Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Land Use Policy

journa l homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol

Accelerated restructuring in rural China fueled by ‘increasing vs. decreasing

balance’ land-use policy for dealing with hollowed villages

a,b,∗ a,c a,b d a,c

Hualou Long , Yurui Li , Yansui Liu , Michael Woods , Jian Zou

Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China

Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences (IGES) and Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD), Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23

3DB, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Rapid industrialization and urbanization in China has produced a unique phenomenon of ‘village-

Received 1 March 2011

hollowing’, shaped by the dual-track structure of socio-economic development. This paper analyzes the

Received in revised form 26 April 2011

phenomenon of ‘village-hollowing’, identifying the processes and inﬂuences that have driven their evolu-

Accepted 27 April 2011

tion, and highlighting the challenge that the locking-up of unused rural housing land in ‘hollowed villages’

presents for China in the context of concerns over urban development and food security. The paper exam-

Keywords:

ines the ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy has been adopted by the Chinese government

Rural restructuring

in response to the problem, which seeks to balance increases in urban construction land with a reduction

Rural–urban development

in rural construction land. The implementation of the scheme is discussed through a case study of Huantai

Hollowed village

county in Shandong province, drawing attention to its contested and contingent nature. It is argued that

Rural protest

Farmland protection the policy is a top-down approach to rural restructuring that necessarily requires the acquiescence of

Food security local actors. However, it is noted that failures to adequate engage with local actors has led to resistance to

China the policy, including violent protests against the demolition of housing. The paper suggests that lessons

might be learned from Europe by incorporating elements of ‘bottom-up’ planning into the process. As

such, the paper demonstrates that rural restructuring in China is a dynamic, multi-scalar and hybrid pro-

cess that shares common elements and experiences with rural restructuring in Europe and elsewhere,

but which is also strongly shaped by the distinctive political, economic, social and cultural context of China.

Introduction 2008); the growth of urban sprawl and the loss of agricultural land

in peri-urban districts (Lin, 2006; Liu et al., 2010b; Wang and Scott,

Rural China has experienced a rapid and far-reaching transition 2008; Wei and Zhao, 2009; Yu and Ng, 2007); and rural industrial-

in the past three decades since Deng Xiaoping launched economic ization, especially in districts close to cities with highly liberalized

reforms in 1978. The traditional centrally planned economy has economies (Peng, 2007).

been transformed into a market based economy, with accom- As China evolves into a majority urban country, these pro-

panying processes of industrialization and urbanization. These cesses present a number of challenges to the continuing rural

processes have impacted on the social, economic and environ- population, who have been confronted with signiﬁcant changes

mental landscape of both urban and rural China, with key trends in demographic structures, employment opportunities, commu-

including mass migration from rural to urban areas and the devel- nity organization, lifestyles and standards of living, accessibility

opment of ‘villages-in-the-city’ (chengzhongcun) of rural migrant and rural culture (Goodman, 2008; Long et al., 2010; Mukherjee

workers (Chan, 2010; Chung, 2010; Liang et al., 2002; Song et al., and Zhang, 2007; Tilt, 2008; Unger, 2002; Xu and Tan, 2002; Zhang

et al., 2001). Whilst rural income levels have improved in many

regions, especially those close to large urban centres, urban–rural

inequalities in income and uncoordinated urban–rural develop-

∗

Corresponding author at: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural ment have increased in more developed regions (Liu, 2009; Long

Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road,

et al., 2011). Indeed, there are signiﬁcant spatial variations in

Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China. Tel.: +86 10 64888169;

the experience and impact of economic transition in China, both

fax: +86 10 64857065.

between urban and rural regions, and within rural regions (Li and

E-mail address: [email protected] (H. Long).

12 H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22

Wei, 2010; Liu, 2009; Wan et al., 2007; Wang and Li, 2008; Wei, Hollowed villages and land-use policy

2007).

Yet, rural restructuring in China continues to be strongly shaped China has experienced drastic changes in land use since the ini-

by national macroeconomic development strategies that tend tiation of economic reforms in 1978, especially through the loss

to treat rural China as a singular entity. In the reform period of farmland to construction, driven primarily by urbanization and

since 1978, these strategies have particularly emphasized the industrialization (Lin and Ho, 2003; Liu et al., 2008; Long et al.,

implementation of ‘household responsibility system’, the estab- 2007; Qu et al., 1995; Xie et al., 2005; Zhong et al., 2011). Between

lishment of township and village enterprises (TVEs) (Liang et al., 1996 and 2008, total farmland in China decreased by approximately

2002; Putterman, 1997; Shen and Ma, 2005; Xu and Tan, 2002), 8.32 Mha, or about 6.4% (MLRC, 2009), whilst during the same

and social and infrastructural developments such as road con- period China’s population increased from 1224 million to 1328 mil-

struction, irrigation, electriﬁcation and investments in health and lion, with the proportion living in urban areas rising from 30.5% to

education provision – adopted in 2006 under the slogan of ‘Build- 45.7% (NBSC, 2009). As such the per capita area of farmland fell from

ing a New Countryside’ (Long et al., 2010). However, research 0.106 ha in 1996 to 0.092 ha in 2008, raising concerns about food

has revealed spatial variations in the implementation of these security (Christiansen, 2009; Lichtenberg and Ding, 2008; Yang and

policies, demonstrated the importance of local actors in medi- Li, 2000; Li and Wang, 2003; Long and Zou, 2010). With the pro-

ating change, and questioned the appropriateness of strategies duction capacity for grain and other key commodities falling with

in some districts (Hang and Iseman, 2009; Long et al., 2009b,c, the loss of farmland, in spite of the booming population, the ques-

2010). tion posed by Brown (1995) of ‘Who will feed China?’ has become

As such, rural transformation in China is a hybrid and con- increasingly critical.

tested process, that involves actors and forces operating at multiple In response, the Chinese central government has introduced

scales, and which echoes elements of rural restructuring in both strict farmland protection objectives, with the aim of maintain-

the ‘developed world’ of Europe and North America and the ‘devel- ing the total farmland area at no less than 1.8 billion mu (120

oping world’ of the global south, yet has distinctively different million ha) in the period to 2020. However, as the agricultural

characteristics. On the one hand, globalization has been identiﬁed land area had already fallen to only 1.826 billion mu (121.7 mil-

as a key driver of urbanization and industrialization in China (Ge, lion ha) by 2007, the target leaves little room for further loss of

2009; Lin, 2006; Wei, 2007; Wu and Ma, 2006), and has also had farmland, particularly as the trends of urbanization and industrial-

a direct impact on social, economic and environmental change in ization show no signs of abating. The pressure on farmland comes

rural regions (Lin, 2006; Wei, 2007) – such that parts of rural China both from urban expansion (Wang and Scott, 2008; Yu and Ng,

exhibit at least some of the features of the emergent ‘global coun- 2007), and from the changing use of land in rural communities

tryside’ (Woods, 2007). On the other hand, commentators have (Huang et al., 2011). According to the statistical data of the Ministry

also stressed the importance of endogenous factors in explain- of Land and Resources of China (MLRC), ‘Rural construction land’

ing China’s urban transformation (Chan, 2010; Friedmann, 2006; (that is, land in rural areas occupied by housing and other non-

Zhang, 2008), and the argument applies equally to rural change. agricultural buildings) in China amounted to 16.56 million ha in

Indeed, China’s rural transformation is arguably unique in scale and 2006, or just over half of all built-up land in China. Signiﬁcantly, the

speed. It is distinctive not only because of the rapidity of change, area of rural construction land has continued to expand marginally

but also because it combines changes that were experienced in in spite of a decreasing rural population, such that the volume of

rural Europe during the early-to-mid twentieth century (such as rural housing land per capita increased by 18.28% between 1996

urbanization, depopulation, industrialization and the decreasing and 2007 according to the statistical data of MLRC, and at 228 m

importance of agricultural employment) with aspects of contem- per head in 2007, which is considerably above the national stan-

porary European rural restructuring (such as the comodiﬁcation of dard of 150 m per head (MCC, 1993). In part this reﬂects a process

rural cultural and environmental resources, and integration into of housing modernization and improved living standards in rural

global networks) (see for example, Cloke et al., 1997; Gant et al., communities.

