More than 2,700 officials had been referred for prosecution on land use violation charges after investigations by the discipline and supervisory authorities, said the Ministry of Land Resources on Monday.

These people, with another 1,000 still being investigated, were allegedly involved in 31,000 land use violation cases involving more than 3.3 million mu (550,000 acres), said Minister of Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi at a televised conference on the results of a 100-day campaign.

The campaign, launched on Sep. 17 last year, was implemented to crack down on local governments that illegally transferred household land to property developers. It targeted officials who failed to seek permission from higher authorities for land use and those who flouted decrees to expand the size of development zones.

About 300,000 mu (50,000 acres) of land were taken over in the name of leases, one million mu (166,667 acres) involved expanded development zones and two million mu (333,334 acres) was used without authorization, said Xu.

The courts had convicted more than 300 people, punishing them with fines and confiscating properties worth up to two billion yuan (274 million U.S. dollars).

He said the campaign proved land supervision must win support from local governments. "Perpetrators should pay high price for what they have done."

He also urged more efforts in establishing a warning system of land violation behavior and stronger liaison among departments such as the police, courts and supervisory watchdogs.

Land violation has evolved into a controversial issue in China and in 2004 the central government order promulgated to implement "the strictest land management policy". Since then, the order has hit many snags at local level.

Some government officials still sought to attract capital and technology by offering investors cheap or even free land, a practice that was rife along the east coast early in China's economic reform and opening-up. Land yields remain a steady source of fiscal revenue for local governments.

Some governments have stealthily restored development zones closed down years ago or allowed management of legal development zones to invite business for abolished ones.

Since a national overhaul to shut down inefficient or idle development zones started in 2003, the number of development zones had shrunk by more than 70 percent to 1,568 and their aggregate land size diminished to 9,949 square kilometers at the end of 2006.

But rapid urbanization has triggered outrage from some farmers who were not properly compensated for appropriated land. It also led to a drastic decline in the area available for cultivation, prompting the government to set a minimum area of 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of arable land.

In 2004, domestic policy makers started to track the speed and scale of new land supply in non-agricultural sectors annually to control land supply and boost overall macro-economic control.

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2008)