Deepening the Reform of Land system in order to improve the quality of urbanization

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion in the domestic media on the issue of urbanization, and some extreme opinions have pointed out the various defects of urbanization in China, which seems to negate the meaning of urbanization. The author thinks that although the quality of urbanization in our country is not high, the achievement of urbanization is huge. Urbanization is the inevitable trend of China's economic development. If the country wants to be strong and the people's life is rich, we must realize industrialization and agricultural modernization, and industrialization must take the road of intensive development, so it is necessary to expand urban economy or rise new cities; agricultural modernization must gradually bid farewell to the mode of small-scale part-time production and improve the level of agricultural scale operation, so it is necessary to transfer a large number of agricultural population to non-agricultural industries and enter urban economic sectors. Industrialization and agricultural modernization will inevitably be accompanied by 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 layout will undergo major adjustments. These changes are inevitable, and we should be optimistic about their success.

I. the meaning of urbanization

There is no important difference between the two terms "urbanization" and "urbanization"; if there is a difference, it is only that the latter one will require people not to ignore the importance of small towns or cities. Most people who are used to the term "urbanization" do not object to the development of small towns, nor do they approve of the over-expansion of mega-cities. Translated into English, urbanization and urbanization can only use one word, urbanization. At present, according to the standard of the central document, it is naturally very good for everyone to uniformly use the term "urbanization".

Urbanization is the inevitable trend of China's economic development. If the country wants to be strong and the people's life is rich, we must realize industrialization and agricultural modernization, and industrialization must take the road of intensive development, so it is necessary to expand urban economy or rise new cities; agricultural modernization must gradually bid farewell to the mode of small-scale part-time production and improve the level of agricultural scale operation, so it is necessary to transfer a large number of agricultural population to non-agricultural industries and enter urban economic sectors. Industrialization and agricultural modernization will inevitably be accompanied by 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 layout will undergo major adjustments. These changes are inevitable, and we should be optimistic about their success.

Urban-rural integration is a development strategy put forward by the central government according to the national conditions of our country, which is closely related to urbanization. Due to a variety of historical reasons, China has formed a serious urban-rural dual social and economic structure, and there are great differences between urban and rural areas. the solution to this problem is to realize the integrated development of urban and rural areas. Urbanization is conducive to the integration of urban and rural areas. If we do not promote urbanization and want to keep the total rural population and the proportion of urban and rural economy unchanged, it is impossible to eliminate the dual structure. Therefore, our country should realize the integration of urban and rural areas on the basis of high urbanization. It is estimated that when the urbanization rate reaches more than 70%, the goal of urban-rural integration will be basically achieved.

Reasonable urbanization will not break through the red line of cultivated land protection, but will also be conducive to the protection of cultivated land. The economic density of cities in China is only 1/10 of that of Japan, and the waste of land is serious. The scale of non-agricultural land in rural areas is also very large, so reasonable planning of urban land is actually conducive to the protection of cultivated land. For example, the construction land in rural areas is about 180000 square kilometers, and it is not difficult for rural areas to reclaim 100 million mu of land if the agricultural population is gradually transferred to the cities. The state has taken measures such as "linking the increase and decrease of urban and rural construction land" to solve this problem, which should be said to be successful. However, because there are still some policy defects, it is not optimistic to complete the task of protecting cultivated land. One policy that can be considered is to establish an agricultural protected area system to replace the current basic farmland protection system in order to strengthen the protection of agricultural land. The central government can ask local governments to expand the autonomy of land use on the premise of establishing agricultural protected areas. On the other hand, local governments should further clarify land property rights and ensure the legalization and democratization of land use planning.

II. The quality of urbanization needs to be improved

The quality of urbanization in China really needs to be improved. At present, the issues that need to be paid attention to are:

First, the degree of saving and intensification of urban development in the occupation of land is low. The economic density of urban built-up areas in China is significantly lower than that of most developed countries. Compared with the rapid urbanization period of Japan, for every 1% increase of GDP in China, the land occupied by China is about 8 times that of Japan. At present, the economic density of urban built-up areas is about 1/10 of that of Japan.

Second, the problem of economic structure is prominent. In the total GDP, the proportion of agriculture in China is less than 10%, but the proportion of the rural population is nearly 50%. With the addition of all the people involved in agriculture (families with agriculture and part-time employment), the proportion should be about 65%. There are many problems in the regional economic structure, the price of land factors has a large gap between regions, and the population density of the eastern cities is lower than that of the west, indicating that the price of land factors has little impact on the economic layout, and 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 grow. From the perspective of urban land use planning, the average population density of cities in China is not high, and the public sector occupies a lot of land, but the population density of residential areas is generally very high. The population density of Tiantongyuan in Beijing is estimated to be more than 100000 per square kilometer. According to the standard knowledge of social psychology and environmental psychology, this situation has a great negative impact on the physical and mental health of the people. When we declare that China is already a prosperous, strong and democratic country more than 30 years later, if the houses that most of our citizens live in are houses for the low-income poor in other countries with similar territory or population density, can we not be ashamed? If there is a reasonable urban and rural land use planning, and establish a real people-oriented idea of land planning, it is possible to protect cultivated land and improve housing. In addition, the process of urbanization in industrial developed countries is mostly the rise of the middle class. Because of abnormally high house prices and unreasonable rural land expropriation system, the process of urbanization is difficult to accompany the rise of the middle class. It even makes people worry that the opposite process will happen.

Fourth, the level of human landscape in urban and rural areas is not high. "Beautiful China" is a China with a beautiful environment and harmonious unity between man and nature, including the beauty of the natural environment and the harmony and splendor of the humanistic landscape. Cities are cultural landscapes, while rural areas are mainly natural landscapes. Building a good urban landscape will reduce the pressure on the population in rural areas, help protect the environment, and realize a "beautiful China" in urban and rural areas.Therefore, the goal of urbanization and the construction of a beautiful China can be unified. However, this is only a possibility, and whether the goal can be achieved or not depends on whether the system and policies can provide support. There are large-scale illegal structures in China, which can hardly be seen in Europe and the United States. Illegal buildings have seriously damaged the urban landscape of China, and even in some very famous places in Beijing, there are still illegal buildings that cannot be demolished. There are also expanding "hollow villages", the national average is now estimated at about 30%, that is to say, there are many courtyards and houses in a village with locks, and basically no one lives there all the year round. Another important feature of China's urban and rural landscape is the "fence society". Some of the walls on Chang'an Street in Beijing have been gradually dismantled, but the walls in Beijing are still common and even increasing. There are very few walls in Europe and the United States. in London, in addition to the old castle, the scale of the wall at Buckingham Palace is also very small, so small that when the guard of honor goes to the outside of the fence, there is no wall in the prime minister's office. The purpose of encircling this place and not allowing people outside the community to use it is to monopolize the Commons and reduce the efficiency of the use of Commons.

Fifth, the urban management system is rigid, especially the population registration policy is inexplicable. Many cities already live steadily with a considerable proportion of non-registered population, and the city government is reluctant to give them household registration because of population expansion. In fact, no matter whether the government gives them household registration or not, they already live in cities and will not increase the financial pressure on local governments as a result of changes in household registration. What does household registration have to do with population expansion? Because of the one-child policy, more and more farmers are reluctant to settle in cities.