CIRCULAR OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA AND THE STATE COUNCIL CONCERNING FURTHER ENHANCING LAND ADMINISTRATION AND ERNESTLY PROTECTING THE CULTIVATED LAND

Circular of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council Concerning Further Enhancing Land Administration and Ernestly Protecting the Cultivated Land

Land is an extremely valuable resource and asset. The per capita quantity
of cultivated land in this country is little, its overall quality is low and
the reserve resources are inadequate. Protection of the cultivated land
itself means the protection of our lifeline. However, in recent years, there
has, as yet, been no fundamental resolution of the question of indiscriminate
occupancy of cultivated land, approval of land requisition in violation of law and waste of land in a number of localities leading to a sharp decrease
in the acreage of cultivated land and losses of land assets which not only
seriously affected food production and the development of agriculture, but
also affected the development of the entire national economy and social
stability. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the
State Council attache great importance to the major problem of land
administration especially the protection of cultivated land which concerns
the overall interests of the whole country and the posterities of the
Chinese nation and have come to the conculsion after repeated studies that
proceeding from the state of the nation, there must be extremely strict
measures in land administration and in particular in the protection of cultivated land in this country and the basic state policy of "extremely
holding dear and rationally making use of every single inch of land and
ernestly protecting cultivated land" must be conscientiously carried out,
and policies to treat the rootcause must be adopted to turn the trend
of imbalances between the continued growth of population and sharp decrease
in cultivated land. To this end, it is hereby notified as follows:

All provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the
Central Government must, in strict accordance with the requirement of achieving dynamic balance in cultivated land aggregate, achieve the target
that there shall be only increase but not decrease in cultivated land
aggregate in their respective areas and strive to improve the quality of cultivated land. People's Governments at all levels must, in accordance
with the principle of raising the ratio of land utilization and coupling of cultivated land occupancy and development and reclamation, seriously do a
good job in the compilation, revision and implementation of overall plans
for land utilization with emphasis on the protection of cultivated land,
strict control over cultivated land occupancy and overall arrangements of the requirements of land use by various industries. All overall plans for
land utilization which fail to comply with the above principle and
requirements have to be revised. Compilation and revision of overall plans
for land utilization must be done after scientific authentication and
strict and thorough measurement and calculation and must be fully feasible;
the overall plans for land utilization shall, upon approval, be legally
binding and integrated into the five-year plans and annual plans for
national socio-economic development and be strictly implemented. Pending
the approval of the revised overall plans for land utilization, there shall,
in principle, be no approval of new occupancy of cultivated land.

The policy of coupling of occupancy of cultivated land with development
and reclamation shall be carried out. Occupation of land and in particular
occupation of cultivated land and forest land for all types of construction
should be put under strict control. Fertile land should be occupied less
and full use should be made of the land already occupied for construction
and of abandoned land. Uncultivated land should be fully developed and
exploited in the adjustment of the internal structure of agriculture. Except
for requirements for improvement in ecological environment, no occupation of
cultivated land for the development of forest industry and fruit industray
and digging of ponds for fish breeding shall take place. For non-agricultural
construction which really warrants occupation of cultivated land, the area
to be developed and reclaimed must not be less than that occupied and it
must comply with the quality standards for cultivated land. Funds required
for the development of cultivated land shall be included in the total
investment of the construction projects as land cost for construction, and
funds required for reclamation of cultivated land shall be included in the
production cost or total investment of the construction projects. Surface
soil of the cultivated layer of the cultivated land occupied shall be used
for the rebuilding of new land to be undertaken by the construction units
step by step in accordance with the requirements of local governemnts for
occupation of cultivated land for non-agricultural construction. Encouragement
shall be given to cooperation between regions with inadequate reserve
resources of cultivated land and regions with rich reserve resources of cultivated land in reclamation of wasteland and comprehensive development
of agriculture. All localities should make efforts to sum up and extend
experiences in economy in land use and tapping the potentials of land.

Management of land use plans shall be enhanced. People's Governments
at all levels should, in accordance with the requirements of plans for
national socio-economic development, the state industrial policy and the
overall plan for land use, and in accordance with the procedures for the
compilation and submission of plans for national socio-economic development,
work out annual land use plans including targets for protection of cultivated
land, land expropriation for all types of construction, transfer of land use
rights and development and reclamation of cultivated land and enhance control
over land use aggregate. Land use for all constructions must conform with
the overall plans for land use and the overall plans for cities and be
included in annual land use plans. Annual land use plans shall exercise
mandatory planned management which must be strictly implemented with no
breakthrough once they are transmitted.

must be strictly
implemented. People's Governments of all localities must, taking the actual
cultivated land area in land use status survey as the base and in accordance
with the delimited protected areas of basic farmland provided for
in the , formulate
strict rules for the protection of basic farmland, with blocks of land
and responsibilities clearly defined and strict control enforced. Rules
should be formulated for the preservation of the fertility of cultivated
land in protected areas of basic farmland and environmental protection so
as to effectively protect the basic farmland.

