Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:19:07.745Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Redevelopment of China's Construction Land: Practising Land Property Rights in Cities through Renewals*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2015

George C.S. Lin*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Hong Kong. Email: gcslin@hku.hk.

Abstract

Existing literature on China's urbanization focuses primarily on the expansion of cities and towns, with little attention being paid to urban renewals. The wasteful use of urban land has conventionally been attributed to the ambiguous definition and ineffective protection of property rights. This study examines recent practices in urban redevelopment in Guangzhou – a site chosen by the central authorities to pilot urban renewals (sanjiu gaizao). The research identifies a local practice in which institutional changes are made not in the delineation of land property rights but instead in the redistribution of the benefits to be made from land redevelopment. Current users of the land are offered a share of the land conveyance income previously monopolized by the state as an incentive to encourage them to engage in urban renewal. Land-use intensity and efficiency have increased, along with social exclusion and marginalization. Research findings cast doubt over the perceived notion that the uniform and unambiguous definition of property rights is the prerequisite for improved land-use efficiency and call for a critical evaluation of the current urban renewal policies that completely ignore the interests of the migrant population who outnumber local residents by a large margin.

摘要

中国城市化的现有文献主要关注城市规模的扩张而较少涉猎城市内部的旧城改造。城市土地的低效利用通常被归因于土地产权的不明确。本研究基于中央政府最近在广州所试行的 “三旧改造”, 探讨城市内部的旧区重建。研究揭示广州土地制度改革着力于利益之分配而非产权的重新划分。土地出让收入由原来国家垄断改为与原土地使用者分享以激发其参与旧城改造的积极性。 “三旧改造” 虽然提高了土地利用的密度和效率, 但是也加剧了对低层市民和外来人口的排斥和边缘化。研究结果质疑土地产权明晰定义是否为用地效率提高的必备先决条件, 并呼吁反思现行旧城改造中无视为数众多的外来人口之生存空间的不公政策。

