Land Commissioner Cai Jiming: Land System Reform Poised for Further Deepening(AI Translation)

【周刊提前读】“土地委员”蔡继明：土地制度改革待深化

The next phase of land management system reform is set to commence. On February 19, the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform held its fourth meeting and approved the "Opinions on Reforming the Land Management System to Enhance the Capacity to Support High-Quality Development in Advantageous Regions." Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), emphasized during the meeting that it is necessary to establish and improve a land management system that more efficiently aligns with macro policies and regional development. The aim is to enhance the precision and efficiency of land resource allocation, promote a coordinated and orderly spatial development pattern with effective functional constraints, and strengthen the capacity of land resources to support high-quality development in advantageous regions.

The meeting emphasized the importance of coordinating regional economic layouts and the utilization of national land space. It stressed on tailoring land management policies according to local functional positioning and resource endowments, enhancing the level of resource development and utilization, and better leveraging the exemplary and leading role of advantageous regions. It was highlighted that strict implementation of national land space control boundaries is essential, including steadfastly protecting arable land and permanent basic farmland, ecological protection red lines, and urban development boundaries—three critical control lines. Strengthening supervision during and after activities was also underlined. For some exploratory yet urgent reform measures, in-depth research and cautious advancement were called for.

Cai Jiming, a member of the Financial and Economic Committee of the 14th National People's Congress and director of the Center for Political Economy at Tsinghua University, noted that the recent meeting of the Central Comprehensive Deepening Reform Commission specifically mentioned that this year marks another significant year for comprehensively deepening reforms. The main task is to plan for further comprehensive deepening reforms. This not only continues the practice of comprehensive deepening reforms since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China but also opens a new chapter in advancing Chinese-style modernization in this new era. "The last two sentences highlight the importance of advancing land management system reform in this context."