How can farmers' land rights and interests be safeguarded? The key lies in strictly defining public interest
Land is the foundation on which humanity depends for survival and development. Pursuing a new path of urbanization cannot proceed without, and cannot bypass, the land issue. In recent years, some localities have neglected farmers' land rights and interests while advancing urbanization, which has produced a rather deep negative impact on China's economy, society and politics. Therefore, how to safeguard farmers' land rights and interests in the course of the new path of urbanization has become an important and urgent topic. We must, in accordance with the requirements of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, improve government governance capacity, safeguard farmers' land rights and interests in multiple ways, and let farmers truly share in the land property returns brought by urban transformation and share in the fruits of economic and social development.
Strictly define the boundary of public interest
With the rapid advance of urbanization, the extension of “public interest” has been continuously expanded, and many local governments abuse public power to infringe on farmers' land property rights and interests; land expropriation lacks the seriousness and standardization it should have, and arbitrary land expropriation occurs repeatedly. Therefore, to safeguard farmers' land rights and interests in the course of the new urbanization, we must first promptly improve laws and regulations to meet the legal needs of safeguarding farmers' land rights and interests in the urbanization process. Which matters are public interest, which projects fall within the scope of public-welfare land use, and which fall outside the scope of public interest should be defined in the form of law.
A “negative list for public interest land expropriation” can be formulated, listing in enumerated form which matters are not public interest, and making clear that land used for profit-making purposes must not be expropriated. By listing and publicizing the list of land that does not belong to public interest use, it can become the basis for national land management. Of course, when the government expropriates land for public interest, it should also give a clear explanation. In land expropriation, a review step for “public interest use” should be added, with a specialized body reviewing whether the project conforms to “public interest use”. By strictly defining and reviewing public interest, necessary restrictions should be placed on various land expropriation acts at the legal level, the allocation of land for non-public-welfare use should be reduced, land allocated in the name of public interest but actually used for profit-making purposes should be cleaned up, and abuse of administrative power should be eliminated.
Improve the land expropriation system and mechanisms
Advance the confirmation and registration of land rights, issue land use certificates to farmers and manage them under a unified numbering system, clarify farmers' land property rights, and prevent damage to farmers' land rights and interests caused by unclear property rights. Complete as soon as possible the confirmation, registration and certificate issuance work for rural collective construction land, homestead land and urban state-owned construction land. Establish a unified registration information query system for urban and rural construction land, and issue regulations on unified registration of immovable property. Optimize the expropriation process and strengthen detail management. When government departments submit land use applications, they must publish announcements on government websites and in local media, convey the relevant information to all parties in society, inform the counterpart of the relevant facts and the rights they enjoy, and safeguard their right to know. By establishing a public hearing system, build a platform for stakeholders in land expropriation to express their demands, and give farmers a full right to know, right to participate and right to negotiate. Farmers can express opinions on whether land expropriation is lawful; farmers and the government can negotiate on an equal footing to determine land expropriation compensation standards and improve land expropriation compensation plans, eliminating “backroom operations”. If there is a dispute over land expropriation, farmers should have channels to appeal, and specialized arbitration institutions can also be established to adjudicate land expropriation disputes in the urbanization process. Judicial organs should incorporate whether land expropriation is lawful and whether compensation procedures are proper into the scope of judicial review, and resolve various disputes triggered by land expropriation according to law. The government should assist in establishing legal aid institutions for land-lost farmers, specifically providing farmers with corresponding legal services, helping farmers learn to use legal means to protect their lawful rights and interests. At the same time, a legal aid fund can also be established to reduce the economic burden on farmers arising from protecting their rights.
