Deepening Land System Reform Is Key to Improving Urbanization Quality

Recently, domestic media have discussed the urbanization issue quite extensively. Some extreme opinions point out various defects in China's urbanization, seemingly with the intention of negating urbanization. In my view, in all things, “major principles govern minor principles.” Although the quality of China's urbanization is not high, the achievements of urbanization are enormous. Urbanization is an inevitable trend in China's economic development. For the nation to be strong and the people to live prosperously, industrialization and agricultural modernization must be achieved; and industrialization must follow a path of intensive development, which inevitably requires expanding the urban economy or the rise of new cities; agricultural modernization must gradually bid farewell to small-scale part-time farming and raise the level of large-scale agricultural operations, which inevitably requires transferring a large agricultural population to non-agricultural industries and into urban economic sectors. Industrialization and agricultural modernization inevitably accompany urbanization. In the process of urbanization, the urban population will gradually increase, the agricultural population will gradually decrease, some villages will disappear, and the national population distribution will undergo major adjustments. These changes are all unavoidable, and we should welcome them with optimism.

I. The Meaning of Urbanization

There is no important difference between the two terms “urbanization” (urbanization) and “urbanization” (urbanization); if there is any difference, it is only that the latter term implies that people should not neglect the importance of small towns or small cities. Most people who habitually use the term “urbanization” (urbanization) do not oppose the development of small towns, nor do they endorse excessive expansion of mega-cities. Translated into English, both urbanization and urbanization can only use one word, urbanization. At present, following the standard formulation in central government documents, everyone uniformly uses the term “urbanization” (urbanization), which is naturally also very good.

Urbanization is an inevitable trend in China's economic development. For the nation to be strong and the people to live prosperously, industrialization and agricultural modernization must be achieved; and industrialization must follow a path of intensive development, which inevitably requires expanding the urban economy or the rise of new cities; agricultural modernization must gradually bid farewell to small-scale part-time farming and raise the level of large-scale agricultural operations, which inevitably requires transferring a large agricultural population to non-agricultural industries and into urban economic sectors. Industrialization and agricultural modernization inevitably accompany urbanization. In the process of urbanization, the urban population will gradually increase, the agricultural population will gradually decrease, some villages will disappear, and the national population distribution will undergo major adjustments. These changes are all unavoidable, and we should welcome them with optimism.

Urban-rural integration is a development strategy proposed by the central government based on China's national conditions, and it is closely related to urbanization. Due to various historical reasons, China has formed a severe urban-rural dual socio-economic structure, with a huge urban-rural gap. The way to solve this problem is to achieve integrated urban-rural development. Urbanization is conducive to achieving urban-rural integration. If we do not advance urbanization and instead try to keep the total rural population unchanged and the urban-rural economic ratio unchanged, the dual structure cannot be eliminated. Therefore, our country must achieve urban-rural integration on the basis of a high degree of urbanization. It is estimated that when the urbanization rate reaches above 70%, the goal of urban-rural integration will be basically achieved.

Reasonable urbanization will not only fail to breach the red line for farmland protection, but will actually help protect farmland. The economic density of China's cities is only one-tenth that of Japan, and land waste is severe. The scale of non-agricultural land in rural areas is also very large, so rationally planning urban land use is actually conducive to protecting farmland. For example, construction land in rural areas totals about 180,000 sq km. If the agricultural migrant population is gradually moved into cities, reclaiming 100 million mu of rural land would not be difficult. The state has already adopted measures such as the “linking the increase and decrease” of urban and rural construction land to solve this problem, and it should be said that results have been achieved. However, because there are still some policy deficiencies, the task of protecting farmland is not optimistic. One policy worth considering is to establish an agricultural protection zone system to replace the current basic farmland protection system, in order to strengthen farmland protection. The central government can require local governments to expand their autonomy in land use on the premise of establishing agricultural protection zones. Local governments should further clarify land property rights and ensure that land use planning is governed by law and democracy.

