Chinese voice suggestions on new demolition rule
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The young man was not sure if his father would still be alive, selling bean curd s and decorating the house for the son' s wedding, had the new home demolition regulation been decreed earlier.
Nor did he know whether the regulation would make a change in the future for tens of thousands of people who might lose their houses to bulldozers.
But Meng Jianwei from north China' s Shanxi Province, whose father died in a forced demolition in October, hailed the regulation a s a "leap forward" .
A new "regulation on the requisition and compensation of properties on state-owned land" is soliciting public opinions from December 15 to 30.
This is the second time for the regulation to solicit public opinion.It took the government three years to draft the regulation. The first time to solicit opinion from the public was this past January, with 65,601 suggestions received and discussion meetings held.
" This is the first time for the State Council Legislative Affairs Office to publish an updated draft for a second round of public opinion soliciting, " said Shen Kui, vice director of the Law School of the Beijing University.
According to the new version, the use of violence, threats and other unlawful efforts forcing residents to move were banned. The outlawed types of pressure included cutting off water, power supplies and roads.
If the residents and the government could not reach a consensus on compensation, they should let the court make the final judgment , according to the new regulation.
The draft also said that compensation should not be lower than the market price and the evaluation of the house should be done by a third party. The residents have the right to choose the qualified institution for the evaluation.
The draft has triggered heated debate.
Wang Yi, a law professor with the Renmin University, believed that the court could help restricting the abuse of power by some officials and hence reduce forced demolitions.
But he said efficiency must be stressed so that " the court could intervene before beginning the demolition." ' His view was shared by Wang Jinwen, a doctoral student majoring in law at Tsinghua University. Wang, whose family' s house had been forcibly demolished , gained fame online after writing a letter in November to the mayor of Weifang City in east China ' s Shandong Province.
" Acts of demolition should be stopped during the process of litigation and appeal, and this should be written in to the regulation," he said.
"Otherwise, even if a resident wins the lawsuit, his house might already be leveled."
Gao Xishan, chief executive officer with the ShouJia real estate appraisal and consultation firm in Beijing, noted that although the residents were entitled to the right to choose the evaluation institution, it was the government that ultimately signed with the institution.
"It is a question of how to ensure the objectivity and independence of the institution' s judgment," he said.
Besides, how to make sure that rulings by the court could represent the interest of most people was a problem, said Wang Gongyi, vice director of the justice research institute in China ' s Ministry of Justice.
" Relevant items of the regulation should be further specified to ensure that the rule be based on a survey among most people, rather than application of the government," he said.
Officials also voiced their concerns.
Zhang Jianzhong, head of the Qingshan district of the Baotou City of Inner Mongolia, said that the ban on forced demolition by government might slow down the process of projects.
"The intention was good, but the legal process of the court takes a long time, maybe several months," he said.
The year 2010 in the drive for urbanization might be remembered by many Chinese, along with the words "forced demolition" .
Meng Jianwei, a doctoral student at Shanghai' s Fudan University, posted his diary online to record the forced demolition, after his father, 54-year-old Meng Fugui , was killed during the demolition.
The incident happened on October 30 when thugs rushed to his house in the Guzhai village of Shanxi ' s capital Taiyuan, pulling the father out and beating him to death.
Also, earlier this year an elderly man died in Yihuang county of east China' s Jiangxi Province after setting himself on fire in protest against being evicted from his home. Two women were seriously injured.
An official from the county later posted a letter online, saying that many residents, amid rising land and house prices, dream of getting rich by selling their land. " Forced eviction brings forth problems...but (it is) inevitable," he said.
"To some extent, the letter exposed a problem faced by local governments," an official who wished to remain anonymous told Xinhua.
" Funds of local governments sometimes were not enough," he said, " as a result, some officials see land seizures as a way to get money for development."
Experts and ordinary people generally welcomed the regulation.
" According to the law, forced demolition most go through courts and could only apply to projects of public interest, " Wang Gongyi said. Those projects include government projects for energy, transportation, education, resources, environmental protection, disaster relief, social welfare, public service, and others.
"As a result, forced demolitions would be used cautiously," he said.
Shen Kui was among the five-member panel suggesting that the house demolition regulation be revised, after a woman in southwestern Sichuan Province, Tang Fuzhen, torched herself in protest against the demolition of her home in November 2009.
"If the regulation comes in to effect, damages by forced eviction would be compensated and officials involved in such cases would be disciplined, " he said.
While Miao Leru, vice chairman of the China Real Estate Research Association, said "compensation to the residents wil be determined by the market. That will ensure the interest of residents."
"Revision of the regulation and solicitation of public opinions are a great progress, although the progress is boosted by tragedies of many residents, by the loss of their properties and even their lives," Wang Jinwen said.
"But it brings forth hope to people anyway," he added.
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