Chinese land rights: the right to use state land

The issue of ownership has been a fundamental question throughout Chinese history. Different from what has been established by western legal systems, the private ownership has never been considered as a subjective natural right , not an absolute right. In addition, there exists a contradiction between the market economy and the socialism. The land use right was created under the circumstances aiming to encourage economic development without breaking with the socialist ideology. Therefore, the land use right and the public ownership interact with each other in a very original way.

The land use right develops along with the economic demands. In order to extend the protection to private ownership, the Chinese Constitution is amended in 2004. Accordingly, the Property Law of 2007 explicitly recognizes the very nature of the land use right, and offers equal protection to both private ownership and public ownership. It is important to keep in mind that the recognition of such new element in Chinese Property Law raises many legal questions as well as political ones. What are the consequences of governmental land finance? Is there a need to address the issue of ineffectiveness in the protection of land use right against the State? How to respond to the dissatisfaction of the private person whose property is expropriated? All these questions lead us to the conclusion that the land use right is still far from a sac red right. It requests a further extensive reform. In our view, a comprehensive political reform is both necessary and unavoidable.