How can farmers keep the right to go to the city?

One of the greatest constraints on China's economic development in the future is the land system, which is already full of contradictions. In the future, there must be more strategic and comprehensive reforms in order to adapt to the new development of China's economy. For example, while implementing the policy of "farmers entering the city without returning land", we will gradually take the unconditional extension of urban real estate land use rights as a breakthrough to realize the de facto land ownership of urban residents.

recently, jiang daming, minister of land and natural resources, published an article in the people's daily, proposing that the peasants should be given the right to choose whether to enter the city or not, and that the peasants should choose for themselves, not for them.

From countless rural youth to "get rid of the skin of farmers" as the greatest ideal of life, to refuse to be "into the city" as a right to be defended, behind the huge contrast is the great changes in China's social economy. The more critical factor is that with the development of social economy, especially the acceleration of urbanization process, the value of land is increasingly prominent, becoming a huge "cake" coveted by all parties, and also becoming the property and rights that farmers must fight to defend. Therefore, the essence of respecting the peasants 'right to choose whether or not to enter the city is to respect the peasants' ownership of land.

For decades, China has practiced a dualistic land system in which urban land is state-owned and rural land is collectively owned by villagers. However, under the strict urban-rural segregation system in the past, the land owned by villagers as part of their property rights was not so much the property of farmers as the shackles that bound them forcibly to the land. Therefore, withdrawing from the villagers 'collective and giving up the ownership of collective land in exchange for the qualification to enter the city to "eat commodity grain" is a liberation for the peasants to break the shackles. It is not enough to embrace and cheer, let alone force them.

However, with the development of China's economy and the change of social structure, a large number of peasants consciously and freely leave the land and work in cities. The land left in the countryside is no longer a shackle to them, but a property that constantly appreciates. At this point, if farmers must give up this "potential stock" in order to obtain the right to become citizens, it is indeed a difficult choice for farmers. On the other hand, if urban household registration is not linked to land issues, farmers can still enjoy the corresponding rights to the original land even if they are transferred to urban household registration, then farmers not only do not need to make difficult choices, but will become special citizens who have the same public welfare and services as other citizens and also own a piece of land in the countryside.

Therefore, what the Ministry of Land and Resources calls "whether to enter the city or not, whether to retreat, and whether to give the right of choice to the peasants, and whether the peasants choose instead of the peasants" actually has different interpretations, among which the most favorable choice for the peasants is "entering the city but not retreating." But if this were true, then "giving the farmer the right to choose" would be an unnecessary promise, since no farmer could refuse such a good offer and there would be no possibility of forcing him to choose. Another possibility would be to give the peasants the choice between "if they enter the city, they must retreat" and "if they do not retreat, they cannot enter the city (settle down)." However, it is doubtful how much such "freedom of choice" actually means.

China's land system has complex causes, and the problems left to today are equally complex. If the policy of "returning land to cities" is pushed forward, it is equivalent to forcibly exchanging urban household registration belonging to civil rights for farmers 'actual property, that is, unfair to farmers, and it is difficult to explain legally. If the policy of "entering the city but not returning land" beneficial to farmers is implemented, there will be "old citizens" who have no inch of land and "new citizens" who have both urban household registration and rural land among future urban residents. Although such a policy is reasonable to compensate farmers for their past sacrifices, the new "dual structure" between new and old citizens may also bring new injustices and hidden dangers.

So far, the adjustment of land policy has been limited to the partial adjustment of response, and only limited to the rural land policy part. In fact, one of the greatest constraints on China's economic development in the future is the land system, which is already full of contradictions. In the future, there must be more strategic and comprehensive reforms in order to adapt to the new development of China's economy. For example, while implementing the policy of "farmers entering the city without returning land", we will gradually take the unconditional extension of urban real estate land use rights as a breakthrough to realize the de facto land ownership of urban residents. At the same time, gradually open rural homestead transactions to urban residents, so that more "old citizens" own land in rural areas like "new citizens". In this way, we can not only break the new "dual structure", but also realize the two-way flow of wealth, personnel, materials and culture between urban and rural areas, truly break down the barriers between urban and rural areas and promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas.