Time to halt illegal seizures of land by force

People watch a house being demolished in Wenling cityk, Zhejiang province, after its owner reached an agreement with the local government. [Photo provided to China Daily]

On Aug 21, a villager was killed by a forklift truck in Heze, East China's Shandong province, while trying to stop forced occupation of his land. Beijing Youth Daily commented:

Reports show that the forklift truck started construction work on the land without obtaining the victim's consent, as he refused to sign an agreement because the reimbursement was too low. Without this, it was illegal for construction to start.

And the excuse that the forklift truck experienced a "mechanical failure" is neither believable nor justifiable. What mechanical failure could kill a person? The victim was legally standing on his land, why was the forklift illegally on his land? These questions need answering.

The local authorities are one of the parties' involved, so an independent investigation by a third party is needed to find out what happened at the scene.

This is not the first bloodshed caused by forced occupation of rural land. The central leadership has long been requiring local governments to follow legal procedures while requisitioning land. However, many local governments and their supported commercial realty developers simply refuse to do so and they often use violent means to forcibly take land from residents for their own use; when the latter resist, bloodshed often happens.

It is time to strengthen implementation of the law and hold officials that illegally seize land from residents answerable for their deeds. Only when those that violate the law receive their deserved punishments will officials follow the proper procedures.

Besides, there are reports about realty developers paying compensation to villagers whose land they take for use, but the payments being wholly or partly retained by local officials. Compensation should be directly paid to the residents, not via officials, so as to prevent corruption.