For large government projects the principles tend to be followed (for example, China HSR and Shanghai’s subway expansion). There’s corruption that happens at the local (rural) government level that sometimes requisitions farmland for commercial or industrial use, and the systems there are usually less robust, but when talking about regional, provincial or national projects there are better systems in place to handle things with minimal risk and it’s seen as more politically expedient to just pay the piper than it is to deal with the civil unrest.

China’s land ownership system means that land is split between being owned by the national government and being owned by small collectives. The greatest corruption (requisition without proper compensation) usually occurs at the collective-level. At a higher administrative level, it’s not like China is missing housing that it can use to rehouse people lol.