Rural demolition and relocation must fully respect farmers' wishes
Zhu Yaoyin, deputy director of the Department of Grassroots Political Power and Community Construction of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said in Beijing on the 2nd that the No. 1 Central Document has repeatedly stressed that the demolition of rural residential areas and the merging and withdrawal of villages must respect farmers' wishes and obtain villagers' consent, and that farmers must not be forced to relocate and move into apartment buildings, so as to avoid large-scale village merging and withdrawal and massive demolition and construction.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs held a press conference in Beijing that day on the theme of advancing the pilot work of rural community construction. Zhu Yaoyin made the above remarks when answering a reporter's question about massive demolition and construction in individual rural areas during the construction process.
Zhu Yaoyin said that massive demolition and construction goes against farmers' wishes, against the evolution laws of villages, and against the objective laws of urbanization development. There are three forms of blindness: first, blindly withdrawing villages and merging residences. Second, blindly forcing farmers into concentrated housing. Third, blindly using non-agricultural land.
⟦NL> He said that massive demolition and construction is not conducive to farmers' lawful rights and interests, not conducive to the sustainable development of rural areas, and not conducive to the healthy advancement of new urbanization. The central government's attitude toward such behavior that goes against the will of rural residents and involves massive demolition and construction has always been one of clear opposition.
Zhu Yaoyin said that General Secretary Xi Jinping particularly stressed at the Central Urbanization Work Conference that in promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas, attention should be paid to preserving the original appearance of villages and improving residents' living conditions as much as possible within the original village form. Regarding the behavior of massive demolition and construction and forcing farmers to move into apartment buildings, the Ministry of Civil Affairs' attitude is also very clear: it firmly opposes simply understanding rural community construction as withdrawing villages and merging residences.
On April 15 of this year, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Pilot Work of Rural Community Construction. Zhu Yaoyin stated that one of the important purposes of issuing the Guiding Opinions was precisely to clarify the idea of simply equating rural community construction with “farmers moving into apartment buildings,” and to correct the situation objectively existing in some places of carrying out massive demolition and construction and forcing farmers to move into apartment buildings in the name of rural community construction.
The Guiding Opinions clearly proposed that “it is strictly prohibited to forcibly promote massive demolition and construction and the withdrawal of villages and merging of residences, strictly prohibited to change agricultural land use without authorization in violation of land use planning, and strictly prohibited to replace village Party organizations and villagers' committees with institutions such as “management committees.”” The understanding and practice of simply equating rural community construction with farmers moving into apartment buildings ignores the rich connotations of rural community construction and narrowly understands rural community construction as the urbanization of rural residents' living patterns into urban communities.
The Guiding Opinions established the basic principle of “linking urban and rural areas and highlighting distinctive features,” requiring that “attention be paid both to using cities to lead rural areas, using rural areas to promote cities, complementing advantages, and improving together, and to valuing local flavor, reflecting rural characteristics, and preserving rural appearance.” In other words, it is necessary both to reasonably draw on the beneficial experience of urban community construction and not to simply copy the operating model of urban community construction.