China trimmed the number of development zones by 70 percent and reduced the scale of land meant for these zones by 65 percent in a nationwide drive to rectify the land market, said Vice Minister Li Yuan of Land and Resources in Beijing Monday.
  
The central government also cleared up 17.5 billion yuan (US$2 billion) of defaulted payment to farmers for their land acquisition and took over 12.3 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) from local governments that should have paid for land acquisition for construction use, Li said at a press conference. 

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2005)