Improve the capacity of law to safeguard farmers' land rights and interests
Accelerate the revision of relevant laws and regulations and institutional development, and safeguard farmers' land rights and interests through law; this is the institutional foundation for truly and effectively safeguarding farmers' land rights and interests. From the perspective of top-level design, pay attention to the reasonable division of positioning, functions and content among various legal norms in the land law system, so that each fulfills its own responsibility, each has its own emphasis and they support one another, building a complete legal safeguard system. Accelerate legislative work to protect farmers' land rights and interests. Guided by the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, comprehensively deepen reform, promptly revise relevant laws and regulations, and build a land law and regulation system suited to economic and social development. Revise and improve as soon as possible such legal provisions related to farmers' land rights and interests as the Land Administration Law and the Property Law, so that protecting farmers' land rights and interests has a legal basis. It is suggested to formulate a dedicated Law on the Protection of Land Rights and Interests, legally and clearly defining farmers' various land rights and interests, so that when farmers' land rights and interests are unlawfully infringed, they can use legal weapons to protect their lawful rights and interests. Legislative bodies must raise the legal hierarchy of land expropriation legislation and write the content of land expropriation into the Constitution as soon as possible, thereby providing guidance for formulating other relevant laws and regulations and ensuring that farmers' land expropriation always proceeds within the legal framework.
Optimize the land expropriation compensation system
In accordance with the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, establish a mechanism for distributing land value-added returns that takes into account the state, the collective and individuals. Optimize the traditional compensation system from the height of safeguarding farmers' right to subsistence and right to development.
Update the understanding of land value. Today's land value is more reflected in its value in the urbanization process rather than the value of growing grain in a traditional agricultural society. Continuing to compensate according to the value of growing grain rather than market value will inevitably create a huge “interest gap”. The Land Administration Law provides that compensation for farmers' land expropriation is “given according to the original use of the expropriated land”, with the standard being that resettled farmers maintain their original living standard; such compensation standards in fact leave farmers and village collectives unable to share in the value-added returns of land. It is suggested that in the urbanization process the basis for farmers' land compensation should be the market value of the land, and the land expropriation compensation standard should be reasonably determined, rather than simply compensating according to agricultural production output value. At the same time, establish a dynamic compensation adjustment mechanism to ensure that the reasonableness of compensation and resettlement standards remains unchanged over the long term. Only in this way can the problem be corrected whereby land expropriation compensation standards are too low while the gap after land auctions is too large, and can the goal long advocated by the central government of “industry nurturing agriculture and cities supporting rural areas” truly be achieved.
To avoid arbitrariness in setting land expropriation compensation standards, it is suggested to establish third-party land appraisal institutions. Land appraisal institutions should use scientific means to scientifically assess the current value and potential value of land, and use this as an important reference basis for land expropriation compensation. The portion of land value-added returns exceeding the standards stipulated by current laws should be reasonably distributed to solve farmers' long-term livelihood problems.
Establish and improve a safeguard system for land-lost farmers
In advancing the new urbanization process, the importance of supporting arrangements in the social security system should be fully considered; ensuring that land-lost farmers have current safeguards, future sustainability and stable expectations is important work the government must consider. First, continue to make the economic pie bigger. Unswervingly promote economic transformation and upgrading, create more jobs, and provide more employment opportunities for land-lost farmers. Second, improve employment safeguards. The government should strengthen employment training for land-lost farmers, help them master a skill, enhance their human capital and competitiveness, so that they can smoothly find employment and start businesses on their own. Third, improve basic public service safeguard systems such as old-age support. For those farmers who can find employment or start businesses on their own after losing land, they can be directly incorporated into the urban employee pension insurance system; for farmers who have lost the ability to work, a pension insurance system for land-lost farmers should be added. According to the different levels of economic development and financial conditions in various places, improve the minimum living guarantee system for land-lost farmers and provide them with a stable minimum living guarantee. Fourth, enrich social security funds. It should be made clear that local governments allocate a certain proportion of the proceeds from land transfers into the social security fund for land-expropriated farmers, and a lower limit for that proportion should be stipulated. The expropriated collective economic organizations should also draw a certain amount of funds from their own accumulated funds or land compensation fees into the social security fund for land-expropriated farmers, ensuring the stability and sustainability of social security funds for land-expropriated farmers. Fifth, explore new forms of safeguard. For example, according to the principle of equal development opportunities, reserve a portion of land during expropriation for land-lost farmers to develop industries that enrich the people, formulate preferential assistance policies suited to actual conditions, and at the same time improve the government procurement system by making targeted purchases of products from rural collectives, so that rural collective land is transformed into property rights with stable and sustained income, and land-expropriated farmers share in the fruits of industrialization and urbanization.