China's Natural Resources Inspectorate held a meeting with officials of nine city and prefecture governments on Friday. The officials were criticized and required to rectify the problems and enhance efforts in cracking down on illegal land use to protect arable land, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

These cities, including Shijiazhuang in Hebei province, Harbin in Heilongjiang province, Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, Chuzhou in Anhui province, Linyi in Shandong province, Hechi in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Qianxinan Prefecture in Guizhou province, Kunming in Yunnan province, and Lanzhou in Gansu province, were found to have issues of illegal activities during the 2023 natural resources inspection.

From April to July, the National Natural Resources Inspectorate conducted inspections on the performance of land protection responsibilities across China.

Despite progress made in enhancing land protection, the inspection revealed that in some areas, land protection responsibilities fell short. Prominent issues such as "non-agricultural" and "non-food" use of arable land persisted.

Illegal occupation of permanent farmland and ordinary arable land for turf planting occurred in certain provinces. There is still illegal arable land occupation for building lakes and landscapes. In some areas, unauthorized mining and illegal mining activities seriously disrupt the environment, the ministry said.