"Conflicts over land are the most severe problem in rural China. The price of farmland will increase 100 fold after it is sold, so how to acquire the land is what local officials are working really hard on because lands mean money, GDP growth and promotion," said Zheng, who worries other local governments in Henan Province will copy Zhoukou's plan.

Yu Lingyun, an administrative law professor at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that the government cannot force locals to move their tombs if the tombs are not newly built.

"Similar cases occurred when the country campaigned for cremation. But local governments now should learn from the past and listen to the public," Yu said.