The ministry urged local land departments to "severely punish" the illegal sale of rural land in a town in Beijing and the illegal rental of rural land in Liaoning Province’s Shenyang for house building, it said in a statement posted on its website.
The ministry said it has told the Beijing Municipal Government to crack down on illegal development across the city of land designated for agricultural use.
Wall Street Journal Online reports that China forbids houses being built on collectively owned rural land for sale on the market.