Abstract
With the continuous urbanization, China is facing a dilemma of achieving two conflicting targets in land governance, i.e., the continuous supply of urban construction land to support urbanization and the preservation of cultivated land for food security. Under China’s dual land system, the implementation of the “Linkage between Urban-land Taking and Rural-land Giving” (Linkage) policy is of great significance in promoting more inclusive urbanization by commodifying the land development right and connecting urban and rural land markets. In the specific land property right system and changing land governance of China, this policy appears to provide an opportunity for stakeholders other than the state to compete for the value from the transfer of development rights (TDR) and triggers the emergence of diversified approaches in organizing land projects in rural China. Based on the theoretical perspective of New Institutional Economics and empirical evidence from Zhejiang Province, Hubei Province, and Sichuan Province, this paper conducts a comparative institutional analysis for China’s TDR practice and argues that the diversified operational approaches in China’s practice have aligned various interests of the stakeholders through flexible participation methods and elaborate reallocation of land property rights, in order to fit various institutional environments and material conditions
Highlights
The urbanization in China has attracted worldwide attention for its large population and high speed
Since the Linkage in China can be structuralized as a transfer of development rights (TDR), these programs definitely involve the reallocation of land revenue among the government, farmers, and developers
It is China’s land property rights system and the ambiguous land development right (LDR) of rural land that trigger the existence of two ideas to transfer LDR, as well as three models to carry out the TDR projects (Figure 5)
Summary
The urbanization in China has attracted worldwide attention for its large population and high speed. In the past decade, more inclusive urbanization has more and more been suggested and emphasized in China’s strategies, plans, and policies, the institutional design and practice of which can be referential to other developing countries. To feed a growing population, China’s government put forward the “Red Line” of 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of cultivated land in 2006. To make full use of the existing construction land, a series of government-invested projects for land consolidation, reclamation, and development has appeared to offset the reduction of Sustainability 2021, 13, 13402. Sustainability 2021, 13, 13402 government-invested projects for land consolidation, reclamation, and development has appeared to offset the reduction of cultivated land, among which “the Linkage between. Giving” (abbreviated as the Linkage) policy plays a significant role [2,3]
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