Land use policy shift

Premier Wen Jiabao heralded a major adjustment in land use policy in rural areas in the coming year at the central government's annual conference on rural work.

He said farmers' land property rights can no longer be sacrificed to reduce the costs of urbanization and industrialization, given the country's much higher level of economic development.

Wen said that farmers enjoy the legal rights of land contracts, land use and collective income distribution as basic protections, no matter if they have moved into the cities or stayed in the countryside, and no one has the power to deprive villagers of these rights.