THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF LAND TAKING POWERS IN CHINA

For years massive land takings have been a breeding ground to controversies and conflicts in the Chinese society. The pressing challenges facing land takings and its relevant laws have largely been framed in the existing literature as a contemporary issue. Yet very little attention has been paid to the historical background against which large-scale land takings take place in China. This paper fills this gap by unearthing the theoretical foundations of land taking powers in modern China. It provides a detailed analysis of the Marxist-Soviet-Chinese communist tradition and the nationalist tradition of theories and exercises of the power of non-compensatory nationalization before discussing the impact of classical liberal thinking on property and the idea of socialized property upon the laws on compensatory expropriation in the early 1900s. It argues that despite the notable differences among these theoretical formulations, there is a common legacy that conceptualizes land takings not as an action to be undertaken diffusely and occasionally for specific technical purposes, but an instrument to be used systematically and frequently in order to achieve pre-conceived plans made by the party-state. Although no causal relationship is implied that the contemporary problem of expansive land takings is merely the continuation of history, through exposing the historical evolution of ideas and ideals justifying and guiding land takings in early 20th century China, this paper offers a new perspective on thinking about the present situation.