China revises relocation property law

China’s State Council has published new regulations which will increase compensation paid to residents of land marked for redevelopment, the Financial Times reported. The proposed guidelines would require developers to pay market value for homes, and bar relocation teams from cutting off water or electricity to residents who refused to leave. They would also give residents the right to challenge evictions in the courts. The new rules follow a campaign by Chinese academics, who wrote an open letter to Beijing in December claiming that land seizures were in breach of the constitution. An unnamed Chinese academic said Monday that while the regulations were welcome, it remained to be seen whether they would be implemented effectively. "The new rules say that violence cannot be used to force people to relocate but it is already against the law to use violence and that has not stopped people before."