyers questioned the new land policy by the Communist regime

The newly announced land reform program by the Communist regime claims that the policy is to improve the land rights of farmers, but does not protect the land rights of farmers with any specific provision. Some farmers and concerned groups expressed that because of corruption amongst Chinese officials, it is easy to expropriate and sell farmers’ land, and this new policy will not have any effect to redress the situation.
Each year, there are thousands of cases in China where desperate farmers protest their expropriated lands. In Shuanghe Village, located in a Tianjin suburb near Binhai Economic Zone, local farmers complained that one fifth of their land had been sold to a private enterprise by local officials, however, farmers had not received a cent from the sale proceeds of their 6.7 hectares of land.

Farmer Dou Jingshui said: several villagers were threatened, and violently assaulted by thugs that were hired by local officials. They went to appeal in Beijing while their petition letters were returned to Tianjing and so far their appeals had proved futile.

Farmer Zhang Jin Xiang said [recording]: “The policy is something that local governments would simply not implement.”

The new land reform scheme did not change the ownership of land, there is no specific ways to protect farmers’ land rights. In the face of rampant and corrupt government officials, the regime’s new land reform policy will not benefit farmers much.

Beijing lawyer Chen Yong-Miao said [recording]: “The biggest problem is that the funds are embezzled by corrupt officials, even if the land is privatized, farmers would not be able to prevent officials from expropriating their land.”

The Chinese Communist system bestows privileges and power on Communist officials who can embezzle the land and offer a symbolic compensation to farmers or simply make no compensation at all. Chinese farmers suffer grave miseries in life without health insurance or superannuation on top of the high costs of education. If farmers lost their land, people can’t imagine how the families of farmers could survive.

The above news is brought to you by Fang Jing and hosted by Chris Thomas for Inside China Today on SOH Radio Network.