ABSTRACT
China's remarkable economic growth since 1978 has been in tandem with rapid urbanization. The growth rates of urbanization in the pro-reform period translated into annual rural-city migrants of 10– 15 million. According to China's land institution, land requisition is an essential process in urban spatial expansion. When socioeconomic development plans called for land development, municipal governments increased their land supply through land acquisition, a conversion of land ownership from the collective to the State. In these cases of land acquisition, the Constitution stipulates that municipal governments must compensate farmers for the loss of their land. The compensation payable following compulsory land acquisition is primarily guided by the Land Administration Law that was first passed in 1986 and then amended in 1998. The 1999 New Land Administration Law is intended to protect environmentally sensitive and agricultural lands, promote market development, encourage citizen involvement in the legislative process, and coordinate the planning and development of urban land.
