China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) has ordered lower courts to better protect farmers from land management misconduct.

The SPC said in a circular issued on Thursday that people's courts at all levels should crack down on illegal land infringement and related criminal activities.

Farmland in China is owned by the state and leased to farmers under contracts that require payment of a certain amount of the harvest. The Communist Party of China announced a new policy in mid-October allowing farmers to "lease contracted farmland or transfer their land-use rights."

Any attempt to alter ownership of the land or its use, or transfer land use rights against the will or interests of farmers, must be rendered void by courts, the circular read.

Land requisition would be considered illegal unless compensation was rational and timely, and social insurance should be offered to farmers who lose their land, it said.

The SPC also pledged to expand judicial aid for low-income farmers by exempting their cost of lawsuits.

China has experienced protests in rural areas over farmland management. The latest was reported in northwestern Gansu Province in mid-November. More than 30 residents in Dongjiang Town, Wudu District, attacked local government buildings on the night of Nov. 17, demanding solutions concerning their farmland, housing and livelihoods.

(Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2008)