In an attempt to ease public anger, the Chinese government has issued new rules promising to end illegal forced demolitions and give fair prices to affected homeowners.
In a nation where the government legally controls all land, property disputes have been a growing problem for the ruling Communist Party and can result in unruly protests, fights with the police, imprisonment and even suicide.
China’s State Council or Cabinet has now approved the new rules, following the publication of a revised proposal last month.
“Expand the level of public participation; the peoples’ opinions must be sought for expropriations and compensation cases,” said the Cabinet in a statement on the government’s website.
“Before the government makes a decision about expropriating houses, it must make an appraisal of the risk to social stability,” it added.
Illegal forced demolitions are prohibited, and the government is mandated to seek court approval if it wants to do so. However, this will be difficult in practice, since the Communist Party controls all court decisions.
Under the new rules, developers are not allowed to be involved in relocation work. Compensation must also be in line with market prices and computed fairly.
Affected homeowners have long complained that the compensation offered to them is often well below the real value of their properties.
Some claimed that officials conspire with developers to demand land for public use like roads, before handing it over to commercial investors, who usually gain large profits.