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Describes the land grabs of the current agrarian reforms in China
Introduction
Land rights in China have become an arena for conflicting interests and struggle among various stakeholders. Media coverage is discouraged, but numerous reports of farmers protests indicate that unease is widespread. In 2007, the issue of a 'nail house' in Chingqing managed to reach a rare iconic status worldwide thanks to stark pictures of a lone remaining house on a pinnacle in the midst of a huge construction pit. Most land problems, though, receive far less attention.
In October 2008, China announced important changes in its tenure system for rural land. The stated reasons for reform were, first, concern for widening rural-urban income gaps in the wake of the country's massive transformation from an overwhelmingly rural society to an urban-industrial giant, and second, the need to boost agricultural productivity (The Economist, 2008). While the reforms reflect China's impressive economic performance in recent decades, there are also reasons for concern about the socio-economic consequences for especially rural populations.
Land governance in China
China has a unique dual framework of land tenure that maintains two radically different systems alongside each other, one for land classified as urban and the other for rural land. Since the reforms introduced by Deng in the late 1970s, urban land is state owned but in practice much of it is in private hands since 'ownership' and 'use rights' are effectively separated and the latter, as long-term leasehold, can be traded commercially (Wu et al. , 2007). Rural land, however, belongs to rural 'collectives'. These are not clearly defined, but are often considered to consist of the village communities that stand center stage in the organization of Chinese rural life. Rural families are given land to farm and build a house, which until recently could not be transferred to others or converted to urban uses. Rural land is also periodically redistributed among community members in order to accommodate changes in household composition. Conversion of rural into urban land requires appropriation by the state in exchange for a compensation package for the affected village population - at least, in principle (Ho, 2005; Lin, 2009). Many reports from all over China point to the fact that procedures are not always complied with,...