From Cover, issue no. 347, December 24, 2007
Translated by Zuo Maohong
Original article: [Chinese]
Life goes on as usual in Baitangkou, a tiny village tucked on the periphery of Tianjin's Jinan district-- residents are unstirred by a recent government decree ordering the redress of massive land misuse.
Four months have passed since the Tianjin municipal authority directed the removal of illegally constructed factories on land designated for agricultural use in Baitangkou, which tops the list of land abuse cases nationwide and was made public by the government a year ago.
But now, the dust seems to have settled.
All Talk, No Action
Any stranger stepping into Baitangkou will likely be regarded as a potential client looking for factory to rent. Although the community leaders have recently received numerous inquiries on the legality of its factories' operations, the village's party secretary, Du Fuqi, replies: "We have been under inspection since 2006. Even back then, the authorities called for demolition (of the factories), but it was all talk and no action."
When the EO reporter disguised herself as a potential client and got in touch with Yang Xinghua, another village official, the latter promised that an agreement could be arranged in private and that it would be unaffected by the government's order.
He tried to convince the reporter by saying he had just sealed several deals in the past days. He said in a reassuring tone: "There's absolutely no risk of demolition. These talks have been going on for a year but nothing has changed."
In the mean time, a villager hopeful of retrieving his farmland after learning about "Intervention from Beijing" in the newspaper is now in a state of uncertainty. He has "put away the firecrackers" soon after hearing the good news, and has also set aside copies of a news report entitled, "Ten Typical Cases of Land Abuse Exposed by the Ministry of Supervision and Ministry of Land and Resources", which appeared in the People's Daily on December 10th. Copies of it have been widely circulated amongst the villagers.
Based on investigations by the two ministries, the Baitangkou village committee was found to have illegally rented out 803.02 mu (each mu is 1/15 hectare) of collective-owned farmland in 2004. Between 2004 and 2006, the town level Xinzhuang Economic Development Center, without government approval, had bought collective-owned land in Baitangkou amounting to 600 mu, of which, 400 mu had been leased out for non-agricultural use.
Subsequently, Tianjin Municipal Land and Building Administration recommended damage-control measures: the town level Xinzhuang local authorities should reclaim 600mu of illegally leased out land. A deadline was set for the demolition of unlawful buildings that occupy 60.54 mu of land. The Baitangkou village committee was asked to reinstate the farmland to its former quantity and quality prior to all the illicit dealings took place.
The above measures were issued in August.
By mid December, however, Baitangkou remains a large and hectic construction site. The only road leading into the village is traverse by an endless stream of trucks delivering construction materials. Inside the village, paved roads extended into all directions, factories – some completed and some under construction – lined the roads. An army of excavators, bulldozers, trucks, piling machines, pumps and mixers keep roaring through the day.
Amidst all the concrete and mushrooming factories, farmland only sparsely punctuates the landscape.
Soft Enforcement
Lin Yaxi, deputy chief of Tianjin Municipal Land and Building Administration, says the authority first issued a penalty letter to Baitangkou village committee in April 2007 following the central ministries' investigation.
However, the letter-- which was also approved by the ministries-- seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
"The case is basically attended to and completed," says Lü Zhongjiang, director of Urban Planning and Land Resources Bureau of Jinnan District, Tianjin.
When told by EO reporters of the present situation in the village, he replies, "We are not directly responsible for the case. The municipal bureau should handle it instead."
When asked how much farmland is left in Baitangkou, whether or not Xinzhuang local authorities received the penalty letter and why no action has been taken, the response was silence from the bureacrat sitting in the office designated as "Xingzhuang's Vice Mayor: Land and Building". No matter how the EO reporter pressed for an answer, he sat tight lipped in his office and refused to utter a single word.
Lin, from the municipal level, says: "We have our predicament. As an administrative department, we only have the right to issue a written decision of penalty. We are not empowered to enforce the penalty if the parties concerned refuse to accept. What we can do is to apply for a court order for action".
Two months ago, the Administration had applied for an order to enforce the penalty at the People's Court of Jinnan District. The magistrate known as Li told the EO that the case had yet to move beyond the investigation and evidence-collection phase. Asked if and when the illegal constructions would be demolished, he replies, "We don't know for sure yet."
In October, two persons held responsible for the developments in Baitangkou, Tian Jinghua and Liu Baohua, were referred to the municipal public security bureau, which is presently investigating in the case.
