Deepening rural land reform: guard against blind comparisons

Recently, the central government issued the "Opinions on the Pilot Work of Rural Land Expropriation, Entry of Collective Operating Construction Land into the Market, and Reform of the Homestead System," which has attracted widespread attention from all sectors. Jiang Daming, Minister of Land and Resources, pointed out that "the reform of the rural land system must be prudent and steady; in pilot reforms, we must adhere to small-scale trials, reform in accordance with the law, and closed operation."

Land is the foundation on which humanity depends for survival and the basis of economic and social development. As a foundational system of our country, the land system with Chinese characteristics has greatly liberated and developed our country's agricultural productivity and has made historic contributions to our country's economic and social development. However, with the development of practice and the deepening of reform, the incompatibility between the current rural land system and the socialist market economy system has become increasingly apparent, and has given rise to a series of economic and social problems. Deepening rural land system reform is already urgent and imperative.

Land is the lifeblood of farmers and also the foundation for achieving moderate prosperity in all respects. How can rural collective land be transformed from a resource into an asset and capital, and how can farmers be granted more property rights? Around the time of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee and the Central Rural Work Conference, a wave of land system reform surged unceasingly in various places: the transfer, leasing, and shareholding of rural operating construction land as well as comprehensive development and utilization; the mortgage, guarantee, circulation trust, and scale operation of contracted land management rights; the mortgage, guarantee, and transfer of homesteads; and enabling farmers to obtain more land value-added benefits during land expropriation... A series of exploratory experiments with breakthrough significance and reference value opened the curtain on a new round of land reform, aiming to break through real bottlenecks, safeguard and develop farmers' rights to land distribution, and enable farmers to obtain more rights to development.

Undoubtedly, the ultimate goal of rural land system reform is equal land, equal rights, and equal prices for urban and rural land, that is, enabling farmers and urban residents to share equally in the land value-added benefits brought by industrialization and urbanization. To put it more plainly, the purpose of reform is to increase farmers' income. Taking reform of the rural homestead system as an example, it is not aimed at resolving construction land quotas, but rather, on the premise of ensuring that farmers have housing to live in, to grant homesteads more complete usufructuary rights and housing property rights, effectively safeguard and protect farmers' homestead use rights, and enable farmers to increase more property income.

Comprehensively deepening rural land reform is of extraordinary significance; it determines whether China's economy can achieve transformation and sustainable development, and whether it can truly take off. At present, many places are raring to go and eager to achieve breakthroughs in rural land system reform, and vigilance must be maintained against this. Whether advancing across the board or experimenting at selected points, deepening rural land system reform must follow the rules and observe procedures. Just as General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized many times, "Rural land system reform affects the whole situation at a single touch, and therefore must be planned before action." Therefore, all localities must, under the unified deployment of the central government, follow the principle of "hold the bottom line, pilot first," and advance prudently and steadily in a coordinated, proactive, and steady manner, and must guard against blind comparisons.