China to Step up Land Reform This Year

BEIJING, Jan. 11 -- China is planning to launch new pilot projects to promote land reforms this year, Xu Shaoshi, the country's minister of land and resources, said Monday.

The ministry will summarize its experiences from previous pilot schemes, especially from those related to land acquisition, which has been an issue of wide social concern, said Xu at a national conference on land resources that closed in Beijing on Monday.

The new pilots programs will cover the examination and approval of urban land use, the transferring of land under collective ownership, land management that supports economic zones, and differentiated policies on land control, according to Xu.

In China, the latest notable dispute over land use, financing and elections last year in the village of Wukan in the southern province of Guangdong led to months of large-scale villager protests against local authorities.

The Ministry of Land and Resources will start pilot programs that allow local governments to build rental housing on construction land under collective ownership, drawing experiences from previous land protection and compensation trial programs, said Xu.