Nine inspection bureaus will be set up nationwide to strengthen supervision 
of land acquisition, a document published on the government website www.gov.cn 
said yesterday.
Each bureau will be responsible for land use within its jurisdiction. For 
example, the Beijing bureau covers the capital city, Tianjin, the provinces of 
Hebei and Shanxi and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Inspectors will oversee land protection in the provinces or municipalities, 
ensuring that local policies on land use and management conform with national 
laws and regulations. They will also check how the local governments implement 
central government policies and propose improvement to tighten controls.
If cases of illegal land use are uncovered, the bureau inspectors should 
immediately tell the local governments to take corrective measures; and report 
to the central authorities if the problem is not rectified.
A special department will be set up under the Ministry of Land and Resources 
to co-ordinate work, according to the document.
Illegal occupation and use of land is widespread in the country, often in 
connivance with local officials. 
Statistics from the ministry suggest that one in three construction projects 
in recent years are on land acquired illegally. From October 2004 to May 2005, 
the figure jumped to one in two projects.
The latest move comes as about 15 million farmers are expected to lose their 
land in the next five years due to increased urbanization.
In the past decade, about 40 million farmers lost their land as a result of 
rapid urbanization, the nation's social security authority said in a news 
release.
Even with government efforts to rein in commercial development of farmland, 
about 3 million more farmers are likely to lose their land annually over the 
next five years, a ministry official said.
"To resolve the current problems and safeguard the 
long-term livelihood of farmers whose land is acquired, we need proper 
employment training and social security," the official said, according to a post 
on www.gov.cn.