China's Ministry of Land and Resources announced Friday that 230
million yuan (about US$28.75 million) went to compensating farmers
for land losses in 2005.
Compensation and allocation to rural farmers were improved last
year, with their interests better protected, a ministry statement
said.
The Chinese government called in February for improvements to
the compensation mechanism for rural farmers whose land was
purchased and stricter protection of farmers' interests.
The policy document also demanded better vocational training
opportunities for farmers to widen and broaden their prospects, and
enrolling them in the social security system.
Illegal land occupancy has increasingly become a grave problem
affecting rural and social stability. Premier Wen Jiabao has warned that "historical problems
should never be repeated on the land issue".
A ministry statement noted that many provinces, such as Hunan Province in central-south China, had
worked out ratification mechanisms for farmland disputes.
Provinces like Jiangsu and Zhejiang in east China had improved the social
security system for local peasants with more than 3 million
enrolled.
Though China's strategic drive to build a new socialist
countryside will increase infrastructure development in rural
areas, the central government has sought to restrict land
acquisitions.
Officials with the ministry said the reform of the land
acquisition system would be accelerated this year, and the
government would go on implementing a rigid land protection
system.
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(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2006)