The reform of the rural collective property rights system is a major institutional innovation in rural reform, and it is also the biggest bright spot. The No. 1 document of the Central Committee in 2022 clearly states that the reform of the rural collective property rights system in the mainland has been basically completed, and the results of the reform of the rural collective property rights system will be consolidated and upgraded this year.
The reform of the rural collective property rights system began in 2017, and after 5 pilots, it has reached full coverage of rural areas across the country. So, what has changed in the reform of the rural collective property rights system?
The first is to clarify the ownership of rural property rights. In other words, the liquidation and verification of rural collective assets has been fully completed. The results of the inventory and verification are: 7.7 trillion yuan of rural collective assets and 6.55 billion mu of collective land and other resources (including mountains, forests, grasslands, wastelands, barren slopes, and barren beaches). So, it has been asked, what is the role of clarity on these assets, and what are the benefits for farmers? We'll discuss that in the next article.
The second is to fully confirm the identity of rural collectives. A total of 900 million collective members were identified. The question is, many people feel strange, how can there be 900 million people? Aren't there many farmers who have moved their hukou to the cities? Let's discuss this with you.
First, the peasant population for several years
In 1949, the founding of New China, the total population of the country was 541.67 million people, of which the number of rural population was 484.02 million, that is to say, 540 million people had 480 million peasants, and the urban population was only 0,600 million.
In 1982, the rural land reform, divided into fields to households, the total population of the country that year was 1,016.54 million people, of which the urban hukou population was 214.8 million and the rural hukou population was 801.74 million. 800 million farmers out of 1 billion people.
In 1995, the national population was 1,211,212,100 million, the urban population was 351.74 million, and the rural population was 859.47 million. In other words, 850 million farmers out of 1.2 billion people are the largest in history.
In 2021, according to the data of the seventh census, the population living in the city is 901.99 million, and the population living in the countryside is 509.79 million.
So, what happened to the 900 million members of collective economic organizations?
Are members of collective economic organizations and "peasants" the same thing?
A closer look at the above figures shows that the "rural population" in the pre-1995 statistics is not the same as the "rural population" after 1995.
Before 1995, the mainland was still a dual structure of urban and rural areas, and in addition to studying for schools, serving as soldiers, recruiting workers, and recruiting cadres, rural hukou was generally not allowed to move to cities. After 1995, the dual structure of urban and rural areas was gradually broken, not only allowing peasants to go to the city to work and do business, but also gradually opening up the urban hukou, allowing farmers to buy houses and live in the city, and allowing some farmers to move their family hukou to the city. Since then, the urban population has increased, and the rural population has become smaller and smaller. That is, the "urban population" and "rural population" mentioned here are not the increase or decrease of "urban and rural household registration" in the true sense.
In other words, among the "urban population" here, there are both real urban aborigines and farmers from the countryside. Among these peasants who have moved from the countryside to live in the cities, some of them have moved to the cities, and some of them are still in the countryside, but only live in the cities.
However, due to the reasons of state policy, the contracted land and homestead in their rural areas have not been returned to the village collective, and the right to contract and use is still theirs, so their current identity is still "members of rural collective economic organizations", of course, the "urban people" whose hukou is still in the countryside should be "members of rural collective economic organizations". The seventh census also describes the urban and rural population as "the population living in the city" and "the population living in the countryside".
So, will these 900 million "members of rural collective economic organizations" never change? It should. That is, they voluntarily and completely withdraw from the members of rural collective economic organizations for compensation, so that they can be regarded as the real "urban population".
In short, today, the rural population living in the city is not necessarily the real urban people, even if the peasants who have moved their hukou to the city, as long as they have not withdrawn from the rural collective economic organization, they are still members of the collective economic organization, and they still have the right to enjoy the rights of the rural collective economic organization.