Land Ownership

Land ownership refers to the rights of land owners to possess, use, benefit from, and dispose of land according to the law. China gradually set up a socialist system of public land ownership after abolishing the private land ownership in 1956. According to the Constitution of People’s Republic of China, there are two forms of land ownership in China, namely ownership by the whole people and collective ownership by the working people. Land in cities is owned by the state. Land in rural and suburban areas is owned by collectives except for those portions that belong to the state in accordance with the law; house sites and private plots of cropland and hilly land are also owned by collectives. The right to the use of land may be transferred in accordance with the law.