Land arrangement should be actively promoted and land building well
managed. All localities should sum up and extend experiences in land
arrangement in a big way, manage well land building, improve the quality of cultivated land, increase area of effective cultivated land and improve
conditions for agricultural production and the environment through comprehen-
sive arrangement and treatment of farmland, irrigation, roads, forests and
villages in accordance with the overall plans for land use.

II.Further Toughening Control over Examination and Approval of Land
for Construction

Strict control over the use of farmland and non-farmland shall be
enforced. As of the date of the issuance of this Circular, occupation of cultivated land for non-agricultural construction projects shall be frozen
for the period of one year; those which are in actual need of occupation of cultivated land must be submitted to the State Council for examination and
approval. Original procedures prescribed for submission and approval shall
be followed for land to be used for the resolution of the difficulties of
middle- and low-income households in cities and towns in housing and
comfortable housing projects as well as major construction projects
approved by the State.

Land to be used for all constructions must be subjected to submission
and approval in strict accordance with legal authorization and procedures.
Departments of land administration should carry out preliminary examination
of the land to used for the projects during the phase of evaluation and
examination of feasibility studies of construction projects. For construction
projects which fail to conform to overall plans for land use, urban
construction projects which fail to conform to municipal overall plans,
those which are not integrated in annual land use plans as well as those
construction projects which fail to comply with regulations for land
administration and relevant provisions for land use for construction,
no land use shall be approved, neither shall construction of the projects
be launched.

Urban planning, construction and administration must strictly adhere to
such relevant laws and regulations as the and Stepping up the Work of Urban Planning>(Guo Fa [1996] No. 18), strictly
control the scale of land use in major cities and especially land use in
medium-size cities and small cities. Urban construction plans overblown
in scale must firmly be scaled down to the controlled standards. The
examination and approval of changing counties to municipalities shall be
frozen as of the date of issuance of this Circular.

Existing potential should be fully tapped in land use for urban
construction and the best possible use be made of non-cultivated land
and land use rate should be raised. Urban construction and development
must proceed from the actual conditions, act according to one's capabilities
and carry out in steps in strict accordance with the approved overall urban
plans. Overall plans for urban construction must be coupled with overall
plans for land use and the scale of land use must not break through the
overall plans for land use.

Partial adjustments or major changes in overall urban plans must be
made with the confirmation of the examination and approval organs and the
same should be submitted for the record or approval in accordance with the
requirements prescribed in the Stepping up the Work of Urban Planning>. Urban planning shall exercise
prescribed standards control over land use for construction in all types
of cities, proceeding from the state of the nation, making overall
arrangement and determining standards for per capita land occupancy which
should be put into effect in each and every township and there shall be
no breakthrough. Land use for urban construction and size of population
of major cities must be controlled within the acope of the near-term plans
of the approved overall plans and must not be further expanded. Centralized
and unified administration of land use should be enhanced and there shall be
no devolution of power in planning control and examination and approval of land use.

Village and township construction plans should be successfully worked
out in combination with the delimitation of the protected zones of basic
farmland. Village and township construction must be concentrated, closely-
knit and rational in layout, best possible use is made of waste land, slope
land and abandoned land and no fertile land is occupied. Where there are
the required conditions, land suitable for cultivation should be adjusted
for reclamation and re-cultivation through transformation of villages and
townships.

Building of residential quarters for rural inhabitants must conform to
the village and township construction plans. Where there are the required
conditions, encouragement should be given to relatively concentrated building
of multi-storey apartment houses. Rural inhabitants must acquire house sites
in accordance with law and strictly abide by the prescribed standards of the
provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central
Government wherein they reside in building residences. Each household of rural inhabitants is only entitled to one house site not exceeding the
standards, and the surplus portion of house sites shall be taken back
for collective ownership according to law.

Cultivated land lying in waste is strictly prohibited. Contracting rights
shall be withdrawn in accordance with provisions for land no longer used for
agricultural production or land the cultivation of which is abandoned for
failure in implementing the land contracts. Intensive operations in various
forms should be encouraged.

