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Country's Land to be Protected
China's Land and Resources Minister Tian Fengshan reiterated Thursday that the country will strictly protect its cultivated land.
China has altogether 130.7 million hectares of cultivated land, roughly 0.1 hectare per person on average.
Tian made the remarks as a prelude to a nationwide publicity campaign scheduled on Sunday, China's 10th National Land Day, which carries the theme "For a beautiful tomorrow, protect cultivated land."
Tian emphasized that the present financial policies which encourage infrastructure construction to stimulate domestic demands, does not mean the country would win economic gains at the cost of cultivated land.
While providing enough land for the country's important infrastructure construction projects, the ministry will watch over, closer than ever, the disposal of cultivated land.
"We will investigate any case in the field and punish responsible parties seriously," he said.
According to Tian, the seizure of cultivated land has been quite alleviated since the country officially adopted a new Law of Land Management on January 1, 1999.
"Last year, while 205,369.3 hectares of cultivated land were occupied by various construction projects, 199,899.9 hectares more were supplemented. Twenty-four provincial regions have reached a balance in their seizure and replenishment of cultivated land," Tian said.
"Besides, much less illegal seizure of cultivated land has happened after the Law of Land Management took effect."
But Tian said the task of protecting the cultivated land is still very tough.
Some local governments in China still tend to sacrifice cultivated land for short-term economic benefits and their subordinate grassroots land administrations could not effectively stop such deeds from happening, he said.
Besides, China is in urgent need to improve its efficiency in land exploitation.
"If we can fully tap the potential of our land, most Chinese cities, towns and villages will not need to seize anymore cultivated land in 10 years," he said.
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