Lin Min

    linmin67@hotmail.com

    MANY expatriates were dumbfounded by the recent revelation that illegal buildings in Shenzhen, which amounted to 428 million square meters as of the end of 2015, account for about 43 percent of the city’s total construction areas.

    How can this happen in a modern city like Shenzhen? This is a question that troubles most people who imagine illegal buildings as makeshift structures built by unscrupulous squatters.

    However, the issue of illegal buildings in Shenzhen is not as simple as black and white.

    In China, land in urban areas is owned by the State while rural land is collectively owned by farmers. Since the city of Shenzhen was established only 37 years ago, a large part of the city was in the hands of villagers before the city government declared in 2004 that all rural areas in the city would be urbanized — hence all land in the city will be owned by the State.

    However, the 2004 move did not stop joint stock companies in the former villages — established in the process of urbanization with all original villagers becoming shareholders of such companies — and former villagers from building more apartments without government approval. The illegal construction rush accelerated as the property market boomed and the former villagers raced to occupy land lots that could be taken over by the government.

    The huge numbers of illegal buildings in urban villages mean it’s impossible to tear them down just because they are “illegal.” The government has over the years implemented new policies that would legalize some of those houses if certain amounts of land use fees and penalties were paid. But these policies were cold-shouldered by most original villagers.

    The real trouble for Shenzhen lies in not only the number of long-existing “illegal buildings” occupied by original villagers — there were about 100,000 buildings owned by about 270,000 original villagers before 1999 — but the huge amount of newly built illegal residential, commercial and industrial structures that have sprung up in recent years as the property market turned red-hot.

    The building of new illegal structures grew out of control over the past decade, partly due to the inaction, negligence and corruption of grass-roots government agencies. In 2014, 15 law enforcement officers with the Kuichong Subdistrict Office, Dapeng New Area, were arrested for accepting bribes for turning a blind eye to illegal construction. That case is just the tip of the iceberg.

    The land disputes between original villages and the government also contributed to the rush to build illegal structures. In the 2004 urbanization move, the government promised to make some land lots legal for development by original villages while making the remaining vacant village land under State ownership.

    However, disputes remain unresolved over the ownership of 298.2 square kilometers of land, according to Qin Yueliang, vice director of the Shenzhen Illegal Building Crackdown Office.

    Many former villages, now officially called communities after the 2003 “urbanization,” have rushed to build apartments on land whose ownership remains under contention in the battle for ownership. These illegal apartments have attracted many homebuyers who cannot afford expensive homes legally available in the market, as they believe these apartments at least offer “partial ownership” similar to houses built by farmers on rural land. Although the government has always declared these apartments illegal, little had been done to stop their sales until a recent crackdown.

    The ever-growing number of illegal buildings, to some degree, demonstrate the fact that the government has not won support from the city’s former villagers in the forced urbanization. The huge profits from illegal development greatly dwarf the pittance the government offers to the former villages to settle land disputes.

    The government, which finds it increasingly difficult to locate land lots for development, started a campaign in October to tighten the crackdown on illegal construction, stepping up inspections and making officials more accountable.

    Such iron-fist measures are expected to put a stop to the illegal construction rush if they are implemented effectively. However, the city still faces the daunting task of dealing with the huge number of existing illegal buildings.

    The legality mess surrounding land ownership has to be tackled before the government can take more decisive measures. But above all, safety hazards surrounding the huge number of crowded houses and brand-new high-rise buildings — constructed without any government or third-party oversight — in urban villages have to be tackled as soon as possible. The devastating Guangming landslide serves as a chilling reminder that reckless development can cost human lives.

    (The author is head of the Shenzhen Daily News Desk.)