A CASE STUDY GROUP ACTIVITY

(GE 124 Land Administration and Management)

1. This is a case study group activity, each member of the group will read and examine the
given case study thoroughly entitled “China Announces Land Policy Aimed at Promoting
Income Growth in Countryside”.
2. Discuss the given case study with your groupmates using ONLINE PLATFORMS then
answer the following questions:
a. Make an analysis indicating the reasons of country’s poor government land
system.
i. government owns all land in China and farmers are only allowed to
have 30-year leases. That the LESSOR is strictly prohibited to sell, donate,
encumber, or in any manner convey the property subject of this lease to any third
person, without the written consent of the LESSEE. As can be gleaned from the
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provided case, a law passed in 2002 allowed peasants to engage in limited trades
of their land-use contracts but still kept many restrictions. Thus, the Chinese
government may enforce its rights simillar of an ‘ Unlawful detainer’ whereby the
government may recover possession of the property grant from one who unlawfully
withholds possession thereof after the expiration or termination of his right to hold
possession under any grant.
ii. By providing a 30-year period of lease, The possession of the defendant is originally
legal but became illegal due to the expiration or termination of the right to possess.
Therefor, the lease or use of local farmers are dependent on the claim of ownership
by the Chinese government.
iii. Further, “With rapid industrialization and urbanization, the violation of farmers’
land rights happens all the time, as local governments make decisions for
farmers instead of allowing farmers to decide for themselves.” This is basically a
downside of absolute government.
b. What are the impacts of these issues in the issuance of land titles?
i. enormous income disparity between rural and urban Chinese

ii. While China’s cities have profited enormously from economic reforms first
announced in 1978, the countryside has lagged further and further behind.
Protests in rural China are a big source of social unrest these days, and the most
common grievance centers on the seizure of land by corrupt government
officials. To allow the taking of the Chinese tenants‘ leased agricultural land,and to
leave them empty-handed while government withholds due process is undoubtedly
oppressive, arbitrary, whimsical.
iii. the system of communal farming or collective farming are various types of
"agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint
enterprise". That type of collective is often an agricultural cooperative in which
member-owners jointly engage in farming activities.
c. Who will be the most affected of these situations?
i. observers had expected the session to address the issue of land-use
rights for the country's 730 million farmers.
d. In terms of Land Governance, make a critique indicating its strengths and
weaknesses. Provide a sufficient elaboration on each item of your answer.

i. However, this land policy does not give details of the reform, nor did they say
when the plan would take effect.
 ii. Language is rarely so free from ambiguity as to be incapable of being used in more
than one sense. Sometimes, what the law actually had in mind is not accurately
reflected in the language of itself, and its literal interpretation may render it
meaningless, lead to absurdity, injustice or contradiction. This mandate must prevail
over legal technicalities and serve as the guiding principle in construing the provision.

iii. Thus, a law is facially invalid if men of common intelligence must necessarily guess
at its meaning and differ as to the application of the policy. The clearness of a policy
must be clearly elaborated with respect to such every statute and as a matter of due
process.The point is that there must be feasability on a proposed statute, pinpointing
its rights granted complete in itself such how may such a land holder invoke such
right granted by law."
iv. “Thus the government needs to improve the policy to fully protect farmers’
interests.”
e. How would the Land Administration and Management System be able to address
the country’s poor government land system?
i. Nevertheless, the new policy would allow China’s more than 800 million
peasants to engage in the unrestricted trade or sale of land-use contracts,
good for decades, that are given to them by the government. While the
policy is not the statute inscribed in their official gazette. Nevertheless,
when it comes to apply the law, the spirit of the law, which is embodied in the policy
therefore, insures these farmers‘‘ survival and and dignifies him and his labor through
acquisition of real rights over agricultural lans.. In the words of Shakespeare, "the
letter of the law killeth; its spirit giveth life." It is therefore patent that giving effect to
the social justice which must be observed by the Chinesse Government.
ii. Farmers would also be able to use the land rights as collateral for loans as
an exercise of ownership or dominion over agricultural lands.
f. Determine and discuss specific strategies for accomplishing the proposed
solution to this problem.
i. rural growth policy aimed at vastly increasing the income of China’s
hundreds of millions of farmers by this year 2020; stimulate market-driven
economic growth in the countryside and to narrow the enormous income
disparity between rural and urban Chinese
ii. farmers would be able to trade, purchase or sell their land rights.
g. If applicable, recommend further action to resolve the issues.

i. Policy decisions made at the planning session are often given pro forma
approval by the National People’s Congress before details are unveiled and
implementation begins.
ii. the Chinese government still has to ensure that the rule of law is established and
followed, especially by local government officials.
iii. “Implementation of the law is the key,”
iv. government needed to educate farmers and local officials about the legal
aspects of land rights. In addition, farmers should be given full
documentation ensuring their rights to a piece of land, he said. Officially, the
government says that 80 to 90 percent of peasants have proper
documentation, but in reality only half do, he said, citing recent statistics
compiled by the Rural Development Institute.
h. What should be done and who should do it?
i. rural reform package in general terms, but said that a new land management
system would be put in place.

ii. A draft of the new policy that had been written up by the Central Committee
began circulating on Thursday in the planning session, which was attended by
368 Communist Party members and overseen by President Hu Jintao.
 iii. “set up a ‘strict and normative’ land management system in the
countryside, expand policy support for agriculture, establish a modern
rural financial network and a system to balance the development between
rural and urban areas, and improve the rural democracy. ”The government’s
goal is to double the per capita disposable income of rural residents by 2020,
iv. In theory, the new policy would grant peasants more land security and lead
them to make better use of the small fields that they now manage under 30-
year contracts. The ability to sell the contracts would also lead to the
establishment of large-scale farms, which some economists say would help
China’s agricultural industry better compete in a global marketplace.
v. Indeed, the State is only obliged to make good the loss sustained by the landowner,
with due consideration of the circumstances availing at the time the property was
taken. The concept of just compensation does not imply fairness to the property
owner alone. Compensation must also be just to the public, which ultimately bears
the cost of expropriation.
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3. Each group (sustainable, land policy, governance, land management, and land
administration) will submit a case study report based on the given questions.
4. Answers to the questions must be encoded in A4 size paper and email to
loriecris.asube@gmail.com (Deadline of Submission: MARCH 27, 2020)