The Collapse of Land Finance: Corruption of Local CCP Officials in Land Acquisition.

The Chinese Communist Party’s reliance on land finance for “rapid economic development” is gradually falling apart. In this process, the widespread land acquisition and housing demolition have led to serious corruption, which is shocking. Zheng Gang, a construction worker well-versed in the insider dealings of land acquisition, revealed to Epoch Times the shocking dark side of local government officials gaining massive profits through land acquisition.

With 30 years of experience in the construction industry, Zheng Gang has a thorough understanding of the operation mode of government’s land, farmland, forest, and housing acquisition. He pointed out that the distribution of land wealth is clearly biased towards powerful CCP officials, while ordinary people become the primary victims.

Recalling a land acquisition he participated in a rural village in Shenzhen in 2000, Zheng Gang revealed that the Land Bureau leadership directly instructed surveyors to provide data according to government requirements, rather than actual measurement results. For example, the compensation for each mu of land should have been ten thousand yuan, but after being intercepted at the city, county, town, and even village levels, farmers ended up receiving only four thousand yuan.

In addition to falsely reporting the land area, officials also embezzle by falsifying compensation. In 2017, in Rucheng County, Hunan, while constructing a secondary road in the town of Renshui, Zheng Gang found discrepancies in the compensation price reported to the county government. Despite the agreed compensation standard of 2 yuan per square meter, the county government inflated the price to 22 yuan per square meter. The total acquisition amount reached millions of yuan, but farmers only received a little over two hundred thousand yuan, with the county government and relevant officials pocketing most of the compensation and distributing it based on their positions.

“In some projects, officials directly embezzle the acquisition funds. In a municipal road acquisition project in Changsha, the government’s total compensation was 220 million yuan, supposed to be distributed among 102 affected households. However, except for a few families with connections to village cadres who received up to 1.2 million yuan, the majority of households received only seven to eight hundred thousand yuan. In essence, out of the 220 million yuan in government compensation, less than 100 million yuan actually reached the residents, while over 100 million yuan was embezzled by officials.”

Although the affected households were well aware of the corruption, out of fear of retaliation, no one dared to openly protest, leaving Zheng Gang feeling extremely despairing.

After long-term observation, Zheng Gang discovered that the land finance system in China inherently has loopholes that allow officials to manipulate and easily gain immense profits. For instance, a state-owned factory was forced to close due to policy reasons and subsequently acquired at very low prices by certain powerful individuals.

“They could have barely survived, but they were forced to close down, go bankrupt, and then the officials arranged for people to purchase the factory. They acquired it at a cheap price because it was industrial land. After acquiring it, they converted it into commercial land, causing the asset to multiply several times.”

After numerous discussions with industry insiders, Zheng Gang concluded that the rampant corruption in land acquisition by officials stems from the fundamental issue of the CCP system. He believes that China’s large infrastructure projects and land acquisition have ultimately become processes of power distribution and wealth accumulation. In this system, those in power act like robbers, and the people have no means to resist, which he believes is the root cause of the unremovable corruption.

Zheng Gang: “It’s like a robber distributing wealth to everyone, and no one can control or manage this robber. This robber is the Communist Party. Therefore, the fundamental issue lies in the system, the system is the root of all problems.”

In recent years, China has seen frequent conflicts erupt from land acquisition, with victims mostly being farmers and small property owners. Their lands are acquired at very low compensation prices only to become gold mines for real estate developers.

The path to seeking justice for the victims is extremely difficult. Due to the government’s collusion with developers monopolizing the land market, farmers find it challenging to win legal battles even if they sue in court. Even in cases where compensation is awarded, the amount received is far below the actual losses. Furthermore, the authorities maintain strict control over media coverage of land disputes, preventing many victims’ voices from being heard.

The issue of land acquisition by the CCP has become a focal point of social conflicts, with local governments intensifying their profit-seeking behaviors, potentially leading to even more severe social unrest in the future.