diff --git a/m4/virt-yajl.m4 b/m4/virt-yajl.m4
index c4ea0102a346e24d8698fd55034c7dd25fea18b1..7e905c2f7717ff3f7aece6c791aeafa4f19d8f64 100644
--- a/m4/virt-yajl.m4
+++ b/m4/virt-yajl.m4
@@ -23,26 +23,6 @@ AC_DEFUN([LIBVIRT_ARG_YAJL],[
 
 AC_DEFUN([LIBVIRT_CHECK_YAJL],[
   dnl YAJL JSON library http://lloyd.github.com/yajl/
-  if test "$with_qemu:$with_yajl" = yes:check; then
-    dnl Some versions of qemu require the use of yajl; try to detect them
-    dnl here, although we do not require qemu to exist in order to compile.
-    dnl This check mirrors src/qemu/qemu_capabilities.c
-    AC_PATH_PROGS([QEMU], [qemu-kvm qemu kvm qemu-system-x86_64],
-                  [], [$PATH:/usr/bin:/usr/libexec])
-    if test -x "$QEMU"; then
-      if $QEMU -help 2>/dev/null | grep -q libvirt; then
-        with_yajl=yes
-      else
-        [qemu_version_sed='s/.*ersion \([0-9.,]*\).*/\1/']
-        qemu_version=`$QEMU -version | sed "$qemu_version_sed"`
-        case $qemu_version in
-          [[1-9]].* | 0.15.* ) with_yajl=yes ;;
-          0.* | '' ) ;;
-          *) AC_MSG_ERROR([Unexpected qemu version string]) ;;
-        esac
-      fi
-    fi
-  fi
 
   LIBVIRT_CHECK_LIB_ALT([YAJL], [yajl],
                         [yajl_parse_complete], [yajl/yajl_common.h],