Promises of reform           

In response to the wave of protests and calls for change by legal experts, the Chinese government issued a flurry of circulars and statements expressing concern and promising reform.  While these are generally positive signals, the proposed reforms fail to address many of the key problems at stake.

First and most significantly, in December 2003, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee approved draft constitutional amendments for consideration by the National People’s Congress in March 2004, including an amendment to article 13 to bolster existing language protecting individual property rights.¹¹²  This marks a success for the popular constitutional reform movement, and sets a positive precedent in general for Chinese movements for social change.  It is an indication of the growing desire of many within China to move toward a system that respects the rule of law.  As symbolism, the new amendment also signals a degree of government concern about the problems of evicted tenants.¹¹³ 

However, since Chinese constitutional law is not usually judiciable without implementing legislation, constitutional reforms will be of little immediate value for evicted residents.  One Hangzhou official told Liu Jincheng that China’s constitution was simply “a set of principles,” while local regulations are “concrete.”¹¹⁴  Thus, constitutional change will not in and of itself result in actual reform.  But as one foreign expert on Chinese rural politics observed, “The first step is to have broad pronouncements on a grand scale.  There will be no direct impact, but it signals a direction…. Constitutional reform will change the process because it creates a greater political space for proponents [of legal reform].”¹¹⁵

Second, on December 9, 2003, the State Council issued a notable circular on land requisition in rural areas that criticized the use of force in land expropriation and that criticized the state’s participation in expropriation for commercial use.  Among its conclusions, the State Council said, “We must establish a hearing system [to determine compensation standards] as well as a judicial and arbitrary [sic, probably “arbitration”] system for land requisition disputes.”¹¹⁶  On December 30, the national Ministry of Construction issued new regulations on administrative rulings that permit forced eviction.  According to the new regulations, Demolition and Eviction Management departments may hold hearings before forced evictions are approved.¹¹⁷ 

However, as an editorial in the New City argued, given widespread conflicts of interest, these new rules will be ineffectual unless the entire arbitration process is taken out of the hands of agencies with a conflict of interest, such as most municipal demolition and eviction departments, and put in the hands of some more neutral third party.¹¹⁸

Third, the many reports of violent incidents in the process of forced evictions has led the government to issue statements condemning excesses in the implementation of forced eviction.  On September 18, 2003, an official at the national Ministry of Construction warned work units against violating demolition and eviction laws and policies.¹¹⁹  On September 30, Beijing’s Department of Land Management issued a circular calling for “civilized” demolition and eviction, and published a telephone hotline number that residents could call to file complaints.¹²⁰  On January 5, 2004, the national Ministry of Construction announced that residents should be given fifteen days’ notice before forced eviction.¹²¹ 

There has also been at least one case where construction workers were held liable for a suicide protest.  On November 7, Beijing municipal court held a government work unit responsible for the suicide of a resident during construction near his home.  The man drank poison in front of construction workers to protest the construction, and instead of calling for medical help, the workers simply walked away and left him.  The court found that the construction was undertaken without the proper permits and that construction workers had failed to attempt to save the man.  The court charged the work unit to pay compensation to the family, including the cost of his funeral.¹²²

While all these are steps forward, most of these reforms do not adequately address the crucial problems of implementation and enforcement posed by the weak arbitration and judicial systems.  China must engage in much more difficult reforms, particularly improving the administration of justice, in order to address demolition and eviction issues effectively. 

V.  RECOMMENDATIONS

[112] Congressional Executive Committee on China, “Constitutional Amendments to be Considered by the National People’s Congress in March 2004,” January 27, 2004.

[113] “China to make private property a right,” AP, March 2, 2004.

[114] “Hangzhou bairen shangshu quanguo renda: Dui chaiqian tiaoli tiqi weixian shencha [One hundred Hangzhou people petition the National People’s Congress: Recommend investigation of demolition and eviction regulations for contravening the Constitution],” Law Service Times, August 1, 2003.

[115] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Albert B. [pseudonym], December 15, 2003.

[116] BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific, December 9, 2003.

[117] Chengshi fangwu  chaiqian xingzheng caijue gongzuo guicheng [Regulations for urban residential demolition and eviction administrative arbitration work], no. 252, issued December 30, 2003, to be implemented March 1, 2004.

[118] “Pinglun: Fangzhi chaiqian jiufen bu duan, rang quanli tuichu chaiqian lingyu [Discussion: Residential demolition and eviction disputes unceasing, remove power away from the area],” Xinjing Bao, posted on www.sina.com.cn, January 2, 2004.

[119] “Jianshebu guanyuan chenyao yansu cha chu weifa weigui chaiqian pinggu danwei [Ministry of Construction official announces it will seriously investigate local illegal and counter-policy demolition and eviction, and will evaluate work units],” China News, September 18, 2003, www.chinanews.com.cn/n/2003-09-18/26/348068.html.

[120] “Yeman chaiqian yao zhuiyan falu ziren, Beijing gongshi jubao dianhua [Savage demolition and eviction should study legal responsibility, Beijing publishes telephone number for reports],” Beijing Entertainment News,  September 30, 2003.

[121] “Jianshebu: Qiangzhi chaiqian ying tiqian shiwu ri tongzhi bei chaiqianren [Construction bureau: Forced evictions should be announced fifteen days in advance to evictees],” New China News Agency, January 5, 2004.

[122] Niu Aimin, “Beijing qiangjian gongci zhi jumin zisha [Forced construction of public toilet in Beijing leads to resident’s suicide],” New China News Agency, November 8, 2003.