2011; Hoggart and Paniagua, 2001; Robinson, 2004; Woods, 2005, There is consequently a major tension between urban develop-

2010, 2011). As such, whilst there are lessons to be learned from ment and farmland protection, in which the position of ‘hollowed

the ‘west’ and opportunities for policy transfer in areas such as eco- villages’ is pivotal. ‘Hollowed villages’ are communities in which

nomic development, conservation and land use planning (e.g., Tan depopulation and housing modernization has led to the abandon-

et al., 2009, 2011), there is also a need for distinctively Chinese ment of a signiﬁcant number of properties, spread throughout the

policy solutions. settlement (Liu et al., 2009, 2010a; Long et al., 2009a). Although

This paper accordingly aims to contribute to the analysis and there is a physical resemblance to the abandoned farms and

critique of rural restructuring in China by focusing on the phe- cottages found in many parts of rural western Europe (Garcia

nomenon of ‘village-hollowing’, where rural communities are and Ayuga, 2007), or perhaps more closely, to the ‘dying vil-

blighted by depopulation and the abandonment of buildings and lages’ of parts of rural eastern Europe (Reichert-Schick, 2010),

land. After examining the process and effects of village-hollowing, village-hollowing in China is a unique rural settlement morphology

the paper discusses the government response in the form of a that has been shaped by the ‘dual-track’ structure of rural–urban

‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy, which involves development (Wu, 1997; Long et al., 2010), including the con-

elements of assisted accelerated restructuring such as settlement tribution of economic, socio-cultural, institutional-managerial

rationalization, illustrated through a brief case study of Huantai and environmental factors, as described below (Long et al.,

county in Shandong province. The paper further argues that whilst 2009a).

the ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy has been

driven by national and regional imperatives, its successful imple-

mentation is dependent on the enrolment of local actors and the

negotiation of intervening local factors. As such, the problem of

village-hollowing and its proposed solution illustrate that rural 1

China determined to retain 1.8-billion-mu of farmland.

restructuring in China, as elsewhere, is a dynamic, multi-scalar and

(http://www.china.org.cn/government/NPC CPPCC sessions2008/2008- hybrid process. 03/17/content 12877551.htm).

H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22 13

Village-hollowing: causal factors and driving mechanisms Environmental factors: Finally, in some cases village-hollowing

has responded to both natural and human-induced local environ-

Economic factors: Prior to 1978, the rationale of economic mental conditions. Liberalization has enabled rural residents to

planning policy in China had been to eradicate regional dispar- relocate housing to avoid risks from natural hazards such as ﬂood-

ities through an even distribution of productive materials and ing, debris ﬂow and landslides. At the same time, relocation has

activities. The centrally planned economy compelled the rural in some instances been necessitated by human-induced environ-

population to primarily work on collective farms, with output mental problems, often resulting from the unregulated activities

shared more-or-less equally between members. Rural house- of TVEs. For example, drinking water pollution and the lowering of

holds were hence tied to low incomes, making improvements water tables through over-extraction have led in some instances to

to housing conditions impossible. Economic liberalization after the abandonment of established village centres and the develop-

1978, however, including the growth of TVEs, permitted greater ment of village fringes where water supplies are clean and plentiful.

wealth accumulation by individuals. As the afﬂuence of farm- The above factors combine to drive the phenomenon of village-

ers increased they invested in new more spacious and more hollowing in rural China. The engagement of farmers in excessive

comfortable housing, often at the expense of investment in agri- house-building on village fringes whilst failing to release vacated

cultural production. Together with the effects of wider economic properties in village centres may be the core driver of the process,

restructuring, low agricultural investment meant that returns but this behaviour is conditioned by the interaction of a com-

from agricultural land decreased, such that it became attractive plex web of background inﬂuences, and facilitated by the lack

for farmland on the edge of villages to be converted to hous- of regulatory control, as Fig. 2 shows. As such, the process of

ing, replacing dwellings in village centres which in turn became village-hollowing is embedded in the wider context of economic

vacant. restructuring and rural-to-urban migration in China, and hence

Socio-cultural factors: The ‘dual-track’ policy of rural–urban is susceptible to temporal and spatial variations in these broader

development in China dictates that the millions of rural migrants trajectories. Thus, village-hollowing will evolve differentially over

to cities are not granted permanent household registration in cities time, and may lead to different end results in different places.

and are not eligible for many social welfare entitlements and Evidence from Europe suggests two possible models for the

employment opportunities that are reserved for permanent urban longer-term evolution of hollowed villages, presented here as the

residents (Shen, 2002). This temporary, unofﬁcial status in cities ‘cyclical evolution model’ and the ‘vanishing evolution model’.

and the bifurcated social security system, together with the lack The ‘cyclical evolution model’ draws on European experiences of

of security of urban employment in a ﬂuctuating global economy urbanization, suburbanization and counterurbanization (Antrop,

(Wang, 2010), encourages many migrants to retain vacant rural 2004; Champion, 2001), to propose that village-hollowing will fol-

housing and idle rural land to give the opportunity of returning low a cyclical pattern moving through four phases (Fig. 3). In the

home. Absenteeism is hence a key factor in the disparity between ﬁrst stage, the centralizing phase, the initial economic buoyancy

the rural resident population and the rural housing stock. Addi- produced by liberalization stimulated dramatic rural population

tionally, ambiguous property rights and limited understanding of growth that was reﬂected in the expansion of village centres as

the law act as deterrents to residents who have built new houses people migrated in from outlying properties to support cooperative

acting to sell or demolish their former homes, as does nostalgia and agricultural production and implement household responsibility

superstition. system. The progression of economic restructuring in the second

At the same time, improved economic conditions in rural stage, however, has contracted opportunities in rural communities,

regions and diversiﬁcation of employment away from agriculture stimulating urbanization and the slowing down of rural population

have reduced the traditional dependency on the ‘big family’. Tra- growth. This translates to a ‘sub-hollowing’ phase in which increas-

ditional models of the ‘coalition family’ and the ‘stem family’, with ing house-building on village fringes is mirrored by the vacating of

diverse family members forming a single inter-generational house- properties in the village centre. Generally, competition between

hold, are being replaced by smaller, ‘nuclear family’ households. agricultural and non-agricultural land uses is at its most intense at

The number of rural households in China increased from 173.5 the interface between the urban and the rural, frequently result-

million in 1978 to 256.6 million in 2008, even against the trend ing in a succession of land uses at any one location over time

of a falling rural population since 1995 (Fig. 1). This proliferation of (Robinson, 2004, p. 206). In the aspects of village-hollowing, the

smaller households has been a key driver of rural house-building main factors driving such successions are the ﬂuctuating strengths

(Sargeson, 2002). of urban and rural economies, which alter the bid rents (Robinson,

Institutional and managerial factors: Village-hollowing is also 2004, p. 206), and cause the depreciation of rural housing relative

inﬂuenced by a number of factors pertaining to legal and insti- to urban housing in the process of urbanization under the inﬂu-

tutional frameworks and the management of rural land. Firstly, ence of the rent law (Li, 2002). This will speed up the process of

restrictions on the sale of property and ambiguous property rights village-hollowing and translate to the third phase, the ‘hollowing’

with respect to collective land limit the opportunity for farmers phase, in which rapid urbanization leads to a sharp slump in the

to sell poor-returning farmland (Ding, 2003). Secondly, a historic overall village population, with decreasing occupancy of houses

legacy of poor land-use planning, including a lack of effective in both the village centre and the village fringe. This is arguably

road planning, has left many communities with unwieldy and the situation faced by many rural communities in the last decade.

impractical morphologies. Village centres may be over-crowded, However, the model also projects a fourth ‘recentralizing’ phase, in

whilst peripheral farmland may fall into disuse because access which a broader trend of counterurbanization contributes to return

roads are insufﬁcient for modern agricultural vehicles. These fac- migration and a re-growth in village populations, potentially sup-

tors encourage new house-building. Thirdly, the absence of rules ported by migration from other rural communities. Signiﬁcantly,

and regulations aimed at dealing with vacant or abandoned hous- the model envisages that the recentralizing phase will see increases

ing means that local governments are limited in their capacity to act in the occupancy of houses in the village core exceeding the con-

to address the problem, whilst the inspection and approval process struction of new houses on the village fringe, reﬂecting both the

for new house-building is unsound, e.g., heads of villages usually reoccupation of properties by return migrants and the attraction

make money from selling lands to farmers who want to build a new and availability of cheaper, vacant property for redevelopment in

house. village centres.

