"changing town to city" needs to speed up the reform of supporting system.

Recently, 11 ministries and commissions, including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Ministry of Housing and Construction, jointly issued a comprehensive pilot notice on national new urbanization, requiring provinces to select cities and towns at different levels that meet the requirements as pilots to report to the National Development and Reform Commission, especially for established towns with a population of more than 100,000, to carry out pilot projects on new city-setting models, which will also become the focus of promoting new urbanization in the near and medium term.

Compared with the previous habit of abolishing several larger towns and towns into districts, this proposal to set up a pilot city with a population of more than 100,000 is not only a change in name, but also a change in thinking, reflecting the "new" meaning of urbanization construction. The establishment of cities in those towns with urbanized population, fiscal revenue, industrial scale and urban style is not only conducive to avoiding potential "hollowing" crisis and realizing sustainable development, but also provides sufficient space for the healthy transformation of large and medium-sized cities, and provides the most realistic path for eliminating the differences between urban and rural areas.

However, the establishment of a "town-level city" is by no means a simple change from mayor to mayor and peasants to citizens, because after the establishment of a city, the standards of the land system, household registration system, fiscal and taxation system, public service system, and institutional system will naturally change from the standards of a "town" to the standards of a "city." If only the name is changed without changing the "medicine", the further development of the "town-level city" will still be bound by the town-level administrative system, it will still be "more responsibilities,""less power,""weak functions", citizen services will still be difficult to meet on the spot, grass-roots contradictions will still be difficult to resolve on the spot, and the radiation driving effect of the "town-level city" will still be limited.

The establishment of "town-level cities" has played a positive role in the process of urbanization in China. First, the establishment of "town-level cities" is conducive to the formation of urban agglomerations with complementary functions, which can effectively relieve the pressure of large and medium-sized cities and gradually emerge from the "big city disease"; second, the establishment of "town-level cities" will optimize and upgrade the investment environment of towns and towns unprecedented, which can promote the more balanced development of China's economy; Third, the establishment of "town-level cities" allows people to complete the citizenization of living standards and lifestyles nearby, which is conducive to solving housing, social security and other problems in the process of urbanization.

Of course, if a "town-level city" really wants to become a city, it also means a series of institutional changes in household registration management, administrative justice, land elements, fiscal and taxation distribution, project approval, investment scale, urban construction, etc. The power, financial power and human rights of a "town-level city" will correspond to the needs of urban public services and effective management. In the past, before the "town-level city" was justified, all localities basically adopted "strengthening towns to expand power" or "strengthening towns to upgrade"; now, the "town to city" pilot will inevitably lead to the reorganization of the distribution pattern of power among different levels of government.

"Town-level city" is in line with the trend of action, may become a breakthrough in the construction of new urbanization, but we must make "town-level city" worthy of the name. It is hoped that under the guarantee of the supporting system, this round of "town to city" can truly endow cities and towns with more authority for urban construction and management on the basis of "flattening", and also endow them with greater responsibilities, effectively improve government service functions and administrative efficiency, and make citizens live happier.