X-5 Question: In China, farmers rely heavily on land. However, in the past several years, some local governments ignored farmers' interests during land expropriation, leading to contradictions and disputes. What measures will Chinese Government take to protect the interests of farmers whose land are expropriated?

A: Chinese Government clearly stipulated compensation for lost-land farmers in 2004, requiring local governments to protect farmers' right to live and right to develop. First, local governments should not expropriate farmers' land and basic farmlands at will so as to reduce the number of lost-land farmers to the lowest possible level. Second, to farmers whose land were expropriated, local governmental departments and units should compensate them strictly according to related national policies and distribute sufficient compensation funds to farmers in time. The very fact is that , however, in the past several years, some local governments did not pay attention to the interests of farmers whose lands were expropriated, leading to the fact that some farmers cannot even afford themselves. This also led to unnecessary contradictions and group complaints. This is an instable factor in some rural areas.

Statistics show that because of the process of China's industrialization and urbanization, more than 200,000 hectares of lands are expropriated from farmers every year. This means that more than 1 million farmers in China lose their lands annually. Under this circumstance, Chinese Government will take the following four measures to protect farmers' interests:

First, local governments should abide strictly by laws and regulations while approving farmland expropriation and work out, as soon as possible, and publicize a unified norm of annual production value for land and the land prices especially for industrial use. Procedures like public bidding and auction are necessary for industrial lands and land transfer with low prices is strictly forbidden. Meanwhile, the compensation norms for land expropriation should be raised according to laws. Compensation distribution for lost-land farmers should be publicized to make the whole process more transparent.

Second, compensation distribution method will be reformed. Compensation for lost-land farmers will be distributed directly through bank cards or deposit books to avoid being retained, misappropriated and diverted.

Third, local governments will lift local employment rate through developing the secondary and tertiary industries, and arrange lost-land farmers to find jobs soon so as to ensure that their living standards will not drop because of land expropriation. Meanwhile, lost-land farmers can enjoy free job service and one-time vocational training subsidy. To farmers living in planned urban areas with unemployment registration, if they apply for small loans to start up micro-profit project, they can enjoy 50 percent of interest discount.

Fourth, lost-land farmers' social security can be directly paid from their land compensations and arrangement subsidies. Local governments can earmark a proportion of funds from land transfer incomes to subsidize farmers' social security expenditures and establish a long-term mechanism to protect lost-land farmers' life.

For a long term, the revenues from land transfer in China are mainly used for urban construction and land development. Insufficient investment in infrastructure construction in rural areas has been a long-time problem. During this step of reform, Chinese Government also adjusts the usage of revenues from land transfer, in favor of New Countryside Construction Program, to ensure sufficient compensations, subsidies and expenditures for farmers. By doing this, local farmers can improve their farming production, living environment and living quality and standards.

(China.org.cn)