14 H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22

260 900

250 875 240 850 230 825 220 800 210 775

200 (million persons) (million households) 750

190 Rural resident population Number of rural households 180 725

170 700

1979 1980 1982 1983 1985 1986 1988 1989 1991 1992 1996 1999 2003 2006 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1994 1995 1997 1998 2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2007 2008

Number of rural households Rural resident population

Fig. 1. Changes of number of rural households and rural resident population in China from 1978 to 2008 (MAC, 2009; DCSNBS, 2010).

The fulﬁllment of the ‘cyclical evolution model’ for hollowed revised and formally adopted by the central government of China

villages is contingent on both the development of appropriate in 2010.

social and economic conditions in China that will permit counterur- The key objective of the ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-

banization, and the adoption of appropriate policy instruments to use policy is to achieve equilibrium in the supply of land in China by

direct redevelopment into the village cores and restrict new devel- balancing increases in urban construction land (driven by urban-

opment on village fringes. However, even if these conditions are ization) with decreases in rural construction land (facilitated by

realized, not all hollowed villages may be regenerated. Smaller and out-migration). Former rural construction land could consequently

more remote villages may ﬁnd that they continue on a trajectory be reclaimed as agricultural land, thus supporting food security

of population decline to the point of extinction, as represented by goals and broader socio-economic development in rural areas. The

the second, ‘vanishing evolution model’ (Fig. 4). In this they will be programme is to be implemented at a county level, but critically

replicating the experience of villages in peripheral regions of Euro- the key mechanisms to be employed are all top-down in nature,

pean countries such as France and Ireland that have in effect ceased focusing on spatial-territorial reorganization, administrative reor-

to exist through depopulation and the abandonment of housing. In ganization, and industrial reorganization (Liu et al., 2009). These

some cases this will result from a natural withering away of the mechanisms are intended to accelerate trends that are already evi-

population over time, yet in China it is likely that the abandonment dent in some rural areas, and thus constitute a distinctively Chinese

of some villages will be assisted by settlement rationalization and strategy of ‘accelerated restructuring’.

village combination programmes, with remaining residents relo-

cated to neighbouring communities in order to remove the costs

Spatial-territorial reorganization

of supporting separate villages and to free up land for agricultural

production or nature rehabilitation.

One of the main tenets of the ‘increasing vs. decreasing bal-

ance’ land-use policy is that there are too many rural communities

Adapting policy: ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land use in China. In 2007 there were 2,647,035 identiﬁed ‘natural’ vil-

and ‘accelerated restructuring’ lages in China, within 571,611 ‘administrative villages’ (MHURDC,

2008). Research carried out by the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Hollowed villages present both a challenge and an opportu- in Shandong province suggests that most villages are experiencing

nity for rural planning policy in China. On the one hand, hollowed village-hollowing, currently in the ‘sub-hollowing’ or ‘hollowing’

villages show tremendous potential for development that would phases (Liu et al., 2009; Long et al., 2009a). This presents the Chi-

assist in achieving an optimal allocation of rural land resources, nese state with a signiﬁcant dilemma as it seeks to improve rural

releasing and protecting agricultural land and helping to strike a infrastructure: is it justiﬁable to invest in new infrastructure for

balance between the demands of food security and urbanization. small, remote villages that appear to be on a trajectory towards

On the other hand, realizing this potential will require new pol- extinction? As such, the policy aims at the more efﬁcient distribu-

icy strategies and instruments in order to intervene and facilitate tion of both land and infrastructural resources by concentrating the

development in the vacated village cores. As local government has

proved to be ineffective in controlling village-hollowing, primarily

because of a lack of appropriate regulations, the emphasis has been 3

The State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Number 47 document,

placed on a more strategic policy approach at national or regional 2010: to strictly standardize the implementation of linking up increased urban con-

level. In 2005, the Ministry of Land and Resources proposed an struction land with decreased rural construction land at selected test points and

practically carry out rural land consolidation.

innovative land management policy, known as the ‘increasing vs.

In China, village is a component entity of town, the lowest one of four de facto

decreasing balance’ land-use policy (Zengjian Guagou Tudi Liyong

levels of local government (the other three are province, prefecture and county).

Zhengce). Following a number of pilot schemes, the policy was

The village level serves as an organizational division (census, mail system) and does

not have much importance in political representative power, but it has deﬁned

boundary and a head voted out by villagers. Rural areas are organized into village

committees or villager groups. A “village” in this case can either be a natural village,

MLRC, Number 207 document, 2005: to standardize the implementation of link- one that spontaneously and naturally exists, or an administrative village, which is a

ing up increased urban construction land with decreased rural construction land at semi-bureaucratic entity. Usually, an administrative village may have one or more

selected test points. natural villages.

H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22 15

Population gr owth

Reconfigu ration of Increased demands

households for hous ing

Customs and Strong

geomantic omens house -building

Rural housing desig n desire

House-building quality

Rural infras tructure Inherent defects

development of ol der housing

Phy sical environment Farmers’

house-building

Market-based economy decisio ns

Favorab le agricultural

poli cy Development of

Adva nce in agricultural agro-production

technology Stron g hou se-building

capacity

The “dual track”

struc ture of rural-urban Non-agricultural

soci o-economic employment in

devel opment urban areas

Low opportunit y cost

of obtaining new site

Social coordination

betwee n farmers

Farmers ’

house- building

behaviour

Unsound inspection and

approva l process

Restrictions on transfer

and exchange of old hous e

Vacan t and derelict houses Disorderly new houses

in the core of village in the fringe of village

(Inside ruin) (Outer development)

The ph enomenon of village-hollowing

Fig. 2. Driving mechanisms of the evolution of hollowed villages in China.

rural population in communities that can be sustained and revital- surrounding villages into this community. In particular, relocated

ized, with an expanded social, production and ecological service residents would be resettled in the ‘hollowed-out’ core of the cen-

function tral village, allowing for a more efﬁcient use of land, whilst the

Spatial-territorial reorganization might be achieved through a abandoned villages would be demolished and returned to agricul-

number of different models depending on the geographical context tural use.

(Fig. 5). Villages on the edge of cities might be naturally subsumed

through the increase in urban construction land, whilst residents Administrative reorganization

of hollowed villages further out from cities and around small towns

could be relocated in the cities or towns. ‘Village to town’ consol- Spatial-territorial reorganization is accompanied in ‘accelerated

idation has been identiﬁed as one of the main objectives of small restructuring’ by administrative reorganization, aimed at reducing

town development strategy. In most rural areas, however, ‘village the number of ‘administrative villages’ in China. The consolidation

to village’ consolidation will be the dominant model of spatial- of villages into a single settlement logically leads to an amalga-

territorial reorganization. This involves one village being identiﬁed mation of administrative units, with the administrative area of

as the central settlement – either because it has a larger popu- the central village being extended to cover the former territories

lation, or a better location, or more modern infrastructure, or a of the consolidated villages. Administrative re-organization can

more prosperous economy – and residents being resettled from lead to improvements in the effectiveness and efﬁciency of local

16 H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22

Rural Urbaniz ation Counterurbanization

development Slowing Rapid urbanizati on Village combination

Drastic population population growth Population slu mp Population reversal growth

core

0 time

fringe

Inhabited houses change rate rate change houses Inhabited

whole village

CRecenentralizing phase Sub -hollowing phase Hollowing phase tralizing phase

Fig. 3. Cyclical evolution model of the development stages of hollowed villages in China.

