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.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS