How to Advance New-Type Urbanization Through Reform

Urbanization is a natural historical process that accompanies industrial development, in which non-agricultural industries cluster in towns and cities and rural populations concentrate in urban areas. It is an objective trend in the development of human society and an important hallmark of a country's modernization. The Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development put forward specific arrangements for advancing new-type urbanization. As long as we follow the requirements and arrangements of the central authorities, with correct goals and the right direction, advance new-type urbanization through reform, and blaze a new path of urbanization development, we will certainly be able to open up an even brighter future.

At present, China's economy has entered a new normal. Urbanization is not only the inevitable path to modernization, but also a powerful engine for maintaining sustained and healthy economic development; it is not only an important lever for accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure, but also an important way to resolve issues relating to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. It has major immediate significance and far-reaching historical significance for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and accelerating socialist modernization. In recent years, as China's new-type industrialization, informatization, agricultural modernization, and green development have advanced in depth, the internal momentum of urbanization has markedly strengthened. Data show that China's urbanization rate of permanent residents has reached 55 percent, the number and scale of towns and cities have continued to expand, and the form of urban agglomerations has become more evident. The rapid advancement of urbanization has absorbed a large number of rural laborers for transfer employment, improved the efficiency of factor allocation between urban and rural areas, driven sustained and rapid national economic development, brought profound changes to the social structure, and promoted an all-around improvement in the living standards of urban and rural residents. The achievements have attracted worldwide attention.

But we must also see that, as China's urbanization process accelerates, the problems exposed have become increasingly evident. An unavoidable reality is that of the 750 million urban permanent residents, about 250 million have not obtained urban household registration, cannot enjoy corresponding public services in towns and cities, and do not have corresponding rights as urban citizens; the process of granting them urban citizen status lags behind. This new dual-structure contradiction highlighted in the course of urbanization, while constraining urbanization from releasing the energy of domestic demand, has also accumulated potential social risks. In addition, "land urbanization" is faster than population urbanization, and construction land is used extensively and inefficiently; the spatial distribution and scale structure of towns and cities are unreasonable and do not match the carrying capacity of resources and the environment; the level of urban management and services is not high, and "urban diseases" are becoming increasingly prominent; natural and historical cultural heritage is not well protected, and urban and rural construction lacks distinctive features; and institutions and mechanisms are unsound, hindering the healthy development of urbanization. This series of problems all obstruct the healthy development of urbanization.

Faced with the prominent problems emerging in the course of urbanization, we need to be clearly aware that in advancing urbanization in a large country with a population of more than 1.3 billion, we can neither rush for quick results nor follow the old path. We must proceed from the basic national conditions of China's primary stage of socialism, follow the laws, guide developments according to the situation, grasp the direction well, and break new ground in new-type urbanization through transformational reform. In this process, we must follow objective laws so that urbanization becomes a process that goes with the flow, comes naturally, and meets the requirements of the stage of economic development. We must also embody a people-centered approach, advance people-centered urbanization, improve the quality of the urban population and the quality of life of residents, and make it the primary task to orderly grant urban citizen status to permanent residents who are able to find stable employment and live in towns and cities. We must highlight quality and substance, steadily raise the urbanization level of the agricultural household registration population with reform-minded thinking and innovative measures, and apply coordinated methods to properly handle the relationship between the market and the government, effectively pushing urbanization into a new stage of transformational development focused on improving quality.

⟦NL> First, new-type urbanization must be people-centered. We must highlight the principal position of people in the process of urbanization, proceed more from people's needs and development, and use the actual results of urbanization construction to satisfy the people's pursuit of a happy life. The main task is to solve the problem of obtaining urban household registration for the agricultural transfer population that has already moved to towns and cities for employment, and to improve the quality and ability of migrant workers to integrate into towns and cities. We must deepen reform of the household registration system and encourage agricultural transfer population able to find stable employment and live in towns and cities to settle there with their whole families; implement the residence permit system and strive to achieve full coverage of basic public services for permanent residents; improve the mechanism linking fiscal transfer payments with the granting of urban citizen status to the agricultural transfer population; safeguard the land contract rights, homestead use rights, and rights to collective income distribution of farmers who settle in towns and cities; and intensify the renovation of urban shantytowns and dilapidated houses in urban and rural areas, so that farmers can truly come in, stay, and have a sense of identity and belonging, thereby truly achieving population urbanization.

Second, new-type urbanization must optimize its layout. To advance new-type urbanization, we must optimize the macro layout and also strengthen spatial governance within cities. We must proceed from basic national conditions, combine them with local realities, and, following the approach of strictly observing bottom lines, adjusting structures, and deepening reform, lay out urbanization scientifically and rationally. We must take urban agglomerations as the main form, promote a reasonable division of labor and complementary functions among large and medium-sized cities and small towns, and promote the prosperity of cities through the prosperity of industries, achieving integrated development of industry and towns. We must follow the principles of unified planning, coordinated advancement, intensive and compact development, orderly density, and environment first, coordinate the transformation of central urban districts and the construction of new cities and new districts, improve the efficiency of urban space utilization, and improve the urban living environment.

Third, new-type urbanization must focus on ecological civilization construction. We must combine advancing new-type urbanization with ecological civilization construction, adjust the industrial structure and transform consumption patterns through ecological civilization construction to promote the healthy development of urbanization, and integrate the concepts and principles of ecological civilization into the whole process through advancing urbanization, taking an intensive, smart, green, and low-carbon path of new-type urbanization. We must firmly uphold the red lines for the quantity and quality of cultivated land, strictly control increments, revitalize existing stock, optimize the structure, improve efficiency, and effectively raise the degree of intensive use of urban construction land. We must actively develop green and low-carbon industries and improve energy use efficiency. We must improve the institutions and mechanisms that promote green, circular, and low-carbon urbanization development, implement the strictest ecological and environmental protection system, and form a spatial pattern, industrial structure, mode of production, and way of life that conserve resources and protect the environment.

Fourth, new-type urbanization must strengthen the supporting power of industry. China's new-type urbanization construction must be built on a solid foundation of the real economy and must be supported by industry, creating jobs through industrial development and promoting the rational distribution of urbanization. If towns and cities lack the cultivation and support of modern industry, "bedroom cities," "empty cities," and "ghost cities" will appear. If industry lacks the support and carrier of urbanization, it will be difficult to form sustained vitality, creativity, and competitiveness. We must strengthen specialized division of labor and cooperation among towns and cities, give full play to the resource factor endowments and comparative advantages of cities, and, in accordance with the coordinated development strategic pattern of large, medium, and small cities, small towns, and urban agglomerations, do a good job in industrial division of labor and cooperation among towns and cities and cultivate advantageous industries with distinctive urban characteristics and relatively strong competitiveness.