Rural Urbanizati on

development Slowing Rapid urbanizatio n Withering away

Drast ic population population growth Population slump Emigration growth

0 time

fringe Inhabited houses change rate core

whole village

Centralizing Sub-holl owing Hollowing Vanishing

phase phase phase phase

Fig. 4. Vanishing evolution model of the development stages of hollowed villages in China.

Fig. 5. A conceptualization of the models of spatial-territorial reorganization in rural China.

H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22 17

Table 1

governance in rural communities, but the process of amalgamation

The status of rural construction land in Kangyang village, Huantai county.

may be fractious. Competition (and conﬂict) may develop between

former village heads for power in the new administrative unit, Land-use types Number of plots Area (ha)

and tensions may also exist between residents of former villages

Rural housing land

which may differ in terms of customs, economic specialism and Inhabited housing land 331 9.02

level of development. Integrating the production elements of the Abandoned or ruined housing land 52 1.19

Idle housing land 58 1.59

different sections and formulating and implemented an integrated

Total 441 11.80

programme for the new unit could be challenging for village lead-

Land for industry and mining 3.39

ers. Furthermore, as the administrative village in China also forms

Land for agricultural facilities 2.65

a territorial framework for the organization of agricultural pro-

Land for transportation 10.35

duction and TVEs, administrative reorganization necessarily also

Unused land and others 1.90

involves economic reorganization, with both challenges and oppor-

tunities. Total 30.09

Case study of Huantai county, Shandong province

Industrial reorganization

Shandong province, located in eastern coastal China approxi-

As noted above, spatial-territorial reorganization and admin-

mately 400 km south east of Beijing, was one of the ﬁve provinces

istrative reorganization both have an impact on the structure of

selected by the Ministry of Land and Resources to pilot the ‘increas-

local industry, including agriculture. Indeed, the consolidation and

ing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy in April 2006. Within

integration of economic resources to promote the strategic adjust-

Shandong, eight pilot counties were identiﬁed (Huantai, Pingyin,

ment of agriculture, improve rural product circulation, and enhance

Shouguang, Wenshang, Feicheng, Juxian, Hedong and Shanxian), in

services to agriculture is itself a key aim of the ‘increasing vs.

which the methodology and implementation of the policy would

decreasing balance’ land-use policy. At the same time, farm pro-

be tested, the ﬁrst of which to be initiated was Huantai. Huantai

duction will beneﬁt from the availability of additional farm land

county is situated by the lower reaches of the Yellow River in the

resulting from village consolidation, whilst some released land may

north of Shandong province (Fig. 6). With a land area of just under

be used for industrial development, especially of industries linked

50,000 ha, the county had a population of 496,700 in 2007, giving

to food processing, storage and transportation, with an emphasis 2

it a high population density by rural standards 995 persons/km

on attracting inward investment.

(SSB, 2008; NBSC, 2008).

It is worth mentioning that the implementation of ‘increas-

Huantai has a warm temperate monsoon climate, with an aver-

ing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy, in essence, is a kind ◦

age annual temperature of 12.5 C and mean annual rainfall of

of ‘spatial transfer’ of land development rights, from which local

587 mm, creating good conditions for agriculture. In 1983, just

governments can make a huge land acquisition revenue (Wang

under half (49.43%) of the county’s GDP came from primary indus-

et al., 2009; Zhou, 2007). China’s 1994 tax-sharing reforms were

tries, but extensive economic restructuring saw this contribution

successful in improving the central government’s ﬁscal condition

fall to just 5.8% of GDP in 2007 (compared with 68.5% derived from

(Loo and Chow, 2006). However, the revenue share for local gov-

manufacturing and other secondary industries) (SSB, 2008). Even

ernments was not increased at a level commensurate with their

within rural communities there has been signiﬁcant diversiﬁcation,

increase in responsibility, e.g., the responsibilities for urban and

with 72% of peasant incomes now generated by non-agricultural

public services were shifted from the central government to local

activities. However, this economic transformation has boosted the

governments (Ding, 2007). Local governments mainly relied on

overall afﬂuence of the county, with GDP per capita standing at

land to ﬁnance urban construction, and the revenues generated

41,909 RMB¥ (US$5600) in 2007, signiﬁcantly higher than the over-

from land can account for up to 60% of total ﬁscal incomes of

all Chinese GDP per capita of 18,934 RMB¥ (US$2500) (SSB, 2008;

local governments (Ding, 2007). Zhou (2007) argued that this cen-

NBSC, 2008).

tral government’s policy “squeezes” to motivate local governments

5 Industrialization in Huantai county has been accompanied by

to ﬁnd alternative revenue sources, and that is one key reason

rapid urbanization and the phenomenon of village-hollowing is

for local governments’ intense interests in participating in land

widespread, with the majority of affected villages at an advanced

deals. In some cases, 60–80% of extra-budgetary government rev-

stage in the ‘hollowing’ or ‘vanishing’ phases described in Fig. 4.

enue as well as more than one third of budgetary revenue came

Statistical data from the Huantai Bureau of Land and Resources

from land development and transfers (Zhou, 2007). There are high

recorded 719.28 ha of idle or abandoned rural housing land in

proﬁt margins created by the large gap between local governments’ 2

Huantai, such that the ratio of 188 m of rural housing land per head

monopoly over land rights and regulations and the meager com-

is considerably above the national average, suggesting a signiﬁcant

pensation they pay to peasants (Wang et al., 2009; Zhou, 2007).

surplus.

In this connection, the local governments have great enthusiasm

The village of Kangyang is typical in this respect. By combining

in the implementation of the ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’

remote sensing imagery and data collected through ﬁeld surveys

land-use policy. 6

and household interviews, we were able to identify that 110 of the

441 housing plots in Kangyang were uninhabited or abandoned,

comprising just under a quarter (23.6%) of the total rural housing

area in the village (Table 1). Although idle and abandoned plots

The overwhelming alternative revenue source is land deals. The land revenue

were to be found throughout the village, there was a particular

source was implied by the “Measures for the Administration of the Collection and

concentration in the village centre, consistent with the model of

Use of Land-Use Fees for Newly added Construction Land”, No. 117 document

enacted by the Ministry of Finance of China & MLRC in 1999, in which 70% of the

land-use fees for newly added construction land belongs to local governments. Dur-

ing the period 2000–2003, the collected land-use fees for newly added construction

land amounted to 31,016 billion RMB¥ (US$ to RMB¥: 1–8.2), 70% of which, i.e. Remote sensing data provided by the Chinese Academy of Sciences from a 0.25 m

21,714 billion RMB¥, was possessed by local governments (Zhou, 2007). high-resolution remote sensing image from EarthView Image Inc., 2009.

18 H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22

Fig. 6. Location of the study area, Huantai county.

village-hollowing (Fig. 7) (idle housing land here refers to houses tion, and much was also unused. As such, Kangyang village shows

that are in good condition, but only used for less than one month in considerable land consolidation potential.

two consecutive years; abandoned housing land refers to proper- Since the initiation of the pilot in 2006, restructuring based

ties that are not suitable for occupation). Signiﬁcantly, whilst there on the new policy in Huantai county has been advanced rapidly,

is an ofﬁcial policy of ‘one household, one house’ in China, the num- and to positive assessments (Yang, 2009). For example, in the area

ber of housing plots in Kangyang (441) was notably higher than the around Maqiao town a process of resettlement has been started

number of households (362) at the time of the ﬁeldwork. The total that will relocate residents from 27 scattered villages into four

of idle and abandoned housing land in Kangyang exceeds the area newly constructed communities. This process will release over

occupied by industry or by agriculture in the village centre – indeed, 660 ha (10,000 mu) of former rural housing land, most of which

the agricultural-related land had largely lost its traditional function will be converted to farmland. Additionally, the restructuring will

as drying and threshing grounds for crops due to farm mechaniza- involve the construction of new roads, irrigation facilities and

other auxiliary services, as well as the establishment of two large

non-agricultural enterprises in the new centres, which will pro-

vide employment for 13,000 local residents, or just under half the

population. Combined with improvements to agricultural produc-

tivity that are anticipated to result from the elimination of land

fragmentation and the creation of new units suitable for modern

agricultural machinery and practices, these developments are pro-

jected to reduce the agricultural workforce in the area by 80% –

regarded locally as key steps in modernization and poverty allevi-

ation.

