英闻天下——469 Controversial Online Auction for Land Use Rights

 　　The auction¹ began at 10 am on March 29th on Taobao.com, a Chinese website for online shopping operated by the Alibaba Group. The online auction lasted for a period of 24 hours, ending at 10 am the next day.

 

　　The auction items include a 117,000-square-meter plot, a 62,000-square-meter plant building and the attached facilities of a bankrupt state-owned enterprise in the city of Haining in east China's Zhejiang Province.

 

　　Liu Chengxiong, a Certified² Public Accountant says the land auctioned³ belonged to a leather enterprise based in Haining, Zhejiang province.

 

　　"The land auctioned belonged to a leather enterprise, which was forced to apply for bankruptcy⁴ on May 22, 2012 due to unpaid⁵ debts. The auction subjects include a plant building and attached facilities. The plot is very large, more than 170 mu, equivalent to about 110,000 square meters."

 

　　The land's appraisal⁶ price stands at 158.7 million yuan, and the starting price of the auction was 155 million yuan.

 

　　After four rounds of bidding between two buyers, the land was sold at 4 million yuan higher than the starting price.

 

　　According to the auction rules, any enterprise planning to be involved in the bidding needs to register on the Taobao website first and put down a bidding deposit of 8 million yuan. And the bid price should be raised by at least one million yuan each time.

 

　　The online auction for land use rights has triggered controversy⁷ over whether land can be purchased online.

 

　　Yan Jinming, deputy head of the academic council of the China Land Institute gives his opinion.

 

　　"This auction falls within the category of the tier-2 or tier-3 land market, where land transfers can take place in diverse ways."

 

　　Other industry insiders, however, have raised doubts over the legality of such auctions⁸. Ou Shuying, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Auctioneers, supports the move online but says the way it is being done in Zhejiang is questionable⁹, because courts can only supervise. They are not allowed to deal with sales directly.

 

　　Mao Yidong, leader of the discipline inspection¹⁰ group of the Haining People's Court, says the law entitles the people's court the right of asset disposal and judicial¹¹ auction, and Taobao.com just provides a platform for the auction.

 

　　"According to clause 244 in the Civil Procedure Law, if the party subjected to execution can't fulfill¹² its obligations, which are outlined in legal documents, the People's Court is entitled to seize, detain, freeze, auction or sell off its part of relevant properties. The law entitles the people's court the right of asset disposal and judicial auction, and Taobao.com just provides a platform for the auction."

 

　　In China, land use rights are the rights of what are referred to in law as natural persons, legal persons or other organizations which will use the land for a fixed¹³ period of time. More specifically, the term of rights to use state land include: 70 years for residential¹⁴ use, 50 years for industrial use, 50 years for educational, scientific and technological¹⁵, health, and athletic¹⁶ use, 40 years for business, tourist, and recreational use, and 50 years for multiple purpose use or other uses.

 

　　For CRI, I am Zhang Wan¹⁷.

1 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

2 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

3 auctioned   

v.拍卖( auction的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It was sad to see all grandmother's lovely things being auctioned off. 眼看着祖母那些可爱的东西全都被拍卖掉，心里真不好受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder. 电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

5 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

6 appraisal   

n.对…作出的评价；评价，鉴定，评估

参考例句：

• What's your appraisal of the situation?你对局势是如何评估的？
• We need to make a proper appraisal of his work.对于他的工作我们需要做出适当的评价。

7 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

8 auctions   

n.拍卖，拍卖方式( auction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They picked up most of the furniture at auctions in country towns. 他们大部分的家具都是在乡村镇上的拍卖处买的。 来自辞典例句
• Our dealers didn't want these cars, so we had to dump them at auctions. 我们的承销商都不要这些车子，因此我们只好贱价拍卖。 来自辞典例句

9 questionable   

adj.可疑的，有问题的

参考例句：

• There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
• Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。

10 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

11 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

12 fulfill   

vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意

参考例句：

• If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了，你就要履行你的诺言。
• This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。

13 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

14 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

15 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

16 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

17 wan   

(wide area network)广域网

参考例句：

• The shared connection can be an Ethernet,wireless LAN,or wireless WAN connection.提供共享的网络连接可以是以太网、无线局域网或无线广域网。