China to improve land compensation scheme to help stability

BEIJING - Chinese officials will this week discuss improving compensation for expropriating farmland, state media said on Monday, in a move to help deal with growing rural anger about forced land seizures.

A draft amendment to the Land Administration Law will remove a previous ceiling for calculating compensation which has been judged to be too low and also ensure money is paid out before land is expropriated, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Compensation will in future include rural residences, crops already planted, a relocation allowance and social security fees, the report added.

"Farmers' protests over land seizures have occurred in villages across the country in recent years, prompting calls for better protection of farmers' property rights," Xinhua said.

It did not say when the new rules would go into effect and provided no other details.