Following the pilot schemes, a comprehensive Plan for the

Implementation of linking up increased urban construction land

with decreased rural construction land in Huantai (2006–2020)

was mapped out in early 2009. This proposes the consolidation of

over 300 villages into around 50 towns and centralized villages, as

well as the incorporation of 10 ‘urban villages’ and 18 peri-urban

villages into larger urban areas. The ‘village to town’ model will

be employed to resettle residents of 147 villages into nearby small

towns; whilst the ‘village to village’ model will see 160 remote

villages reorganized into 41 centralized villages or new rural com-

munities. Overall, the plan will reduce the area of rural housing

land in Huantai county by 54.3%, from 5305 ha in 2005 to 2426 ha

in 2020. Over 2800 ha will be released for conversion to farm-

land, although some present farmland will be developed for the

new centralized villages and through urban expansion. On balance,

however, the plan is promoted as achieving a win–win situation

that will support both rural and urban development goals.

Dissonances from grassroots and exposed problems

There are also some dissonances from the grassroots in the pro-

Fig. 7. The status of rural housing land in Kangyang village, Huantai county, iden-

tiﬁed by plot. cess of implementing this innovative land management policy. A

H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22 19

core news entitled “Withdrawing Villages and Enclosing Land to policy solution that reﬂects the unique hybrid nature of Chi-

Pursue Land Finance in Many Provinces” reported on The Beijing nese political-economy, with economic liberalization combined

News came ﬁrst on the list (Tu, 2010). It reported that, in more with a strong state. Although problems of rural depopulation,

than 20 provinces in China, local governments were withdraw- abandoned properties, unregulated exurban development and the

ing villages to get in return the construction land quota so as loss of farmland have all featured in the long-term trajectory of

to expand land ﬁnance by making irrational use of the ﬂaws of rural restructuring in western liberal democracies, government

‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy even misinter- responses have tended to use less directive mechanisms for encour-

preting the policy, and the farmers who lost their housing land aging behaviour changes, such as planning application processes

were forced to live in high-rise building (Tu, 2010). Zhucheng city and incentives for economic investment. The possibility of permit-

in Shandong province was taken as a typical case in this report. ting remote depopulating communities to ‘die’ by removing state

In Zhucheng, there are 1249 administrative villages, which will be infrastructure and subsidies has been debated in Australia, but was

withdrawn and merged into 208 rural communities, according to met by ﬁerce resistance; whilst in the former east Germany plans

the implementation plan of the policy. Each community contains have been ﬂoated to demolish ‘dying villages’ and create nature

ﬁve villages in a radius of 2 km, and has about 1500 households, reserves, but such ideas are again high controversial (Reichert-

approximately 10,000 people. If the plan can be smoothly pushed Schick, 2010). No western country has attempted a settlement

forward and all the farmers move into new houses in communi- rationalization programme on the scale proposed by China, and it is

ties, 80,000 mu (5333 ha) old rural housing land potential will be inconceivable that a liberal democracy would be able to compel the

released, annual increased revenue from land development and compulsory resettlement of residents on the scale required. Thus,

transfers may amount to 200–300 million RMB¥ by reclaiming paradoxically given the direction of China’s economic reforms, the

4300 mu (287 ha) old housing land and obtaining about 3000 mu programme most closely resembles the rural settlement rational-

(200 ha) construction land quota. However, some of the farmers ization projects of the former Soviet Union (Pallot, 1988). Yet,

were reluctant to change their living and production mode; some modern China is not a totalitarian state and the successful imple-

were not in favor of living in high-rise building; and some who mentation of the ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy

just built a new house and could not get expected compensation depends on the enrolment and compliance of a diverse set of actors,

resisted to implement the policy. It is reported that violent protests reﬂecting the complex and hybrid process of rural restructuring.

against the demolition of housing occurred, and some farmers had The ﬁrst key group of actors is local governments. The policy

no alternative but to move out because their power and water has been driven by the central state, represented by the Ministry of

supply were cut off by local governments. Land and Resources, but has been implemented at a county level,

Under the background of construction land quota being strictly with much of the costs borne by local actors. For example, the

controlled by the central government, the ‘increasing vs. decreas- cost of the implementation plan for Huantai county is estimated

ing balance’ land-use policy has been taken as an opportunity by at 6.894 billion RMB¥ (US$920 million), to be met by 4.253 billion

local governments for pursuing land ﬁnance and four major prob- RMB¥ from farmers for new housing construction, and 2.641 bil-

lems have been exposed since its implementation (Liu, 2010): (1) lion RMB¥ from governments, for obtaining land and demolishing

putting undue emphasis on construction land quota, and choos- vacated buildings. The cost to both farmers and local authorities

ing the test points implementing the policy of linking up increased is hence immense, and whilst an afﬂuent county such as Huantai

urban construction land with decreased rural construction land is able to ﬁnd the resources, many poorer areas will struggle. The

and expanding their area and working quota scale without autho- director of the strategy in Shanxian, a much poorer county in Shan-

rization; (2) pursuing land ﬁnance, engaging in violent demolition dong province, told us in an interview that the implementation of

of rural houses violating farmers’ desire, and enclosing rural col- the scheme urgently needed funds from outside the county.

lective land without restraint; (3) being keen on consolidating Local administrators have also questioned the ability to balance

the villages with good location and considerable land consolida- increasing urban construction with decreasing rural construction

tion potential instead of the hollowed villages with considerable at a county scale, given pre-existing geographies of uneven devel-

potential but inferior location; and (4) blindly pursuing land con- opment (Long et al., 2009c; Liu, 2006). For example, in Shandong

solidation potential and building high-rise resettlements with less province, there is a high demand for land in afﬂuent, urbanizing

consideration for the convenience of farmers’ living and engag- counties such as Qingdao and Rizhao, with limited supply, but

ing agricultural production. Despite these exposed problems, Liu conversely a low demand but plentiful supply of land in under-

(2010) argued that rural construction land consolidation is an developed rural counties such as Dezhou and Heze. In the more

indispensable way to build a new countryside and shape a more developed counties, there may be insufﬁcient idle or abandoned

coordinated urban–rural development pattern in China, and the rural construction land available to compensate for the demand

testing value of policy innovation in allocating urban–rural land for urban expansion; whilst in less developed counties there is con-

should be impersonally assessed. siderable potential for land consolidation but limited capacity for

releasing this potential. The rescaling of the policy to the provin-

Discussion and implications cial level has been tested, allowing county authorities to link up

and offset land development in rapidly urbanizing areas with land

The policy of accelerated restructuring and the ‘increasing vs. consolidation projects in more rural counties. However, the provin-

decreasing balance’ land-use strategy are a distinctively Chinese cial scale approach has been criticized for fuelling the unchecked

expansion of large cities, and the Ministry of Land and Resources

has reafﬁrmed that ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land use

7 policies should be only implemented at the county scale, with the

Other 1300 mu (87 ha) will be used for resettlement land.

8 9

The report of Tu (2010) may be exaggerated to some extent. Aiming at under- amount of new construction land strictly limited.

standing the effects of implementing ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use

policy on rural development, we carried out household interviews and ﬁeld surveys

in Zhucheng city this March and found that this policy was generally supported by

the farmers. The water and power supply was still kept for the few households who MLRC, Number 138 document, 2008: management measures for implementing

refused to move out. The dissonances for this policy from the grassroots were far linking up increased urban construction land with decreased rural construction land

weaker than what Tu (2010) reported. at selected test points.

