Land Reform in Chongqing

[Randy W]

An interesting interview (well, if you ARE interested) in Caixin with the mayor of Chongqing, concerning hukous and transfer of ownership of land (that is, selling usage rights, what is usually referred to as a "70-year lease" - Caixin is a Beijing-based media company).

 

 

Chongqing Mayor Says Rural Land Reform Pilot Has Been Just the Ticket

Southwestern city has experimented with letting farmers sell usage rights to their property, a move one leader says is aiding urbanization

The southwestern city of Chongqing has taken a big step toward reforming its system of household registration, known as hukou, by granting urbanites and people living in rural areas the same access to social welfare and public services, the government announced in early September.

 

The city also promised it would make it easier for farmers to settle in urban area, abolishing some rules that have been blamed for hindering free movement across regions.

 

. . .

 

But in China, while a large number of farmers have moved into cities in recent decades, their rural land remained idle and could not be transferred to someone else. This is unreasonable and the problem needed to be solved. It was a big task for Chongqing and also for the whole country.

 

China uses about 500,000 hectares of rural land for construction every year. This land is expropriated by local governments after winning approval from the Ministry of Land and Resources. Alternatively, if we can give farmers who have left rural areas a "land ticket" for their property that can be auctioned in land exchanges and urban developers can only get the land by buying the ticket, a market-oriented system will be established. Based on these ideas, we invented the land tickets.

 

In practice, what are the major sources of land for the land tickets?

 

There are three situations. First, farmers who migrated to cities who agreed to give up their land. Under current regulations, the plots owned by farmers cannot be sold on the market. Instead, they can only sell or rent the properties among the rural collective organizations in which they belong. In most cases, farmers found they earn very little from their land. But with a land ticket, they can trade the land in the market for a better price.

 

Second, many rural, collectively owned companies have gone out of business. The idle land from these companies and plants can also be sold through land tickets. These assets belong to rural governments or collectives, so the money goes to rural collective and all farmers can also benefit.

 

Third, renovation of old rural houses will create some spare land. This land can be issued a land ticket and generate income for farmers who sell it.