China Focus: New land reform to give farmers more property rights (3)

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The transfer of land for little compensation is not rare in China. Clashes over land requisitions have frequently been reported across China in recent years.

"The new round of land reform emphasizes the establishment of a unified construction land market in urban and rural areas, which implies local government should shift its role from direct player in land transactions to a public service provider," said Zhang.

Anhui Province spearheaded land reform in 1978 in a bold move that broke up the previous commune-style collective farming, resulting in a nationwide policy change in which collective-owned land is leased to individual rural families for private farming.

Thirty-five years later, another reform is looming in the province to give rural families more opportunities to profit from land. The provincial government issued a document on Nov. 12 saying it would experiment with the trade and compensation of farmers' residential land.

Shen Jialiang, however, is hesitant to follow suit and give up his land.

"I cannot afford to buy a house in the city and for now it's hard for me to be registered as an urban resident," he said. "Without my countryside house, I would be homeless."

Equal status between urban and rural residents is a prerequisite for rural land to be traded in the market, said Chi Fulin, head of the China Institute for Reform and Development, a think tank based in southern China's Hainan Province.

"Rural residents should enjoy the same welfare, educational and medical resources as their urban peers so they can settle in the cities," said Chi.

The priority at present is to unify the social policies in urban and rural areas, Chi said.

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