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In recent years, setting up development zones or science parks has become a popular method for governments to promote urbanization and regional development. In order to urbanize these development zones, the government must initiate the land acquisition process before implementing the subsequent zone development plan. The Hsinchu Science Park, established in 1980, is operated and managed by the National Science Council (NSC) in Taiwan. The land acquisition process for the Hsinchu Science Park was initiated by the development planning group, managed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Education, and the NSC. This group is responsible for land acquisition, land development, and urban planning for the park.The land for the Hsinchu Science Park was expropriated under the terms of Articles 1 and 3 of the Land Expropriation Act.  Article 1 states that “the purpose of this act is to regulate the expropriation of land, ensuring reasonable land use, safeguarding private properties and promoting public interest” According to Article 3, “the State may expropriate private land, according to what is strictly required by such an undertaking”. We found that both Articles 1 and 3 of the Land Expropriation Act provided a variety of reasons to expropriate land, thereby legally justifying the expropriation of land from citizens by the government.  In other words, expropriation by the Taiwanese government is grounded in the law, which represents a unilaterally administrative intention. Land ownership is ultimately in the hands of the government, which has the right to make the expropriation of private land compulsory ((Xie mingrui謝明瑞, Tudi zhengshou tiaoli gai gaile - jian lun tudi zhengshou yu nongmin quanya土地徵收條例該改了－兼論土地徵收與農民權益, http://www.npf.org.tw/post/2/9463 , last accessed 26 March 2013.)). This expropriation process requires no permission from the private land owner, and therefore, in China, conflicts arise involving not only the process of land acquisition, but also of land expropriation.In a typical land acquisition process, the government first assesses the price of land and then applies to the relevant institutions for land acquisition. After the Expropriation Committee of the Ministry of the Interior sanctions the expropriation, the government posts the land expropriation notice and negotiates with the land owner. Once an agreement with the land owner is reached, the government will pay the compensation and apply for the registration of the ownership transfer. Finally, the government can proceed to the next stage and begin to use the land. The negotiation between the government and land owner is conducted under the terms of Article 11 of the Land Expropriation Act, which specifies that the government can negotiate with the land owner over the land purchase price. This negotiation process is similar to an ordinary commercial transaction. To reassure the land owners and prevent any resistance on their part, the government drafted Article 10 of the Equalization of Land Rights Act, which specifies that the land-owner’s compensation for expropriation should at the very least correspond to the listed market price. The government can increase compensation by as much as another 40% of the listed market price, if necessary.The land expropriation process for the Hsinchu Science Park took place in three phases. During phases 1 and 2, the government moved the residents before demolishing the buildings and increased the land-owners’ compensation packages. Because land prices were still low at the time, the land expropriation process was successful.However, during phase 3, the price of land was two to three times higher than during phases 1 and 2. (The sizes of the areas of land expropriated during phases 1 and 2 were 204 hectares and 169 hectares, respectively. However, the size of the area expropriated during phase 3 was 524 hectares). There was a span of 11 years between phase 1 and phase 3, and land prices rose during this period; the result was dissatisfaction on the part of the land owners regarding the expropriation prices for their land. Furthermore, because of the tract of land acquired during phase 3 was so extensive, part of it was located on the boundary between Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, and the price estimations between these two areas differed. According to Yang, the estimation of land compensation was approximately NTD 12.5 million per acre for Hsinchu City and NTD 16 million for Hsinchu County ((Yang wenke 楊文科, Zhu ke tudi zhengshou shijian jilu biji, xinzhu 竹科土地徵收事件記錄筆記, Hsinchu, 1980.)). The meagre compensation and differing estimations caused the land owners to protest violently, forcing the government to cancel the land expropriation planned for phase 3 . As a result, the Hsinchu Science Park today suffers from an insufficient amount of space ((Liao Jianrui廖健瑞, difang zhengzhi shengtai yu kexue yuanqu kaifa guanxi zhi yanjiu: Yi xinzhu shi weili地方政治生態與科學園區開發關係之研究: 以新竹市為例. Donghai daxue gonggong shiwu shuoshi lunwen東海大學公共事務碩士論文, 2002.)) .A comparison of land expropriation processes in China and Taiwan shows that after the collective owners of rural land accept the compensation provided by the government, the government then holds an auction to sell the land to real estate developers. Therefore, discrepancies can be seen between the compensation and the auction price, which causes increasingly frequent protests on the part of the land-owners.  In the Hsinchu Science Park example, the government divided the land expropriation process into three phases over a long period of time, resulting in increasing land prices as well as increasing compensation requirements. Consequently, disputes and conflicts arose. Although Taiwan and China are respectively a democratic country and a communist country, similarities and differences in their land acquisition processes can be used as references for both parties.