Reconsidering the Controversial Land Use Policy of “Linking the Decrease in Rural Construction Land with the Increase in Urban Construction Land”: A Local Government Perspective

The recent land use policy of “Linking the Decrease in Rural Construction Land with the Increase in Urban Construction Land” is an attempt of the government to address the tensions between protecting arable land and providing land for construction by means of more intensive use of land. Nevertheless, the implementation of the policy has triggered much controversy, in particular about predominant dependence upon rural residential land use consolidation and the pursuit of rural-urban construction land quota transfer. Although local governments often take the blame for these issues, the case study of the comprehensive land consolidation project in Guli reveals the type of dilemma with which they are confronted. It is shown that the potential for land consolidation is limited, whereby local governments have to turn to rural residential land consolidation to achieve the targets set by the central government for land consolidation. Furthermore, the displacement and resettlement of rural dwellers puts tremendous financial pressure upon the local government, and it would be impossible to implement the central government mandate to build a new socialist countryside without selling land at a higher price. This article discusses the possibilities for a market-led land consolidation process and concludes that the targets of land consolidation and the implementation of the linking policy should vary from region to region to match local levels of economic development and specificities of the rural economy.