Rural land corruption deserves close attention
During recent interviews and field research in Tong'an, Haicang and other areas of Xiamen, reporters found that as rural land resources continue to appreciate, corruption among grassroots rural cadres characterized by embezzling rural collective land rights and interests for profit has become prominent and deserves attention.
Using collective land to line one's own pockets during land requisition is one of the means of "land corruption" employed by a small number of village and group cadres. A case recently investigated and handled by the Discipline Inspection Commission of Haicang District, Xiamen, is very typical. Part of the collective land of the seventh villager group of Qunyao Village in the district was requisitioned. Because the requisitioned plots included ridges between fields, tractor paths and other land not contracted by farmers, after the land requisition compensation was paid to the affected farmers by area, there was an "excess" of 345,000 yuan. This money should have belonged to the villager group collectively, but Lin, then the villager group leader, taking advantage of his position duties of assisting the government in land requisition and in managing and distributing land requisition compensation, colluded with the group's bookkeeper and others, used forged contract documents, falsely reported and over-reported the contracted land area, and jointly embezzled this "excess" amount, of which Lin received 123,000 yuan. The case has now been transferred to the judicial authorities for handling.
Against the backdrop of rising land values and precious resources, a small number of rural Party members and cadres, especially village heads, have used their position duties to directly seize collective land, and some have even carried out unauthorized construction to obtain illegal benefits. The Xiamen Hugan Livestock Professional Cooperative, without approval from the relevant departments, arbitrarily built an illegal feed processing plant covering 552 sq m on the ground at Sanjiaocheng in Hugan Village, Tong'an District, and the legal representative of the cooperative, Shao, was then secretary of the Party branch of Hugan Village. After being placed under investigation, the Tong'an District Discipline Inspection Commission gave him a warning within the Party.
In addition to directly occupying rural collective land for profit, a small number of village cadres have also used collective land resources for favoritism and malpractice, either through exchanges of interests, or by favoring relatives and friends, or by disposing of them arbitrarily, seriously harming collective land rights and interests and social fairness. Tong'an District is located on the outskirts of Xiamen, and the current rural homestead market is as follows: a homestead of about 100 sq m in the mountainous area is worth 100,000 yuan, while a homestead of the same area next to an industrial zone is worth 500,000-700,000 yuan. At the end of 2012, the Caizhai Village Committee of Xinmin Town, Tong'an District, without discussion and approval by the village representatives meeting, illegally sold two plots of village collective land at a low price of 10,000 yuan each to two relatives of a village cadre for building houses. After verification following reports by the public, the district Discipline Inspection Commission ordered the village to carry out rectification.
Yang Tianping, deputy secretary of the Tong'an District Discipline Inspection Commission, said that in the current management of the rural collective "three assets" (funds, assets, resources), collective land resource management is a focal point. Rural land has become valuable, and village cadres are increasingly reaching out to collective land by taking advantage of their position duties, thus triggering more conflicts and instability.
Yang Tianping said that Tong'an District became aware of the problem of rural collective land management relatively early, and therefore carried out targeted cleanup and standardization work. Since 2013, in 41 villages (communities) including Sucuo Village in Hongtang Town, work has been carried out to clean up and standardize the "three assets" and village affairs, and more than 20,000 mu of land managed by village groups collectively has been cleaned up and registered. "This land is located at the urban-rural fringe and is of high value. If it is not cleaned up, it may be nibbled away in a few years," Yang Tianping said.
Tong'an District's effective cleanup of the rural collective "three assets," especially land resources, has to a certain extent curbed the "black hands" reaching for collective land and reduced social conflicts. In recent years, the number of petition reports received by the district's discipline inspection and supervision system has declined year by year.