Funeral and interment reform should be actively promoted by changing
prevailing habits and customs and cremation should be encouraged. No
cultivated land shall be occupied for burial in the ground. Cemeteries can
be delimited in concentrated areas in mountainous villages. Encouragement
should be given to the building of halls for concentrated storage of ashes
of the dead in villages in the plains. For grave sites formed by occupying
cultivated land or forest land, they should be handled in a satisfactory
manner by shifting or deep burial so as not to affect cultivation or
reclamation or return to forestation, under the prerequisite of doing
deep-going and careful ideological work and getting the support and
cooperation of the parties concerned.

There shall be no occupation of cultivated land or occupation of less
cultivated land and economy in land use to the extent possible in the
development of rural and township enterprises. Land use by rural and
township enterprises should, in line with the requirements of the approved
rural and township construction plans, be rational in layout, properly
concentrated and go through formalities of examination and approval of land use according to law. Promote in a big way new materials for walls,
restrict production of clay bricks and strictly prohibit occupation of
cultivated land for construction of kilns for bricks and tiles. The
cultivated land already occupied for construction of kilns for bricks and
tiles should be adjusted and returned to cultivation with a specified time
period.

With the exception of state requisition, there shall be no transfer of collective land use right, no use for operation-purpose real estate
development, nor transfer or lease for non-agricultural construction.
Strict examination and approval according to law should be adhered to
and attention should be paid to the protection of peasants' interests
in collective land to be used for non-agricultural construction and
occurences of land use right transactions in the establishment of enterprises in the form of shares with land with units and individuals
outside one's own collective, or transfer, lease and mortgage of the
appendixes thereon with units and individuals outside one's own collective.

All kinds of wasteland collectively owned must not be used for non-
agricultural construction in the form of auction or leased use right.

Transfer of land use right for requisitioned cultivated land should be
strictly controlled. Transfer of land use right for requisitioned cultivated
land, forest land and wasteland suitable for farming for such high-grade
real estate development and construction of golf courses, imitated ancient
townships, amusement parks and top-class villas as well as building of shrines, temples and churches is prohibited.

Compensatory transfer of state-owned land use right shall mainly be
in the form of auction through open bidding to encourage fair competition.
The system of announcing baseline land price and nominal land price
evaluation shall be established. The bottom-line price of state-owned land
use right auction shall be determined in accordance with the state industrial
policy on the basis of scientific evaluation. The transaction value should
be made public in society.

Transfer of state-owned land use right involving national defense
security, military restricted areas and key national protected areas and
projects of land development in stretches with foreign investment shall
all be submitted to the State Council for examination and approval. Transfer
of land use right of a whole island to a foreign country is prohibited.

The State shall, step by step, practise measures of compensatory use
within a limited period for state-owned land use right acquired originally
in the form of allocation and appropriation for non-agricultural operations
with the exception of the cases which may continue to follow allocation and
appropriation under law. The previously allocated and appropriated land use
right involved in the change of system from state-owned enterprises to
limited liability companies or companies limited by shares must practise
compensatory use according to law after land price evaluation. The previously
allocated and appropriated land use right involved in the reorganization of state-owned enterprises shall be handled in accordance with relevant state
provisions. The previously allocated and appropriated land use right
involved in the transformation of old city districts can be withdrawn by
the government in accordance with law and compensatory use within a limited
period shall be practised according to law except for the scope of allocation
and appropriation provided for under law.

Land use right transfer markets shall be standardized and illegal
transactions in scalping purchases and sales of land shall be strictly
prohibited. Failure of development and utilization of state-owned land
use right obtained in the form of assignment in accordance with the time
period and terms prescribed by law, the said land use right must not be
transferred. Whoever engages in illegal transfer, he or she shall be
penalized according to law, his or her illegal income confisticated and
his or her land use right terminated. State-owned land use right transfer
must go through registration of change in ownership of the right of the
land, and failure of registration falls within illegal transfer which
shall be investigated and dealt with according to law.

Henceforward, land benefits from original land for construction
shall be kept for the localities in full as special-purpose funds for
the building of urban infrastructure, land development and transformation
of moderate- and low-yield plots of farmland; land benefits from farmland-
turned-into-land-for-nonagricultural construction shall be handed over to
the Central Treasury in full which shall, in principle, be used for the
development of cultivated land. Specific measures shall be worked out
separately by the State Council. Related land benefits from assignment
of state-owned land use right etc. shall be integrated into financial
budget management in full. People's Governments at all levels and their
departments of finance and auditing should step up supervision and control
over land benefits to guard against losses of assets.

