The construction of an 80-hectare golf course in Hubei province was halted on Thursday after a CCTV program disclosed it as an illegal project, local authorities confirmed.

In 2007, China Equity Group Inc decided to invest in Qichun, an inland county of Central China's Hubei province, by setting up Hubei Li Shizhen Health Industry Development Corporation.

In May 2008, the company submitted a proposal to Qichun Development and Reform Bureau for the construction of a golf course and country club and earmarked 198 million yuan ($29 million) for the 107-hectare project.

The golf course was part of the project, said Guan Kangping, vice-president of the corporation. "It will bring large profits to the local economy."

Qichun Development and Reform Bureau endorsed the project, despite it having been illegal for any government to approve the construction of new golf courses since 2004.

The 80-hectare golf course for the International Health Forum Country Club, as the project was termed, has been under construction for almost a year after bypassing supervision and inspection from the local land regulatory department.

"The golf course was not a separate project submitted for approval and we only knew about the International Health Forum Country Club," said Ye Mao, director of the Reform and Development Bureau, which approved the project.

According to Ye, his bureau only became aware of the golf course in April 2010.

Meanwhile, the local land and resources bureau said it never received the land use application for the project.

"They really didn't say there was a golf course. If they had said so, we would not let it be," said Tian Mengjin, deputy director of the local bureau of land and resources.

The company obtained the land use right by signing a contract with the villagers' committee of Tutai village in October 2009, which was illegal.

To be legal, the contract for the transfer of land use rights needed to have been signed with the villagers, according to the country's Measures for the Administration of Circulation of Rural Land Contracted Management Right.

According to the contract, the company rented 24.73 hectares of cultivated land and 61.73 hectares of forest land for 50 years. The annual rents were 5,400 yuan and 180 yuan per hectare respectively.

Local villager Zhang Ying said other villagers bitterly resented their land being illegally occupied.

"But this was the county's most important investment projects, so we swallowed our anger," Zhang said.

The project was exposed on Wednesday by the Topics in Focus program on CCTV and provoked public outrage.

Qichun government officials admitted the CCTV report was largely accurate, with one exception. "More than 60 hectares of the land was previously barren, not woodland," said Yu Lipeng, an official with the county's publicity department.

Construction of the golf course was immediately suspended after officials from the Ministry of Land and Resources arrived in Qichun on Thursday to investigate the claims.