II. Urbanization Quality Needs Improvement

The quality of China's urbanization indeed needs improvement. The issues that currently require attention are:

First, urban development's degree of economical and intensive land use is low. The economic density of China's built-up urban areas is significantly lower than that of most developed countries. Compared with Japan's period of rapid urbanization, for every 1 percentage point of GDP growth in China, the land occupied is about 8 times that of Japan, and the economic density of built-up urban areas is currently about one-tenth that of Japan.

Second, problems in the economic structure are prominent. In total GDP, China's agricultural share is already below 10%, but the rural population share is nearly 50%, and if all agriculture-related population (households with part-time farming members) is included, this share should be around 65%. There are many problems in the regional economic structure, and the price gap for land factors between regions is large, while the population density of eastern cities is lower than that of western cities, indicating that land factor prices have very little influence on economic layout and that there are deep-seated problems in the economic system.

Third, the living quality of urban residents is not high, and there is little room for the middle class to develop and grow. From the perspective of urban land use planning, the average population density of China's cities is not high, public sectors occupy a great deal of land, but the population density of citizens' residential areas is generally very high. The population density of Tiantongyuan in Beijing is estimated at over 100,000 per sq km. According to standard knowledge from social psychology and environmental psychology, this situation has a greatly negative impact on citizens' physical and mental health. When we declare more than 30 years from now that China is already a prosperous, strong, and democratic country, if most of our citizens live in housing that, for other countries with similar territory or population density, would be housing for low-income poor people, can we not feel ashamed? If there were reasonable urban and rural land use planning and a truly people-oriented philosophy of land planning were established, it would be entirely possible to both protect farmland and improve residents' housing. In addition, the urbanization process in industrially developed countries was mostly a process of the rise of the middle class. In China, because housing prices are abnormally high and the rural land expropriation system is not entirely reasonable, it is difficult for the urbanization process to be accompanied by the rise of the middle class, and there is even concern that the opposite process may occur.

Fourth, the level of urban and rural cultural landscape is not high. “Beautiful China” is a China with beautiful environments and harmonious unity between humanity and nature, including the beauty of the natural environment and the harmonious grandeur of the cultural landscape. Cities are cultural landscapes, while rural areas are mainly natural landscapes. Building good urban landscapes and reducing population pressure in rural areas are conducive to protecting the environment, thereby achieving a “Beautiful China” of urban-rural integration. Therefore, urbanization and the goal of building a Beautiful China can be unified. But this is only a possibility. Whether the goal can definitely be achieved depends on whether the system and policies can provide support. China has large-scale illegal buildings, while in European and American countries illegal buildings are almost nowhere to be seen. Illegal buildings have severely damaged China's urban landscape, and even in some very famous places in Beijing there are still illegal buildings that cannot be demolished. There are also continuously expanding “hollow villages,” now estimated at around 30% on average nationwide, meaning that in a village many courtyards and houses are locked up and basically uninhabited throughout the year. Another important feature of China's urban and rural landscape is a “walled society.” Some walls along Chang'an Avenue in Beijing have gradually been demolished, but walls remain widespread throughout Beijing, and are even increasing. Walls are very rare in Europe and America. In London, apart from old walls around ancient castles, even the wall around Buckingham Palace is very small in scale, so small that during ceremonial guard activities the guards must go outside the wall, and the places where the prime minister and cabinet ministers work have no walls. Enclosing such places and not allowing people outside the community to use them is an attempt to monopolize public land and reduces the efficiency of public land use.

Fifth, the urban management system is rigid, especially the population registration policy, which is baffling. Many cities already have a substantial proportion of non-registered residents living there stably, yet city governments, fearing population expansion, are unwilling to grant them household registration. In fact, whether or not the government grants them household registration, they are already living in the city, and household registration changes will not increase the financial pressure on local governments. What does household registration have to do with population expansion? Because of the family planning policy, more and more farmers are unwilling to settle in cities.