Chi Fulin: Narrowing the urban-rural gap through comprehensive deepening of reforms
2024-08-20
The integrated development of urban and rural areas is an inevitable requirement of Chinese path to modernization. The Third Plenum of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to "improve the system and mechanism for integrated urban-rural development" and "promote equal exchange and two-way flow of urban-rural factors, narrow the urban-rural gap, and promote common prosperity and development between urban and rural areas". Overall, the urban-rural gap remains an important factor leading to regional and wealth disparities. From a national perspective, one of the important reasons for regional disparities is the urban-rural gap. Entering a new stage of development, we must continue to make narrowing the urban-rural gap the primary task of solidly promoting common prosperity. To narrow the urban-rural gap and solidly promote common prosperity, China is a developing and transforming country, with a large proportion of rural population. Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, with the continuous deepening of China's industrialization process, the urban-rural gap has gradually narrowed. To solidly promote common prosperity in the comprehensive deepening of reform, we still need to take the continuous narrowing of the urban-rural gap as a major task. The "China Development Report 2023" released by the Development Research Center of the State Council at the beginning of the year shows that China's income distribution relationship has improved, and the growth of residents' income is basically synchronized with economic growth. The income gap between urban and rural areas and regions has narrowed, and the income of key groups such as poverty-stricken populations and migrant workers has steadily increased. Overall, from 2012 to 2022, the relative income gap between urban and rural residents in China has continued to narrow. However, it should be noted that in 2022, the Gini coefficient of disposable income for Chinese residents will be 0.467, still ranking among countries with significant income disparities. In 2023, the per capita disposable income of the lowest 20% of residents in China will only be 23.5% of the national per capita disposable income, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points from 2013; The difference in disposable income between the two amounts to 30000 yuan. The important factor leading to a large income gap among residents is the urban-rural income gap. Studies have shown that the contribution rate of the income gap between urban and rural residents to the overall income gap is 40% -60%. In 2023, the ratio of per capita disposable income in the eastern and western regions will be 1.6:1, but the ratio of disposable income for urban and rural residents nationwide will be 2.39:1; If factors such as education, healthcare, and elderly care are taken into account, the urban-rural gap may be even greater. In addition, the urban-rural gap is also a major factor leading to income disparities among different groups. Due to the incomplete breakdown of the dual urban-rural system in China, there are significant differences in the income levels and structures of urban and rural residents. Taking property income as an example, the gap in property income between urban and rural residents will reach 10:1 in 2023. We should focus on narrowing the urban-rural gap to promote common prosperity. From the practice in Zhejiang, the significant narrowing of the urban-rural income gap has become a prominent highlight in promoting common prosperity. In 2023, the per capita disposable income ratio of urban and rural residents in Zhejiang will be 1.86:1, which is much lower than the average income gap between urban and rural residents in China (2.39:1); Compared to the gap of 2.43:1 in 2004, it has decreased by 24%. Improving the income level of low-income groups in rural areas has become a top priority in narrowing the urban-rural gap. For example, in 2023, 80% of rural residents in China will have disposable income lower than the national average. To this end, it is necessary to formulate and implement a number of major measures to narrow the urban-rural gap as soon as possible, in order to achieve the basic goals of "significantly narrowing the income gap by 2035" and "achieving more significant substantive progress in common prosperity for all people". The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee pointed out that "ensuring and improving people's livelihood in development is a major task of Chinese path to modernization". To narrow the urban-rural gap, the top priority is to promote the equalization of basic public services between urban and rural areas by implementing the system of providing basic public services through registered household registration in the permanent residence. The breakthrough lies in fully realizing the urbanization of migrant workers and significantly reducing the actual income gap between urban and rural areas. Accelerate the urbanization of agricultural migrant population. The huge number of migrant workers has become an important factor affecting the income gap between urban and rural areas. Since 2013, the difference between the urbanization rate of China's permanent population and the urbanization rate of registered residence population has always been about 18 percentage points. That is to say, nearly 300 million migrant workers and their families have not yet effectively integrated into urban areas. Due to the difficulty in fully enjoying urban public services, increasing precautionary savings has become a helpless choice for