20 H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22

The second key group of actors is private enterprise, espe- there are potentially lessons that China could learn from the shift

cially external investors. In general, the implementation of the towards bottom-up endogenous development in the rural devel-

‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy relies on exter- opment strategies of Europe and other western countries, which

nal investment, most of which is provided by enterprises who are could lead to the more diverse and embedded activities in the rural

enticed to set up factories in centralized rural communities as part economy (Bristow, 2000; Woods, 2011).

of the accelerated restructuring process. Such enterprises hence At the same time, the ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-

provide alternative non-agricultural employment which assists use policy is also framed by global issues and trends. With economic

land consolidation by allowing farmers to leave the land, whilst liberalization China has become increasingly integrated into the

in return the enterprise gets access to a supply of land and labour. global economy, and hence is not immune from the effects of the

However, the proﬁt-orientation of enterprises introduces uncer- global economic downturn. Wang (2010), for example, suggests

tainties with regard to their long-term participation. Many of the that the downturn has contributed to migrant workers in Chi-

enterprises involved in the schemes work in industries that are nese cities losing jobs and returning home to rural communities,

currently labour-intensive, but which are undergoing mechaniza- a trend that might bring into question some of the assumptions of

tion and upgrading. As such, ex-farmers who are recruited into the policy. Equally, concerns about food security, which have also

low skilled jobs may ﬁnd that their positions become surplus to prompted the policy, have a global dimension in that if food cannot

requirement within a few years and face unemployment (Long be adequately sourced for urban China from within the country,

et al., 2009b). Moreover, whilst enterprises may be attracted to it will need to be imported from elsewhere. Thus, the extent to

locations in rural China by cheap land and labour, costs will rise which Chinese farmland needs to be protected for food produc-

with development and enterprises may subsequently relocate to tion is to some degree linked to the capacity of China to source

new, cheaper locations, as has been the case with many enterprises food from outside. Perhaps more intriguingly, global environmen-

attracted to rural regions in parts of Europe by industrialization tal issues, and notably the need to combat climate change, have

policies in 1960s and 1970s (Woods, 2010). been evoked in support of the policy. At the United Nations Cli-

The third key group of actors is therefore the farmers. As noted mate Change Summit in September 2009, China announced that it

in the earlier discussion, individual decision making by farmers has would contribute towards carbon sequestration by planting 40 mil-

been a critical factor in driving village-hollowing. The acquiescence lion ha of forest over 10 years (Fu et al., 2009). However, identifying

of farmers is similarly essential to the ‘increasing vs. decreasing land for afforestation is difﬁcult given constraints on China’s rural

balance’ land-use policy, but farmers’ perceptions of the scheme land (Feng et al., 2005; Long et al., 2006), and with the potential

may be affected by a number of concerns. Firstly, many farmers to increase available rural land by 13%, the ‘increasing vs. decreas-

who take up non-agricultural jobs with new enterprises may be ing balance’ land-use policy could make a major contribution to

reluctant to give up their land because of the perceived insecurity freeing land for afforestation. This would also help to meet the

of industrial employment and the inadequacies of social welfare wider social and economic aims of the proposal, as afforestation has

provision. Secondly, the new housing constructed as part of village income-generation potential for rural communities, both through

consolidation may compared unfavourably with existing housing, state subsidies for tree-planting and through the cultivation of fruit

even if more modern in character. This is especially the case with trees (see also Tubiello et al., 2009).

housing built by enterprises for their workers, which often takes

the form of high-rise apartment blocks in order to maximize space

for industrial land use. Residents who have been relocated into Conclusions

such accommodation from farms and rural houses have expressed

nostalgia for their former homes. Thirdly, a sound understanding ‘Village-hollowing’ is a distinctively Chinese phenomenon that

of inconsistencies between various laws and ambiguous property has resulted from the dual-track structure of rural and urban socio-

rights (Ding, 2003), together with an awareness of the huge gap economic development in China, following the introduction of

between the market value of land and the small amounts govern- economic liberalization reforms in 1978. The rapid urbanization

ments pay in compensation for expropriation of the land (Ding, and industrialization of the country has drawn migrants from rural

2007; Zhou, 2007), have been the major factors that discourage areas to the cities, leading to a trend of population decline in rural

farmers from releasing vacated properties, and they continue to areas. At the same time, the transformation of the rural economy

militate against the upheavals involved in village consolidation. and improvements to rural living standards have seen rural resi-

Accordingly, the implementation of the policy has been resisted dents abandon traditional housing in village cores for new housing

and contested by grassroots campaigns in many parts of rural on village fringes. However, neither rural migrants in cities nor

China. Farmers’ organizations have voiced grievances to provin- farmers who have relocated to the edge of villages are keen to

cial and national authorities, and the demolition of housing as a release the properties that they have vacated in village centres,

part of the process has been met with violent protests in some for a number of social, cultural, economic and legal reasons. Conse-

communities. quently the process of ‘village-hollowing’ has developed in which

The ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy has plots of vacant and abandoned housing land have become com-

therefore been developed at national and provincial levels to monplace in many Chinese rural communities, often concentrated

address the perceived national problem of balancing the demands in the village cores. Furthermore, as rural depopulation continues

of urban development and food security. Yet, its successful more and more disused housing land appears in rural communities,

implementation depends on local scale negotiation and coalition- and left unchecked villages can fall into a ‘vanishing evolutionary’

building. It is a top-down rural development strategy and, in trajectory in which they eventually become fully depopulation.

common with some top-down strategies for rural development The presence of ‘hollowed-villages’ presents a challenge not

attempted in Europe and North America, risks being compro- only for the localities concerned, but increasingly for the country

mised by a failure to adequately engage and enroll local actors as a whole. The combination of rampant urbanization and decreas-

into the planning and decision-making process. Although some ing farmland area has raised major concerns in the Chinese state

programmes, such as new community construction and industry about future food security. From this perspective the large amount

restructuring, have involved grassroots participation, more gener- of unused rural housing land in ‘hollowed villages’ represents a

ally the input of local people is perceived to be limited. As such, substantial waste of a valuable resource. Accordingly, the Chinese

H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22 21

government in 2005 launched a new ‘increasing vs. decreasing bal- Chung, H., 2010. Building an image of villages-in-the-city: a clariﬁcation of China’s

distinct urban spaces. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 34,

ance’ land-use policy, aimed at reconciling the demands of urban

421–437.

development and farmland protection, and in particular at address-

Cloke, P., Goodwin, M., Milbourne, P., 1997. Rural Wales: Community and Marginal-

ing the problem of hollowed villages. The policy requires plans ization. University of Wales Press, Cardiff.

Department of Comprehensive Statistics of National Bureau of Statistics (DCSNBS),

implemented at the county scale that seek to balance increases

2010. China Compendium of Statistics 1949–2008. China Statistics Press, Beijing.

in urban construction land with a reduction in the amount of con-

Ding, C.R., 2003. Land policy reform in China: assessment and prospects. Land Use

struction land in rural areas, achieved through a process of assisted Policy 20, 109–120.

Ding, C.R., 2007. Policy and praxis of land acquisition in China. Land Use Policy 24,

accelerated restructuring that involves settlement rationalization,

1–13.

administration reorganization and industrial restructuring.