Rules for law-enforcement supervision in land administration should be
established and perfected and law enforcement in land administration
enhanced on the basis of summarization of experiences in experiments in
land law-enforcement supervision in a number of localities.

People's Governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the Central Government should organize
workforce in carrying out comprehensive sorting out and inspection of conditions pertaining to land use for all categories of construction
(including building of all types of development zones) as well as land
for rural house sites since 1991 in areas under their respective jurisdiction
and deal with the questions discovered in accordance with law. The work of sorting out and inspection should be completed by the end of October 1997
and reports on the sorting out and inspection as well as investigations and
handling should be submitted to the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China and the State Council.

The main contents of sorting out and inspection include:(1)all types of development zones without the approval of the State Council or provincial
People's Governments must be revoked and all non-agricultural construction
activities terminated at once and the land reclaimed and cultivated within
a specified time period; failure in land development according to plan in
all types of development zones approved by the State Council or provincial
People's Governments shall be dealt with according to law. (2)comprehensive
sorting out and consolidation of land use for operating real estate
development projects(including golf courses, etc.). The cases of land use
without going through the formalities of examination and approval in
accordance with the power of examination and approval according to law
shall be sorted out and inspected one by one according to law. Land not
developed within the prescribed time period laid down in contracts shall
also be sorted out and inspected according to law and the land which falls
within farmland must resume agricultural uses within a specified time
period. (3)comprehensive sorting out and inspection of such acts of trans-
action as transfer, leasing and mortgage of land use right in accordance
with law. Acts of scalping in illegal purchases and sales of land seeking
exorbitant profits should be severely penalized in accordance with law.
(4)comprehensive sorting out and consolidation of land occupied by rural
and township enterprises, village and township construction and village
house sites and in particular comprehensive sorting out and consolidation
of cultivated land occupied.

The State Council directs that the State Land Administration, the
Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Supervision organize joint
law-enforcement inspection teams in conjunction with the departments concerned
to conduct law-enforcement supervision over the work of sorting out and
inspection of land of all localities and put forth corresponding proposals
in supervision. Land law-enforcement supervision system should take shape
and questions discovered investigated and severely dealt with. Whoever
violates overall land use plans or destroys cultivated land and state
functionaries who approve land use in contravention of law in abuse of
power and serious neglect of duty shall be investigated of criminal
liabilities in accordance with law.

The departments of land administration should seize the moment in
establishing the national dynamic information system of land administration
by adopting modern technical means to enhance dynamic monitoring of the
status of land use nationwide.

VII.Strengthening the Organization and Leadership of the Work of Land Administration

The question of land which involves the fundamental interests of the
whole nation must be subordinated to unified state administration. The
functions of the state in land administration can only be strengthened,
instead of being weakened. The land management system should be further
reformed and perfected and legislation for land administration stepped up.

Party committees and People's Governments at all levels should attache
great importance to the work of land administration and in particular to that
of protection of cultivated land and support the departments of land
administration in administering according to law. The departments of land
administration at all levels must earnestly fulfil their responsibilities,
strictly enforce the law and manage the land well according to law.
Performance in the work of enhancing land administration, earnestly
protecting cultivated land and rational utilization of land resources
should be important contents in the evaluation of the performance of local Party committees and People's Governments at all levels as well
as their responsible personages, supervision and control shall be
exercised and societal supervision accepted.

Publicity and education in the state of the nation and the state policy
on land among the whole people should be promoted. Emphasis should be put on
the education of numerous cadres especially the leading cadres to enhance
the sense of worries about land and consciousness in the protection of cultivated land. Contents on the state of the nation and state policy on
land should be added in the education of cadres. Protection of cultivated
land is the prerequisite for the development of economy. We should hold
extremely dear and rationally make use of every single inch of land in
going in for all undertakings.

Party committees and People's Governments of all provinces, autonomous
regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government should
conscientiously study and convey the spirit of this Circular and study
specific measures for its implementation and make reports to the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council by the end
of June this year. The State Council directs the State Land Administration
to conduct supervision and inspection over the implementation of this
Circular in conjunction with the Ministry of Supervision and other departments
concerned.

Category	LAND ADMINISTRATION	Organ of Promulgation	The State Council	Status of Effect	In Force
Date of Promulgation	1997-04-15	Effective Date	1997-04-15

Laws of the People's Republic of China

CIRCULAR OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA AND THE STATE COUNCIL CONCERNING FURTHER ENHANCING LAND ADMINISTRATION AND ERNESTLY PROTECTING THE CULTIVATED LAND