CHINA: RURAL LAND AND RELIGIOUS DISPUTES IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 002734 SIPDIS TREASURY FOR OIA CWINSHIP AND TTYANG NSC FOR LOI E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/24/2019 TAGS: ECON PGOV PREL SOCI CH SUBJECT: CHINA: RURAL LAND AND RELIGIOUS DISPUTES IN NINGXIA REF: A) 08 Beijing 4100 B) 08 Beijing 1698 C) Beijing 186 Classified By: Acting Econ Minister-Counselor Robert ¶W. Forden for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Rural land, corruption among local officials, and conflicts between different sects of Sunni Islam are equally important causes of unrest in rural Ningxia, though contacts downplayed the overall risks of instability. Disputes over rural land are largely limited to land confiscation cases in peri-urban areas. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Emboffs traveled to the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in May and August 2009 to meet with researchers at the Ningxia Academy of Social Sciences (NXASS) and with local officials in Guyuan City, a largely rural and Hui Muslim municipality in southern Ningxia. -------------- -------------- Peri-Urban Development the Problem, Not Land Transfers -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) Chinese media and Embassy contacts report regular rural land disputes in Ningxia. Duan Qinglin, an economist at the Ningxia Academy of Social Sciences, emphasized that the government is concerned about the rural land issue and has been focusing on the rights of villagers (see also Ref A). According to Duan, disputes involving rural land usually arise from land confiscation (zhengdi) that accompanies development in peri-urban areas. Few disputes arise from transfers of land use rights (see Ref A) because farmers retain their contract rights to land in these transactions. In land confiscation cases the government compensates rural residents who lose their land, but the amount of the compensation often is disputed. Duan said residents often complain about the compensation amounts long after the original transaction when they see others receiving larger amounts as demand for land goes up. -------------- Confident About Managing Land Disputes -------------- ¶4. (C) Few officials in Ningxia voiced concern that the disputes raised broad social stability concerns. Wang Xiaoming, a Han Chinese official in Guyuan City, said most land disputes involve demolition and forced relocation of local residents, and that these occur on a regular basis. But Wang claimed that the Guyuan City government is able to handle these disputes quite well. When there is a legitimate complaint, according to Wang, they address it, and when the complaint is not justified they ignore it. With more development and construction in the last two to five years the number of disputes has increased, according to Wang, but the disputes have not been particularly serious. -------------- Religion and Curruption Also Sore Spots -------------- ¶5. (C) Ningxia contacts pointed out that land is not the only source of rural conflict. Complaints about corrupt local officials and disagreements over the distribution of government benefits for low-income rural residents are also common in Ningxia, according to a Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office official who recently finished a year-long stint working as a local official in rural southern Ningxia. According to Wang, rural disputes in Hui- dominated southern Ningxia also occur among Islamic sects, although the worst incidents took place more than 10 years ago. (Note: Wang did not explain the immediate cause of these disputes. The PRC government opposes the proliferation of sects outside the five "main" divisions among Ningxia Muslims---Qadim, Ikhwan, and the Chinese Sufi schools or "menhuan" of Khufiyya, Jahriyya and Qadiriyya---in the interests of avoiding intra- BEIJING 00002734 002 OF 002 ethnic conflict. "Menhuan" is a term used for Chinese Sufi sects. Ningxia contacts acknowledge, however, the emergence of what they view as more extremist sects, including, for example, the Wahhabist Salafiyya sect. See Ref B. End note.) In these cases, explained Wang, the local religious affairs bureau can usually manage the problem and only calls in police when the situation becomes serious and they have to cordon off a village to contain the situation. [Note: Wang also commented that she is confident economic development will decrease tensions related to Islam, just as they have in Tibet. End Note.] -------------- Comment: Widespread Instability Risk Low -------------- ¶6. (C) Contacts in Ningxia focused on conflicts along sectarian lines among rural Hui Muslims and not interethnic tensions. At this point it does not appear that tensions in Xinjiang have spilled over to Ningxia, where the local Muslim population is culturally and linguistically distinct from Xinjiang's Uighur population and relations between Hui Muslims and Han Chinese remain good. ¶7. (C) The Chinese Government is increasingly focused on protecting farmers' land rights, improving land use regulation, and addressing corruption. But implementing these reforms nationwide will take time. Local abuses are rampant and local land disputes between villagers and local officials remain commonplace. Infrastructure projects funded by China's fiscal stimulus efforts can only contribute to the tensions. ¶8. (C) Land disputes, however, rarely result in large-scale widespread unrest, and discontent is usually targeted at local officials and land policy implementation at the local level. Expectations that Central Government emphasis on security of land use rights may encourage more individuals to petition or demonstrate over perceived land-related abuses (Ref C),but the local nature of these disputes may remain the norm. HUNTSMAN