many migrant workers. For example, the savings rate of urban residents is around 30%, while the savings rate of migrant workers is as high as around 70%. The lagging process of urbanization of migrant workers is not conducive to the adjustment of China's social structure, income structure, and the release of consumption potential, and has become an important obstacle to gradually achieving common prosperity. Fully implement the residence permit system in areas where conditions permit. In 2023, the average age of migrant workers going out of China will be 38.9 years old. That is to say, the new generation of migrant workers born in 1980 and later have become the main body of migrant workers who go out, and their demand for settling in cities is becoming increasingly strong. According to the requirements of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, qualified regions should implement the residence permit system directly linked to basic public services as soon as possible, thereby completely changing the urban-rural dual registered residence system, so that the large migrant workers can stay and live in cities with dignity. Improve the level of equalization of basic public services between urban and rural areas. From the reality, due to the low level of social security expenditure, its role in narrowing the income gap is very limited. For example, studies have shown that China's income redistribution policy has only resulted in a decrease of about 10% in the Gini coefficient, which is significantly lower than the level of 20% -40% in most European countries. The imbalance in the structure of social security expenditures between urban and rural areas has widened the income gap between urban and rural areas. Taking 2020 as an example, the monthly amount received by urban employees for basic pension insurance is more than 16 times that of urban and rural residents for basic pension insurance, and the absolute difference between the two has increased by 42% compared to 2015. Making land the wealth of the vast number of farmers is a major task for comprehensively deepening rural reform. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed the construction of a unified urban-rural construction land market. From a practical perspective, due to the lack of a market-oriented allocation mechanism for rural land factors, the unified land trading market between urban and rural areas faces various institutional obstacles, which has become an important constraint for revitalizing rural land resources and increasing farmers' property income. Fully implement the property rights of farmers' land. Land is the most basic means of production in agriculture, the most reliable guarantee for farmers, and the greatest wealth in rural areas. Fully implementing the property rights of farmers' land will significantly increase the income of rural residents and accelerate the process of agricultural scale and modernization. Studies have shown that rural land transfer will increase the disposable income of rural residents by 34%, and will reduce the ratio of disposable income between urban and rural residents from 2.38:1 to 1.77:1. At present, the property rights and usufructuary rights of farmers' land have not been effectively protected, and the reform of rural land property rights still faces a series of contradictions and challenges. For example, how to promote a unified construction land market between urban and rural areas? How to solve the contradictions and problems between new urbanization and homesteads? How to strengthen the property rights of farmers' land? Therefore, it is suggested to further clarify the land use rights of farmers from a legal perspective, expand the scope of use rights, and provide more stable expectations for business entities. Further resolving the relationship between farmers and land is not only an objective need to promote agricultural modernization, but also a major task to narrow the urban-rural gap and promote common prosperity. Under the premise of "two stricts" (strict regulation of rural land use and planning restrictions), fully leverage the decisive role of the market in the allocation of rural land resources to enhance the use value of rural land. Among them, the focus is on changing the relevant regulations that restrict the transfer of rural land contract rights to collective members only, while strictly protecting farmers' land use rights, attracting social capital into rural agriculture to significantly enhance the value of rural land use. In addition, it is necessary to break the market segmentation of urban and rural construction land, form an equal institutional arrangement of "same land, same rights, and same price" for two types of land ownership, and establish a unified urban and rural land market. Legally granting farmers the complete right to use their homestead land. According to research, if market-oriented transfer is carried out, the total market value of annual transfer of homestead land is about 4.4 trillion yuan. We need to further improve the statistics and registration of farmers' homesteads, separate the ownership and use rights of homesteads, legally grant farmers the property rights of usufructuary rights to the use rights of homesteads, and give them complete rights to possess, use, benefit from, transfer, mortgage, and inherit them. We need to relax the restrictions on the transfer of farmers' housing and quickly change the semi commodification situation where the transfer is limited to villagers within the village. (New Society)
Edit：Xiong Dafei Responsible editor：Li Xiang
Source：China.org.cn
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