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ash, Robert F., and Edmonds, Richard Louis. 1998. “China's land resources, environment and agricultural production.” The China Quarterly 156, 836879.Google Scholar
Brown, Lester. 1995. Who Will Feed China? Wake-up Call for a Small Planet. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Chan, Kam Wing. 2012. “Crossing the 50 percent population rubicon: can China urbanize to prosperity?Eurasian Geography and Economics 53(1), 6386.Google Scholar
China. 1998. Zhonghua renmin gongheguo tudi guanlifa (Land Management Law of the People's Republic of China). Originally adopted 25 June 1986, revised 29 December 1988 and further revised 29 August 1998. Beijing: Official document.Google Scholar
CMLR (China Ministry of Land and Resources). 1996–2008. “Zhongguo tudi biangeng diaocha nianmo mianjibiao 1996–2006” (Tabulation of China's surveyed year-end area of land-use change 1996–2006). Beijing: Unpublished dataset in digital form.Google Scholar
CMLR. 2002. “Zhaobiao paimai guapai churang guoyou tudi shiyongquan guiding” (Regulation on the conveyance of the rights to use state-owned land through public tender, auction, and listing). Document No. 11. Enacted 3 April 2002 and taking effect 1 July 2002. Beijing: Official document.Google Scholar
CMLR. 2007. “Zhaobiao paimai guapai churang guoyou jianshe yongdi shiyongquan guiding” (Regulation on the conveyance of the rights to use state-owned construction land through public tender, auction and listing). Document No. 39. Enacted 3 April 2002 and revised 21 September 2007. Beijing: Official document.Google Scholar
CMLR. 2014a. “Guanyu qianghua guankong luoshi zuiyange gengdi baohu zhidu de tongzhi” (Circular to enforce the regulation and implementation of the most stringent farmland protection regime). Document No. 18, 13 February. Beijing: Official document.Google Scholar
CMLR. 2014b. “Jieyue jiyue liyong tudi guiding” (Regulation to use land economically and intensively). Document No. 61. Enacted 22 May 2014 and effective 1 September 2014. Beijing: Official document.Google Scholar
FPIT (Farmland Protection Investigation Team). 1997. “Woguo gengdi baohu mianlin de yanjun xingshi he zhengce xing jianyi” (Protection of our cultivated land faces grim circumstances: some policy recommendations). Zhongguo tudi kexue 11(1), 211.Google Scholar
GCOTR (Guangzhou City Office for Three Renewals). 2010. “Guangzhou shi sanjiu gaizao guihua (2010–2020 nian) shuomingshu” (Planning document for three renewals in Guangzhou city (2010–2020)). Guangzhou: Official document.Google Scholar
GCOTR. 2012. “Guanyu sanjiu gaizao yu zhengfu tudi shouyi” (A report concerning three renewals and government income from land redevelopment). Guangzhou: Internal document.Google Scholar
Guangdong Province. 2003. “Guanyu shixing nongcun jiti jianshe yongdi shiyong quan liuzhuan de tongzhi” (Notice on provisional circulation of the rights to use rural collectively owned construction land), 24 June. Guangzhou: Official document.Google Scholar
Guangdong Province. 2009. “Guanyu tuijin sanjiu gaizao cujin jieyue jiyue yongdi de ruogan yijian yuefu [2009] 78 haowen” (Guidelines to facilitate “three renewals” for efficient and intensive land use). Document No. 78, 25 August. Guangzhou: Official document.Google Scholar
Guangdong Province. 2011. “Guangdong sheng tudi guanli shishi banfa” (Guidelines for the implementation of land management in Guangdong province). Guangzhou: Official document.Google Scholar
Guangdong Province. 2013. “Guangdong sheng nongcun zhaijidi guanli banfa” (Guidelines for the management of rural housing sites in Guangdong province). Guangzhou: Official document.Google Scholar
Guangzhou Municipal Government. 2002. “Zhonggong Guangzhou shiwei bangongting Guangzhou shi renmin zhengfu bangongting guanyu chengzhongcun gaizhi gongzuo de ruogan yijian” (The municipal committee of the Communist Party of China and municipal government of Guangzhou guidelines concerning the transformation of villages in the city). Document No. 17. Guangzhou: Official document.Google Scholar
Guangzhou Municipal Government. 2009. “Guanyu jiakuai tuijin sanjiu gaizao gongzuo de yijian-suifu [2009] 56 haowen” (Guidelines to facilitate the work of “three renewals”). Document No. 56, 31 December. Guangzhou: Official document.Google Scholar
Guangzhou Municipal Government. 2012. “Guangzhou shi nongcun cunmin zhuzhai guihua jianshe gongzuo zhiyin (shixing)” (Provisional guidelines for the planning and construction of rural housing in Guangzhou municipality). Guangzhou: Official document.Google Scholar
Heilig, Gerhard K. 1997. “Anthropogenic factors in land-use change in China.” Population and Development Review 23(1), 139168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, Peter. 2001. “Who owns China's land? Property rights and deliberate institutional ambiguity.” The China Quarterly 166, 394421.Google Scholar
Ho, Samuel P.S., and Lin, George C.S.. 2003. “Emerging land markets in rural and urban China: policies and practices.” The China Quarterly 175, 681707.Google Scholar
Hsing, You-tien. 2006. “Land and territorial politics in urban China.” The China Quarterly 187, 575591.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsing, You-tien. 2010. The Great Urban Transformation: Politics of Land and Property in China. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Huang, Youqin. 2012. “Low-income housing in Chinese cities: policies and practices.” The China Quarterly 212, 941964.Google Scholar
Kuang, Xianwen, and Göbel, Christian. 2013. “Sustaining collective action in urbanizing China.” The China Quarterly 216, 850871.Google Scholar
Li, Lianjiang, and O'Brien, Kevin. 2008. “Protest leadership in rural China.” The China Quarterly 193, 123.Google Scholar
Lin, George C.S. 2009. Developing China: Land, Politics and Social Conditions. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lin, George C.S., and Ho, Samuel P.S.. 2003. “China's land resources and land-use change: insights from the 1996 land survey.” Land Use Policy 20(2), 87107.Google Scholar
Lin, George C.S., and Ho, Samuel P.S.. 2005. “The state, land system, and land development processes in contemporary China.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95(2), 411436.Google Scholar
Ma, Laurence J.C., and Xiang, Biao. 1998. “Native place, migration and the emergence of peasant enclaves in Beijing.” The China Quarterly 155, 546581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGee, Terry G., Lin, George C.S., Wang, Mark, Martin, Andrew and Wu, Jiaping. 2007. China's Urban Space: Development under Market Socialism. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Michelson, Ethan. 2008. “Justice from above or below? Popular strategies for resolving grievances in rural China.” The China Quarterly 193, 4364.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 2006. Rightful Resistance in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
PRC (People's Republic of China). 2007. Real Property Law of the People's Republic of China. Enacted 16 March 2007 and effective 1 October 2007. Beijing: Official document.Google Scholar
Rithmire, Meg. 2013. “Land politics and local state capacities: the political economy of urban change in China.” The China Quarterly 216, 872895.Google Scholar
Smil, Vaclav. 1999. “China's agricultural land.” The China Quarterly 158, 414429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy. 2003. “State and society in urban China in the wake of the 16th Party congress.” The China Quarterly 176, 943959.Google Scholar
Song, Yan, Zenou, Yves and Ding, Chengri. 2008. “Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water: the role of urban villages in housing rural migrants in China.” Urban Studies 45(2), 313330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tian, Li. 2008. “The Chengzhongcun land market in China: boon or bane? – A perspective on property rights.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32(2), 282304.Google Scholar
Tianhe District Government. 2006. “Lie De cun jiucun gaizao cunmin fangwu chaiqian buchang anzhi fang'an (chubu fang'an)” (A provisional plan for demolition, compensation, and resettlement for the villagers and housing affected by the redevelopment of the Lie De village). Guangzhou: Internal document.Google Scholar
Wu, Fulong, Xu, Jiang and Yeh, Anthony Gar-On. 2007. Urban Development in Post-reform China: State, Market, and Space. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wu, Weiping, and Gaubatz, Piper. 2012. The New Chinese City. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Xu, Jiang, Yeh, Anthony and Wu, Fulong. 2009. “Land commodification: new land development and politics in China since the late 1990s.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 33(4), 890913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, L., Zhao, Simon X.B. and Tian, J.P.. 2003. “Self-help in housing and chengzhongcun in China's urbanization.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27(4), 912937.Google Scholar