Feng, Z.M., Yang, Y.Z., Zhang, Y.Q., Zhang, P.T., Li, Y.Q., 2005. Grain-for-green policy

Pilots of the ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use pol- and its impacts on grain supply in West China. Land Use Policy 22, 301–312.

icy since 2005 have achieved a number of successes, including Friedmann, J., 2006. Four theses in the study of China’s urbanization. International

Journal of Urban and Regional Research 30, 440–451.

the slowing down of out-migration from rural areas, and in some

Fu, J., Li, J., Huang, X.Y., 2009. Hu promises deep carbon cuts. China Daily, 2009-09-23.

regions a reversal of the migration trend; the creation of millions of

Gant, R.L., Robinson, G.M., Fazal, S., 2011. Land-use change in the ‘edgelands’:

new jobs to replace those lost as part of agricultural modernization; policies and pressures in London’s rural–urban fringe. Land Use Policy 28,

266–279.

improvements to rural infrastructure; increased prosperity for vil-

Garcia, A.I., Ayuga, F., 2007. Reuse of abandoned buildings and the rural landscape:

lages selected as the centralized ‘growth poles’; and releasing the

the situation in Spain. Transactions of the ASABE 50 (4), 1383–1394.

potential of rural land resources. However, the top-down nature of Ge, Y., 2009. Globalization and industry agglomeration in China. World Development

37, 550–559.

the programme has proved controversial, and generated conﬂicts

Goodman, D.S.G., 2008. China’s Regional Development, ﬁfth ed. Royal Institute of

and compromises to the scheme when local actors have refused to

International Affairs, London.

comply in the way anticipated. Hang, M., Iseman, S., 2009. ‘Villages’ in Shenzhen: typical economic phenomena of

rural urbanization in China. Chinese Sociology and Anthropology 41, 90–107.

Strategies for the development of rural space, and proposals for

Hoggart, K., Paniagua, A., 2001. What rural restructuring? Journal of Rural Studies

speciﬁc developments, are always political and have the poten-

17, 41–62.

tial to attract conﬂict and protest anywhere in the world (Woods, Huang, Q.H., Li, M.C., Chen, Z.J., Li, F.X., 2011. Land consolidation: an approach for

sustainable development in rural China. Ambio 40, 93–95.

2003). Kiss (2000), in work on Hungary, argued that rural restruc-

Kiss, E., 2000. Rural restructuring in Hungary in the period of socio-economic tran-

turing should be considered as the result of interaction between

sition. GeoJournal 51, 221–233.

supralocal and local factors, and that the responses and adjust- Li, X.B., 2002. Explanation of land use changes. Progress in Geography 21 (3),

ments made by local actors can be considered to be survival 195–203 (in Chinese).

Li, X.B., Wang, X.H., 2003. Changes in agricultural land use in China: 1981–2000.

strategies. This analysis appears to resonate with the case of the

Asian Geographer 22, 27–42.

‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy in China. As we

Li, Y.R., Wei, Y.H.D., 2010. The spatial–temporal hierarchy of regional inequality of

have argued, the policy is in essence a top-down rural develop- China. Applied Geography 30, 303–316.

Liang, Z., Chen, Y.P., Gu, Y., 2002. Rural industrialisation and internal migration in

ment strategy based on state intervention, and like many similarly

China. Urban Studies 39, 2175–2187.

top-down strategies attempted in Europe and elsewhere, it has

Lichtenberg, E., Ding, C.R., 2008. Assessing farmland protection policy in China. Land

encountered resistance when sufﬁcient time has not been devoted Use Policy 25, 59–68.

Lin, G.C.S., 2006. Peri-urbanism in globalizing China: a study of new urbanism in

to enrolling local actors. In particular, the strategy has been per-

Dongguan. Eurasian Geography and Economics 47, 28–53.

ceived as threatening many traditional elements of rural lifestyle

Lin, G.C.S., Ho, S.P.S., 2003. China’s land resources and land-use change: insights

and culture, as well as farmers’ rights and interests, leading to from the 1996 land survey. Land Use Policy 20, 87–107.

Liu, H., 2006. Changing regional rural inequality in China 1980–2002. Area 38,

the mobilization of a new wave of rural protests. Learning from

377–389.

European experience by incorporating elements of ‘bottom-up

Liu, L., 2009. National market location, income levels and urban–rural inequality in

planning’ into the strategy, along with reforms to collective land China. International Development Planning Review 31, 397–421.

Liu, Y.S., 2010. Farmers should beneﬁt from rural construction

property rights, could help to secure the successful enrolment of

land consolidation (Nongcun Tudi Zhengzhi Yao Ran Nongmin

local actors, safeguarding farmers’ rights and mitigating against

Shouyi). The People’s Daily (Renmin Ribao), 2010-11-12, A13.

rural protests. http://www.cas.cn/xw/cmsm/201011/t20101112 3009407.shtml.

Liu, Y.S., Liu, Y., Chen, Y.F., Long, H.L., 2010a. The process and driving forces of rural

hollowing in China under rapid urbanization. Journal of Geographical Sciences

Acknowledgements 20 (6), 876–888.

Liu, Y.S., Liu, Y., Zhai, R.X., 2009. Geographical research and optimizing practice

of rural hollowing in China. Acta Geographica Sinica 64 (10), 1193–1202 (in

This work was supported by the Main Direction Program of Chinese).

Knowledge Innovation of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. Liu, Y.S., Wang, J.Y., Long, H.L., 2010b. Analysis of arable land loss and its impact on

rural sustainability in Southern Jiangsu Province of China. Journal of Environ-

KZCX2-YW-QN304 and KZCX2-EW-304) and the National Natural

mental Management 91 (3), 646–653.

Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40771014). The insight-

Liu, Y.S., Wang, L.J., Long, H.L., 2008. Spatio-temporal analysis of land-use conversion

ful and constructive comments of two anonymous reviewers are in the eastern coastal China during 1996–2005. Journal of Geographical Sciences

appreciated. 18, 274–282.

Long, H.L., Heilig, G.K., Wang, J., Li, X.B., Luo, M., Wu, X.Q., Zhang, M., 2006. Land use

and soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River: some socio-economic

considerations on China’s Grain-for-green Programme. Land Degradation &

References

Development 17 (6), 589–603.

Long, H.L., Li, Y.R., Liu, Y.S., 2009a. Analysis of evolutive characteristics and their

Antrop, M., 2004. Landscape change and the urbanization process in Europe. Land- driving mechanism of hollowing villages in China. Acta Geographica Sinica 64

scape and Urban Planning 67, 9–26. (10), 1203–1213 (in Chinese).

Bristow, G., 2000. Structure, strategy and space: issues of progressing integrated Long, H.L., Liu, Y.S., Li, X.B., Chen, Y.F., 2010. Building new countryside in China: a

rural development in Wales. European Urban and Regional Studies 7, 19–33. geographical perspective. Land Use Policy 27 (2), 457–470.

Brown, L., 1995. Who will Feed China: Wake up Call for a Small Planet. W.W. Norton Long, H.L., Liu, Y.S., Wu, X.Q., Dong, G.H., 2009b. Spatio-temporal dynamic patterns of

and Company, New York. farmland and rural settlements in Su-Xi-Chang region: implications for building

Champion, T., 2001. Urbanization, suburbanisation, counterurbanisation and reur- a new countryside in coastal China. Land Use Policy 26 (2), 322–333.

banisation. In: Paddison, R. (Ed.), Handbook of Urban Studies. Sage, London, pp. Long, H.L., Tang, G.P., Li, X.B., Heilig, G.K., 2007. Socio-economic driving forces of

143–161. land-use change in Kunshan, the Yangtze River Delta Economic Area of China.

Chan, K.W., 2010. Fundamentals of China’s urbanization and policy. China Review Journal of Environmental Management 83 (3), 351–364.

10, 63–93. Long, H.L., Zou, J., 2010. Grain production driven by variations in farmland use in

Christiansen, F., 2009. Food security, urbanization and social stability in China. Jour- China: an analysis of security patterns. Journal of Resources and Ecology 1 (1),

nal of Agrarian Change 9, 548–575. 60–67.

22 H. Long et al. / Land Use Policy 29 (2012) 11–22

Long, H.L., Zou, J., Liu, Y.S., 2009c. Differentiation of rural development driven by Tubiello, F.N., Rahman, A., Mann, W., Schmidhuber, J., Koleva, M., Müller, A., 2009.

industrialization and urbanization in eastern coastal China. Habitat Interna- Carbon ﬁnancial mechanisms for agriculture and rural development: challenges

tional 33 (4), 454–462. and opportunities along the Bali roadmap. Climatic Change 97, 3–21.

