Homeowners must get more legal power

The self-immolation by Tang Fuzhen in protest against the forcible demolition of her house in Chengdu has shocked people across the country and sparked a heated debate on local regulations taking precedence over central laws.

It has even prompted five Peking University scholars to write a joint letter to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, suggesting that it either abolish or revise the Housing Demolition and Relocation Management Regulation to protect property owners rights. The letter reflects the wishes of most of the people in China.

The regulation, which empowers local governments to seize and demolish houses in urban areas by force, is detrimental to public interest, especially for people like 47-year-old Tang. But more than that it contradicts some central laws like the Property Law and even the Constitution.

The tragic death of Tang and social conflicts over forcible demolition of houses should prompt the central government to institute a judicial review for either abolishing the regulation or restructuring it in a way that it complements central laws on demolition of property.

But the process to rectify the current situation is bound to be long and arduous, because demolitions are related to the interests of local governments and commercial capital, and civil rights. And since the interests of local governments and commercial capital are interrelated, they conflict with people's property rights.

It is important that the government urgently trace the institutional genesis of violence in demolition cases. That many people have not been paid compensation for their demolished houses and forced to clash with members of demolition squads makes us wonder whether disadvantaged groups' interests were totally compromised in such cases.

Many may argue that too much respect for property owners' rights will stall demolitions altogether and thwart development in urban areas. But it is exactly such a view of development - of immediate convenience and interest - that has been responsible for the survival of the extra-judicial regulation for all these years.

Now that clashes over demolitions are becoming common, the central government has to overhaul the regulation as the first step toward honoring public sentiment, simply because it should not have been used as a violent tool by the strong against the weak.

Once this urgent problem is dealt with, the central government should make efforts to order a judicial review of a series of laws such as the Land Administration Law and the Law on Urban Real Estate Administration, because many experts believe that abolishing or revising the regulation alone will not solve the demolition problem.

The unfair and imbalanced struggle over demolitions has become a grim reality. The great advantage that governments and developers enjoy in the demolition game has to be tilted, and for that common property owners, as the weaker side, should be granted more legal teeth.

In the long run, efforts should be made to reform local governments' finance and tax systems so that they stop playing the role of stakeholders in the demolition game. At present, most local governments are heavily dependent on money generated by land supply for their funds, which plays a vital role in determining leaders' performance in raising local GDP and thus their political prospects.

Resolving this intractable issue will take a lot of hard work like diversifying local economies and fostering comprehensive assessment of cadres' performance. And this would be more difficult than revising several legal provisions.

The author is a media commentator.

(China Daily 12/11/2009 page9)