Forced eviction in China refers to the practice of involuntary land requisitions from the citizenry, typically in order to make room for development projects. In some instances, government authorities work with private developers to seize land from villagers, with compensation below the market price. In many cases, they are also offered alternative housing instead of or on top of monetary compensation. Forced evictions are particularly common in rural areas, and are a major source of unrest and public protest.[1] By some estimates, up to 65 percent of the 180,000 annual mass conflicts in China stem from grievances over forced evictions.[2][3] Some citizens who resist or protest the evictions have reportedly been subjected to harassment, beatings, or detention.[4]
The rate of forced evictions has grown significantly since the 1990s, as city and county-level governments have increasingly come to rely on land sales as an important source of revenue. In 2011, the Financial Times reported that 40 percent of local government revenue comes from land sales.[5] Guan Qingyou, a professor at Tsinghua University, estimated that land sales accounted for 74 percent of local government income in 2010.[6]
- ^ The Economist, "Protest in China: The Cauldron Boils", 29 September 2005.
- ^ "FINDINGS FROM LANDESA'S SURVEY OF RURAL CHINA PUBLISHED". Landesa. Archived from the original on 14 June 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
- ^ Elizabeth Economy, A Land Grab Epidemic: China's Wonderful World of Wukans Archived 11 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Council on Foreign Relations, 7 February 2012.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
CECCpropertywas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Rahul Jacob, Drop in China's land sales poses threat to growth, Financial Times, 7 December 2011.
- ^ Simon Rabinovitch, Worries grow as China land sales slump, Financial Times, 5 January 2012.