China has announced stringent new rules to put an end to forced demolitions in cities without due process and fair compensation, amid an increasing number of deadly property disputes occurring due to the country's fast urbanisation process.
China's State Council, or Cabinet, published the regulation on expropriation and compensation of houses on state-owned lands on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.
The new regulation took effect upon its being issued.
The regulation targets disputes over house expropriation and demolition and strives to give equal consideration to both public interests and property owners' individual rights.
No violence or coercion could be employed to force the homeowners to leave. Nor could measures, such as illegally cutting water and power supplies, be used in the relocation work, the regulation said.
It is often stated in China that behind every mega project or the massive building blocks, there were sad stories of forced demolitions uprooting families entrenched in for generations.
Easy demolitions were regarded as the key for time bound completion of the projects while land disputes and acquisition of land delayed projects in countries like India.
Last October, demolition workers broke into a house slated for demolition that belonged to a 54-year-old man in Shanxi Province.
The owner, who had earlier refused to leave, was pulled from the house and beaten to death, Xinhua reported.
Last March two farmers in Jiangsu Province set themselves on fire, to protest the compensation plan which they perceived to be severely under-priced.
One died while survived with injuries.
Within six months, a similar case took place in Jiangxi Province in which one homeowner was killed and two badly burned.
Reports of bold residents defying all odds to live in buildings without having basic amenities resisting all pressure to move out of their dwellings have even began appearing in tightly controlled official media. The new regulations held out hope as they ruled out land developers' involvement in the demolition and relocation procedures.
If the government could not reach agreement about the expropriation or compensation with homeowners, demolition could only be carried out after the court's review and approval, the regulation said.
The previous regulation on home demolition on urban lands had authorised local governments to enforce demolition at their own will.