China may look to end its state monopoly on farmland sales and take on staggering rural government debts in a drive to rid the countryside of discontent, a leading Chinese adviser said yesterday.
The office director of the Communist Party's "leading group" for rural policy, Chen Xiwen (
But Chen told a news conference that farmers may eventually be allowed to sell land directly, cutting out officials from taking the lion's share of profits from often corrupt land deals -- a problem that has fueled rising rural unrest.
"It's true that the attention of society has been turned toward conflicts arising from the use of farm land for some time now. It's also true that it's currently a factor in bringing about instability in some rural areas," he said.
According to the government's own statistics, more than 200,000 hectares of farmland is turned into factory floors or residential areas every year.
The clashes typically erupt because farmers feel they are not adequately compensated.
"Eventually, we have to propose steadily reforming the land acquisition system itself," he said.
"Here the crux is whether land for development must be all monopolized by the state, so that the state acquires the land and then passes it on to developers."
Any move to lift the current state stranglehold on farmland sales would break with policies the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (
Chen said that the government would move carefully on land reform.
"If it went out of control, there would be major losses of China's precious land resources," Chen said.
Chen advises Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and other top party officials on rural policy, and helped draft China's ambitious plan to build a "new socialist countryside" and narrow the stark gaps in income, health and schooling that have divided urban and rural citizens.
Last year, rural residents earned an average 3,255 yuan (US$400) each in annual income, while urban residents earned an average 10,493 yuan, Chen noted.
Reducing that still widening gap would be a "long process, but the gravity of the problem has attracted serious attention from all sides," he said.
Clearing away mounting rural government debts and directing more government revenues and bank loans to farmers would be "crucial" to the government's plans, he said.
In the late 1990s, those debts reached 360 billion yuan (US$44.7 billion), as local officials rushed to increase staff and build showcase projects, Chen said.
"Financial support for agriculture is crucial, and at present it appears to be clearly insufficient," Chen said.
He added that the government would embark on a nationwide audit of rural government debts and then decide how to deal with them.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
RSS