Individual Corruption

According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2008, widespread corruption in connection with the resettlement funds of Three Gorges Dam Project has led to resettlement compensation for the 1.4 million displaced people being significantly reduced. Residents of Hubei Province staged a protest because they only received CNY 5,000 out of the CNY 38,000 they were each promised in compensation. In 2005, the authorities announced that 349 people, including 166 officials, had been convicted of embezzlement of the resettlement funds, and the authorities reportedly managed to recover CNY 43 million, out of the total CNY 59 million that had been embezzled. Furthermore, the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010 also reports that a lack of secure property rights for Chinese farmers have resulted in an estimate of up to 40 million farmers having had their land seized by corrupt officials.

According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer 2010, a little more than one-tenth of the surveyed households report to have paid a bribe to land services in 2009.

Business Corruption

Land administration departments in China are involved in several different types of corruption. According to the Carnegie Endowment 2007, local officials, through illegal means, obtain farmland at low prices in order to resell the land user rights to developers, in exchange for bribes. Similarly, the US Department of State 2010 also notes that areas where many cases of corruption took place, such as land usage rights and real estate, involved heavy state regulation and therefore these areas were more susceptible to fraud, bribery and kickbacks. However, despite of these, business executives from the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 rank the protection of property rights in China as relatively strong.

Political Corruption

The Chinese state owns all land in the country, and it can be difficult and lucrative to obtain building permits. According to a 2010 article by Associated Press, real estate is plagued by corruption; with bribes given to government officials in order to have real estate projects approved. In recent years, there have been numerous cases of high ranking officials who were involved in land corruption and who received severe punishments. For example, Xinhua Net in 2008 reported that the former Shanghai CCP Secretary Chen Liangyu used his position to ensure that his brother could engage in illegal land dealings that resulted in the loss of CNY 344 million of state funds. As a consequence, Chen received an 18-year prison sentence.

There are countless cases of bribery in the process of securing land use rights over particular plots of land. The great number of corruption cases connected to land use rights inspired the Chinese leadership to pass the Property Rights Law in March 2007. According to Freedom House 2011, despite a growing legislation body defining property rights in China, protection remains weak in practice.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2012:
- It takes 4 procedures, 29 days and a cost of 3.6% of the property value on average to register property in China.

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012:
- Business executives give the protection of property rights in China, including financial assets, a score of 5 on a 7-point scale (1 being 'very weak' and 7 'very strong').

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2010:
- 10.3% of the households surveyed reported to have paid a bribe to land services in 2009.

Carnegie Endowment: Corruption Threatens China's Future 2007:
- A 2006 survey of 3,067 corruption cases revealed that approximately half were related to land transactions or infrastructure projects.

- According to the Ministry of Land Resources, more than one million cases of illegal acquisition of land were discovered between 1999 and 2005.