Uphill urbanization battle

What the sensational arson in a village in East China's Shandong province has revealed is not just the conflict between villagers and realty developers. It is also about how villagers' contracted arable land should be requisitioned and how corruption be curbed in the process of urbanization.

In this incident, arsonists set fire to a tent in Dujiatuan village, Pingdu city, at midnight on Mar 21, killing a villager and injuring three others. The makeshift tent was the "stronghold" the villagers were using as they tried to defend their land from being occupied. A realty developer and the village leader are suspected of being behind the violent attack and they have been detained along with five others.

The case is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to illegal and irregular occupation of farmers' land.

Land inspections nationwide last year found that 14 cities defaulted on the payment of 198.2 million yuan ($32 million) in compensation for land they requisitioned and failed to pay 24 million yuan in social security funds. The number of violations local governments committed involving land requisition amounted to more than 20,000 in 2013 alone.

Infringements on the interests of villagers are characteristic of almost all major problems in the countryside, which has attracted attention from the top.

Although the central government has reiterated time and again that the process of new urbanization must protect the interests of rural villagers, must protect ecology and must be sustainable in various ways, questions remain about how it will end up given the many problems that have been revealed.

About 100 million villagers will become urban residents by the year 2020 according to the country's new urbanization plan, which was published mid-March.

Will this process turn out to be a round of land requisitions for local governments to just increase their revenue at the expense of the interests of villagers? Will this process provide even more opportunities for the collaboration of corrupt officials and greedy businesspeople to make illegal gains at the cost of the interests of both the State and ordinary residents?

The land related to the arson in the city of Pingdu had been requisitioned in the name of urbanization. When asked whether the requisition of the land had acquired all the certificates needed and due approval from the authorities, local officials said yes, but they refused to show them. The villagers, however, have contended that the requisition is illegitimate.

Whether this land requisition meets the legal requirements needs to be investigated, and so too the extent to which corruption was behind the incident, which is a reminder that sustainable new urbanization will be an uphill battle.