China intends to use a crackdown on illegal property deals to cool excessive investment in the booming economy and calm rage over land grabs and soaring property prices, the government has indicated.
The Ministry of Land and Resources has ordered all provincial governments to immediately begin investigations into at least three major illegal land schemes in their provinces, it said in a report posted last week on its Web site.
The investigations have to be expanded to eight cases for each province by the end of the year, the ministry said.
Specific regulations on the crackdown were posted on the ministry's Web site on June 15 following what it described as an "emergency meeting" on the issue.
The first victim in the nationwide campaign may be Beijing's ousted vice mayor in charge of construction for the Olympic Games, Liu Zhihua (
Liu's arrest and the subsequent June 16 detention for questioning of Beijing's top real estate mogul, Liu Xiaoguang (
Various state press outlets have linked the sacking of Liu Zhihua with the land grab crackdown, while the land and resources ministry did not rule out the connection.
"This case is under investigation, so we cannot say that it is necessarily linked with the ongoing campaign to curb violations of land use laws," a ministry spokesman said.
"We must wait until the investigation is over and let the facts speak for themselves," he said.
According to the China Business Post, the crackdown was ordered after top leaders were incensed at last month's economic statistics that showed fixed assets investment rising 30.3 percent year-on-year in the first five months of this year.
At the same time broad M2 money supply expanded by 19.1 percent during the period.
Both were driven by investment and expanded bank loans into the property sector and followed a plethora of futile efforts to rein in annual investment growth over the past two years to around 16 percent.
"The State Council is very anxious, after two years of macro-economic controls, a new phenomenon has appeared and the land situation is now out of control," the China Business Post said, citing unnamed officials.
With all land in China belonging to the state, collusion between government officials and real estate developers has long characterized the property market as officials grab land cheaply and sell leaseholds to developers for fat profits.
The situation has angered city dwellers due to soaring home prices, with resentment rising across the country amid countless incidents of people being kicked off their land after being given little or no compensation.
The government said there were 87,000 public protests last year -- from 10,000 in 1994 -- with many of those due to the controversial land deals.
For the government, such a situation has made its efforts to use land policies as a macro-economic control tool to cool the economy ineffective, the ministry spokesman said.
"The land policy should be a macro-economic control tool. This is why the ministry is resolute in cracking down on illegal land transactions," he said.
Last week, the ministry reported it had recorded 25,253 illegal land seizure cases in the first five months of this year, involving 12,241.7 hectares of land.
The number of cases was roughly equal to the same period last year but the area had risen 20 percent, the report said.
There have been signs across the country that the crackdown may be being implemented.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported last Wednesday that Tianjin city's vice mayor and its planning commissioner were placed under investigation this month. The Tianjin government refused to confirm or deny the investigation into the pair.
Last Thursday, the Zhejiang provincial government also announced eight cases of illegal land dealings involving lower-level party and government officials.
There were local press reports on Friday of real estate moguls fleeing Chengdu, as local officials met to discuss the crackdown.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique