{"id":144754,"date":"2012-10-15T22:46:17","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T05:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=144754"},"modified":"2020-09-30T16:54:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T23:54:38","slug":"chinas-land-seizures-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/10\/chinas-land-seizures-drop\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s Land Seizures Drop"},"content":{"rendered":"
At The Age, John Garnaut reports that China is seeing a reduction in violent land grabs<\/strong><\/a> as land prices drop and government policy softens:<\/p>\n The slowdown in the Chinese economy is producing an unexpected reduction in violence and social conflict, a senior Chinese security official says.<\/p>\n Falling land prices and fewer transactions have reduced the number of forced land appropriations, which had accounted for an estimated two-thirds of the 187,000 “mass incidents” reported for 2010.<\/p>\n [\u2026]\u00a0He pointed to a reduction in land disputes, which he credited in part to a shift in official focus away from economic growth and also a less confrontational approach to resolving social disputes.<\/p>\n [\u2026] The head of the China program at the Carter Centre, Liu Yawei, said a possible downgrading of the security portfolio at the upcoming 18th Party Congress could help reduce the role of force in dealing with social conflict.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Garnaut cites a recent report by Amnesty International, covered last week on CDT<\/a>, which gives the central government some credit for combatting land seizures. Also last week, however, Caixin reported that the land sales that fuel forcible evictions have strongly rebounded<\/a> recently, following a slow first half of 2012. <\/p>\n