Long, H.L., Zou, J., Pykett, J., Li, Y.R., 2011. Analysis of rural transformation develop- Unger, J., 2002. The Transformation of Rural China. M.E. Sharpe, Armonk.

ment in China since the turn of the new millennium. Applied Geography 31 (3), Wan, G.H., Lu, M., Chen, Z., 2007. Globalization and regional income inequal-

1094–1105. ity: empirical evidence from within China. Review of Income and Wealth 53,

Loo, B.P.Y., Chow, S.Y., 2006. China’s 1994 tax-sharing reforms: one system, differ- 35–59.

ential impact. Asian Survey 46 (2), 215–237. Wang, H., Tao, R., Tong, J.E., 2009. Trading land development rights under a planned

Ministry of Agriculture of China (MAC), 2009. New China’s Agricultural Statistics for land use system: the “Zhejiang Model” and its national implications. China &

60 Years. China Agriculture Press, Beijing. World Economy 17 (1), 1–17.

Ministry of Construction of China (MCC), 1993. Village/Small-Town Planning Stan- Wang, M., 2010. Impace of the global economic crisis on China’s migrant workers:

dards (GB 50188-93). Ministry of Construction, Beijing. a survey of 2700 in 2009. Eurasian Geography and Economics 51, 218–235.

Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development of China (MHURDC), 2008. Wang, M., Li, G.P., 2008. The Shenyang-Dalian mega-urban region in transition.

China Urban and Rural Construction Statistical Yearbook (2007). China Archi- International Development Planning Review 30, 1–26.

tecture & Building Press, Beijing. Wang, Y.M., Scott, S., 2008. Illegal farmland conversion in China’s urban periphery:

Ministry of Land and Resources of China (MLRC), 2009. Reports on China’s Landuse local regime and national transitions. Urban Geography 29, 327–347.

Survey and Update in 2008. China Land Press, Beijing. Wei, Y.H.D., 2007. Regional development in China: transitional institutions, embed-

Mukherjee, A., Zhang, X., 2007. Rural industrialization in China and India: role of ded globalization and hybrid economies. Eurasian Geography and Economics

policies and institurions. World Development 35, 1621–1634. 48, 16–36.

National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC), 2008. China Statistical Yearbook. China Wei, Y.P., Zhao, M., 2009. Urban spill over vs. local urban sprawl: entangling land-

Statistics Press, Beijing. use regulations in the urban growth of China’s megacities. Land Use Policy 26,

National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC), 2009. China Statistical Yearbook. China 1031–1045.

Statistics Press, Beijing. Woods, M., 2003. Deconstructing rural protest: the emergence of a new social move-

Pallot, J., 1988. The USSR. In: Cloke, P. (Ed.), Policies and Plans for Rural People: An ment. Journal of Rural Studies 19, 309–325.

International Perspective. Unwin Hyman, London. Woods, M., 2005. Rural Geography: Processes, Responses and Experiences in Rural

Peng, Y.S., 2007. What has spilled over from Chinese cities into rural industry? Restructuring. Sage, London.

Modern China 33, 287–319. Woods, M., 2007. Engaging the global countryside: globalization, hybridity and

Putterman, L., 1997. On the past and future of China’s township and village-owned the reconstitution of rural place. Progress in Human Geography 31, 485–

enterprises. World Development 25, 1639–1655. 507.

Qu, F.T., Heerink, N., Wang, W.M., 1995. Land administration reform in China: its Woods, M., 2010. The political economies of place in the emergent global coun-

impact on land allocation and economic development. Land Use Policy 12, tryside: stories from rural Wales. In: Halseth, G., Markey, S., Bruce, D. (Eds.),

193–203. The Next Rural Economies: Constructing Rural Place in Global Economies. CABI,

Reichert-Schick, A., 2010. ‘Dying villages?’: the effects of demographic change on Wallingford.

rural settlements in west Pomerania. In: Mose, I., Robinson, G.M., Schmied, D., Woods, M., 2011. Rural. Routledge, Abingdon and New York.

Wilson, G.A. (Eds.), Globalization and Rural Transition in Germany and the UK. Wu, C.J., 1997. The new development of rural China. BEVAS-SOBEG 1, 101–105.

Cuvillier, Göttingen. Wu, F.L., Ma, L.J.C., 2006. Transforming China’s globalizing cities. Habitat Interna-

Robinson, G.M., 2004. Geographies of Agriculture: Globalisation, Restructuring and tional 30, 191–198.

Sustainability. Pearson, Harlow. Xie, Y.C., Yu, M., Tian, G.J., Xing, X.R., 2005. Socio-economic driving forces of arable

Sargeson, S., 2002. Subduing “the rural house-building craze”: attitudes towards land conversion: a case study of Wuxian City, China. Global Environmental

housing construction and land-use controls in four Zhejiang villages. China Change 15, 238–252.

Quarterly 172, 927–955. Xu, W., Tan, K.C., 2002. Impact of reform and economic restructuring on rural sys-

Shandong Statistical Bureau (SSB), 2008. Shandong Statistical Yearbook. China tems in China: a case study of Yuhang, Zhejiang. Journal of Rural Studies 18,

Statistics Press, Beijing. 65–81.

Shen, J.F., 2002. A study of the temporary population in Chinese cities. Habitat Yang, H., Li, X.B., 2000. Cultivated land and food supply in China. Land Use Policy 17,

International 26, 363–377. 73–88.

Shen, X.P., Ma, L.J.C., 2005. Privatization of rural industry and de facto urbanization Yang, X.Y., 2009. A test point drove a transform: investigation on test points in Shan-

from below in southern Jiangsu, China. Geoforum 36, 761–777. dong province for implementation of linking up increased urban construction

Song, Y., Zenou, Y., Ding, C., 2008. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water: land with decreased rural construction land. Dazhong Daily (Dazhong Ribao),

the role of urban villages in housing rural migrants in China. Urban Studies 45, 2009-05-25, A3 (In Chinese).

313–330. Yu, X.J., Ng, C.N., 2007. Spatial and temporal dynamics of urban sprawl along two

Tan, M.H., Robinson, G.M., Li, X.B., 2011. Urban spatial development and land use urban–rural transects: a case study of Guangzhou, China. Landscape and Urban

in Beijing: implications from London’s experiences. Journal of Geographical Sci- Planning 79, 96–109.

ences 21, 49–64. Zhang, L., 2008. Conceptualizing China’s urbanization under reforms. Habitat Inter-

Tan, R., Beckmann, V., van den Berg, L., Qu, F., 2009. Governing farmland conver- national 32, 452–470.

sion: comparing China with the Netherlands and Germany. Land Use Policy 26, Zhang, L.X., Rozelle, S., Huang, J.K., 2001. Off-farm jobs and on-farm work in peri-

961–974. ods of boom and bust in rural China. Journal of Comparative Economics 29,

Tilt, B., 2008. Smallholders and the ‘household responsibility system’: adapting to 505–526.

institutional change in Chinese agriculture. Human Ecology 36, 189–199. Zhong, T.Y., Huang, X.J., Zhang, X.Y., Wang, K., 2011. Temporal and spatial variability

Tu, C.H., 2010. Withdrawing Villages and Enclosing Land to Pursue Land Finance in of agricultural land loss in relation to policy and accessibility in a low hilly region

Many Provinces (Duosheng Checun Quandi Yi Zai Tudi Caizheng). The Beijing News of southeast China. Land Use Policy, doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.01.004.

(Xin Jing Bao), 2010-11-02, A16. http://epaper.bjnews.com.cn/images/2010- Zhou, F.Z., 2007. The role of government and farmers in land development and

11/02/A16/A16b02C.pdf. transfer. Sociological Studies 22 (1), 49–82 (in Chinese).