If the country's ongoing campaign against land allocation abuses could be called a "success," it's an expensive one.

Introduction of a vertical management system to exempt grassroots land officials from local governments' intervention may help put a halt to rampant land-related irregularities.

But legislative efforts to standardize land use are also urgently needed to shore up long-term protection of the country's shrinking farmland.

Sun Wensheng, minister of Land and Resources, confirmed last Saturday the central government has decided to put land officials below the provincial level under the direct management of superior land departments in a bid to tighten control over land resources.

Obviously, the decision stems from a belief that centralized decision-making within the land department system will more effectively thwart local governments' attempts to abuse land-use rights on the excuse of economic development.

Many local governments have already seriously affected local agricultural development and grain production by consuming huge tracts of arable land in recent years.

The fact that 168,000 land allocation abuse cases have been dealt with, resulting in more than one third of the country's 6,015 economic development zones being shut down this year, clearly indicates the central authorities' firm grasp of the severity of this issue.

However, the country's declining grain output in recent years and intensifying population pressure demands protection of land resources more binding and forceful than stopgap measures.

Adoption of a vertical land management mechanism to strengthen the land authorities' management is only half the battle.

Unless their inclination to pursue fast economic growth at any cost is quelled, local governments will try to circumvent the land authorities in order to profit from land allocation.

Legislative efforts are therefore called for to not only plug the loopholes that make illegal land use absurdly profitable but also render protection of land resources into a high-voltage line for all local officials.

(China Daily HK Edition December 30, 2003)