In fact, Tian, who is former party branch secretary of Baitangkou village, had earlier in March been sentenced to four years in jail for defalcation; while Liu, former director of Baitangkou village committee, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison under the same charge. However, nothing about land misuse is mentioned in the 11-page judgment.
An official who's experienced in land use supervision claims the job was "extremely difficult", as too many interest groups are involved. "To balance the interests among these groups isn't an easy task. This is the reason why some of our cases are suspended midway," he says.
According to another official from the same administration, two land abuse cases in Tianjin (of which one concerned Baitangkou) involved as many as 94 interest parties.
Planting Factories on Farmland
For the villagers of Baitangkou, life has not changed a bit. "We quit farming long ago... There's no land to farm," says Zhang, an old bicycle repair man. Indeed, many villagers have turned to small businesses, illustrated by the variety of shops open in the village.
Zhang has lived there for more than 60 years, and he once owned land under a contract. There was a pond which produced over 400 jin (200 kilogram) fish in its best year; beside the pond there was a patch of vegetable farm.
Another villager says, "In the past, we harvested 600 to 700 jin of wheat from one mu of land. We didn't need to worry about food. The extra grains could sell for 600 to 700 yuan. For those with a yard for planting vegetables, they earned even more."
But the younger generation of the village has no such memories. Zhang's daughter, who works in one of the village's factories, labors ten hours a day for 15 yuan. If working diligently, she can earn about 500 yuan a month. "Those with some technical skills are paid more than 1,000 yuan," says Zhang.
And of the few that still have farmland, some have leased their land to farmers from other villages.
Baitangkou, located about 10km from Tianjin downtown, is actually considered a rich village in the area. People from other places come to work in its factories. The village is known to these outsiders as having a large-scale industrial park and a favorable management system.
In the office of the village committee, a wall is decorated with little flagged awards for "outstanding performance that read: "Well-off Star Village" and "Pioneer Party Branch". Back in the 1980s, this was a poverty-stricken village with an annual income of 113 yuan per person.
Having worked in the areas for more than ten years, Lin clearly recalls that in 1996, the Tianjin municipal government decided to move the then Tianjin Special Steel plant to Baitangkou. Afterwards, however, the 1,000 mu land earmarked for the plant stayed idle as the company went bankrupt. Later in 2000, the land was given the green light by the municipal government to be used for industrial purposes, and became state-owned.
Lin reasons the village's choice to lease land for other usage instead of farming: If used for farming, one mu land—666 square meters—brings 600 yuan a year. In other words, one square meter brings one yuan every year.
"What if they "plant" houses Renting out one square meter means 30 yuan of income a day, and one mu land means 10,000 yuan a year," he explains.
As the village has undergone transformations in recent years, Tian, already convicted, has become the talk of the town. Born in 1948 in Tianjin, Tian had worked as the village party branch secretary for 22 years before he was arrested in August of 2006.
In 1992, he was also appointed as the general manager of Baitangkou Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial Company. In defense on trial, his legal counsel had pointed out that Tian "has worked for grassroots causes and made considerable contributions to the economic development of the village".
It was during his reign that the size of farmland in the village began shrinking rapidly. An official of Jinnan Discipline and Inspection Committee has written a report on the village's land use conditions and recounted the history of farmland disappearing in Baitangkou:
According to the financial statement of the village made by Jinnan local government in June 2006, between 2001 and 2006, land-related income totaled over 81 million yuan, including income from land transfer, rent, and sale.
Yet statistics from a statement titled Location and Size of Farmland in Xinzhuang, Jinnan District show that in 1996, the size of farmland in Baitangkou was 4,507.31 mu, and the total size planned for 2010 is 4074.15 mu.
During the years when massive farmland was converted to other use, each of the 4,000 villagers was compensated between 10,000 and 15,000 yuan. But as one villager who wishes to remain anonymous says, "the village committee promised that we'd get 5,000 yuan a year after our land was rented. But now we only get 300 after we visited the committee and demanded the money."
The villagers have even hired a lawyer to study the size of land leased out and the corresponding payable amount.
Today, usable land in the village has been reduced to less than 1,700 mu, let alone land suitable for farming. "Now we can neither get money from renting nor farming. If the land were there, at least our food would be guaranteed," says one elderly villager who makes a living by guarding a workshop.
