CCTV9英语新闻：Extension of lease a problem in leasehold policy（在线收听）

To better understand the problem in Wenzhou, here's what you need to know about China's leasehold land policy. Land in China is state-owned, which means nobody actually "buys" land, but instead "rents" it from the state.

Under leasehold ownership, the duration of the land use varies. For residential buildings, the leasehold is 70 years. For industrial and 'comprehensive' purposes, the period is capped at 50 years. For commercial purposes, it's 40.

In the case of Wenzhou, when the land ownership law first took effect, some real estate developers chose an even shorter leasehold ownership period of 20 years in order to pay less money for the land. That has created problems for home owners today.

What makes things complicated is that there's no specific law on whether or how much land-users should pay when extending their leases. What the law does say is that for residential buildings, the lease should be extended "automatically" when it expires. It leaves a big question mark on what "automatically" entails.