CHINA

Farmers’ Land Contracts Extended: China’s governing State Council has approved a 30-year extension of land contracts for millions of farmers, reaffirming a key agricultural reform introduced after Deng Xiaoping came to power in the late 1970s, government officials said. As land leases have begun to expire, a variety of problems have cropped up, including land-grabbing by corrupt officials, a drop in investment by farmers uncertain of their future land rights and, in some areas, deforestation by leaseholders who expected to lose access to the land.