Forced evictions in China
Forced eviction in China refers to the practice of involuntary land requisitions from the citizenry, typically in order to make room for development projects.
In some instances, government authorities work with private developers to seize land from villagers, with compensation below the market price.
[4] The rate of forced evictions has grown significantly since the 1990s, as city and county-level governments have increasingly come to rely on land sales as an important source of revenue.
[5] Guan Qingyou, a professor at Tsinghua University, estimated that land sales accounted for 74 percent of local government income in 2010.
Rural, or "collectively owned land," is leased by the state for periods of 30 years, and is theoretically reserved for agricultural purposes, housing and services for farmers.
Under China's constitution and other property laws, resumption of urban land by the state is permitted only for the purpose of supporting the "public interest," and those being evicted are supposed to receive compensation, resettlement, and protection of living conditions.
In 2011, China's legislative body implemented a new law limiting the use of violence in forced evictions, as well as outlawing the clearing of property at night and during holidays.
Forty three percent of villages surveyed across China report the occurrence of expropriations [3] and from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s, an estimated 40 million Chinese farmers were affected by land requisitions.
[8] Since 2005, surveys have indicated a steady increase in the number of forced evictions in China, with local government appropriating the land of approximately 4 million rural Chinese citizens annually.
[14] A number of individual protests have also made international headlines: on 26 May 2011, Qian Mingqi, a farmer from Fuzhou whose home had been demolished to make room for a highway, complained of losing 2 million yuan in the forced eviction.
[17] Citizens have also resorted to a variety of semi-institutionalized forms of resistance, including petitioning actions and the use of legal channels to challenge forced land requisitions or demand compensation.
In the first half of 2004, for instance, China's construction ministry reported receiving petitions from more than 18,600 individuals and 4,000 groups over forced evictions and unlawful transfers of land.
