Analysis of Land illegal behavior caused by Land Policy

China is the country with the strictest land management system in the world, but in real life, land violations still occur frequently in some places. Why? In the past two years, the author has visited some land violations in many places and found that the main reason for land violations is that some local officials and relevant leaders of land and resources departments collude with each other by using their functions and powers to deceive higher-level governments and farmers with various land policies. Because these lawbreakers can not only make huge profits from the illegal land, but also evade legal responsibility, and some of them can make their official careers get promoted. This leads to a vicious circle between the violation of land law and the "construction" of political achievements.

The manifestation of land illegal behavior caused by land policy

In recent years, with the rapid development of rural urbanization and industrialization, the contradiction between supply and demand of land resources in some areas has become increasingly prominent. In order to better protect cultivated land and alleviate the pressure on land use, the central government or relevant departments of the central government have formulated and issued some land policies. For example, the measures for the Administration of the transfer of contracted Management Rights of Rural Land issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Circular of the Ministry of Land and Resources on further strengthening the work of Land consolidation, Reclamation and Development issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the pilot measures for the increase or decrease of urban and rural construction land promulgated by the Ministry of Land and Resources, its purpose is to better protect cultivated land, expand cultivated land reserves, and maintain the sustainable use of land. However, when I visited some places, I saw that some local officials violated the law with a variety of land policies, resulting in a large number of arable land being illegally occupied.

According to the actual situation learned from the visit, the author sums up this phenomenon of land violation caused by the land policy into two situations: one is to use the land policy as a gimmick to directly carry out the land violation, the other is to apply the relevant land policy to carry out the land violation.

In the first case, the land policy is used as a gimmick to violate the law. It is well known that the central government has formulated and promulgated some land laws and regulations in order to alleviate the contradiction in land use and protect cultivated land. For example, the Ministry of Land and Resources issued the "Circular on further strengthening the work of Land consolidation, Reclamation and Development" issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources. However, some county and township leaders use their functions and powers to deceive and use these land policies to illegally expropriate cultivated land for some purpose. For example, in 2013, the leaders of G Town in X City occupied nearly 100 mu of arable land (all basic farmland) to build a so-called new rural community on the grounds of land consolidation. The leaders of the District Bureau of Land and Resources and the town leaders said that these construction sites were carried out according to the land consolidation projects approved by the municipal government and were legally occupied. However, the information obtained by the occupied farmers from the provincial land comprehensive management office found that there was no land consolidation project in G Town in the land consolidation project approved by the Provincial Department of Land and Resources.

There are many cases of using the land policy as a gimmick to occupy illegal land. For example, the leaders of H Town in F County occupy 217 mu of basic farmland in H Village for commercial development with the "special use of agricultural land" documents approved by the municipal government. The Land Management Law clearly stipulates that the conversion of agricultural land is a necessary procedural material for land expropriation, and the conversion of agricultural land does not represent the land requisition procedures.

In the second case, it is illegal to apply the land policy. It can be seen from the relevant provisions of some land systems that the purpose of the central government or relevant central departments in formulating these land systems is to expand the area of cultivated land and standardize the use of land, but some local leaders have committed land violations by applying these land systems. The Ministry of Land and Resources has issued the pilot measures for linking the increase and decrease of urban and rural construction land, which aims to increase the effective area of cultivated land and improve the quality of cultivated land through such means as building new and demolishing the old and land consolidation and reclamation. However, in the process of visiting many places, the author learned that some county and township leaders occupy land in the name of "linking the increase and decrease of urban and rural construction land", whether they are commercial development or real estate development. For example, Z City Construction Automobile Trade City requisitioned more than 1600 mu of arable land in three villages in Z County, according to the evidence materials obtained by the occupied farmers through the disclosure of government information, they learned that the "legal" basis of the occupied land is linked to the increase or decrease of urban and rural construction land approved by the Provincial Department of Land and Resources. Similar cases of illegal occupation of land by applying land policy are numerous. For example, Y County in X City occupies hundreds of mu of arable land to engage in real estate development, which is also based on the link between the increase and decrease of urban and rural construction land approved by the Provincial Department of Land and Resources.

Analysis on the factors of illegal land use

Through the analysis of a number of land violations, it is concluded that there are three reasons why some county and township leaders use land policy to break the law in this way. The interweaving of these three factors can enable some county and township leaders to make both political achievements and "grey" benefits in the process of breaking the law, evade the investigation of legal responsibility, and some can promote their official careers.

1. Illegal land can make exorbitant profits. At present, it is an open secret in some local officialdom to seek huge "grey" benefits in the process of land violation. Some county and township leaders expropriate farmers' land under the guise of "government construction." in the process of land requisition (occupation), they intercept and deduct the compensation for land expropriation in the name of the government, and at the same time, they can fish in troubled waters to fish for "external pieces". Or in the project bidding and construction process to collect "transfer fees" and other "grey" income. For example, G District requisitioned 259 mu of arable land in Village Z to build a logistics company, district and township leaders said that the compensation standard for land expropriation was paid in accordance with the district land price (56000 yuan per mu) set by the provincial government, but the reporter found that the compensation standard for land expropriation was 62000 yuan per mu on the account of the District Bureau of Land and Resources. On the other hand, farmers found from the internal documents of the Provincial Department of Land and Resources that the resettlement compensation fee for the occupied farmers was more than 9 million yuan (the document showed that the land expropriation required monetary resettlement for 300 people, and the resettlement fee for each person was 30886 yuan).

This is the main factor for some local leaders to break the law on land.

2. The violation of land policy can evade legal liability. In order to ensure 1.3 billion of the "rice bowls" of the Chinese people, the central government's management of land is becoming more and more stringent, and it is very difficult for some local governments to acquire (occupy) land under legal conditions for some construction projects that do not meet the legal conditions. if they do not acquire (occupy) land, they will not be able to carry out project construction, and if they do not engage in project construction, they will not show their political achievements, and if they do not have political achievements, it will be very difficult to make a difference. If you directly expropriate (occupy) land in violation of the law, you are also worried that your official career will be affected by the incidents of farmers caused by serious land violations. As a result, they and the relevant leaders of the land and resources departments use the power and resources in their hands to use various land policies as gimmicks to form the so-called "land requisition documents." with these so-called "land requisition documents," illegal leaders can not only expropriate (occupy) land in violation of the law, but also evade legal responsibility. During the visit, the author saw that some land violations had been exposed, but the violators got away with it under the cover and protection of some leaders at a higher level.