China's land disposition system

This paper studies the present land disposition (requisition and acquisition) and land use rights transfer system in China with emphasis on its marketization and its institutional arrangement concerning the central state and the local government. China's current land property right system is first described. It finds that although the communist government gained full control over the Chinese Mainland in 1949, it had never constitutionalized the state ownership of land until December 1982. Since then, the State owns all urban (nonagricultural) land and the rural collectives jointly own agricultural land. Only the user rights of urban land are allowed to be transferred. China's land administration system, its historical evolution, and its institutional configuration are then studied. Institutional difficulties associated with this system are also discussed. This paper proceeds further to study China's land requisition approval system. The role of the local government in land transactions is also discussed. The rest of this paper inquires into the marketization of land transactions in China. Discussion on the trend of China's land market development, suggestions for its improvement and remarks for future studies conclude this paper.