Core Conclusion
The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, held in November 2013, issued the Resolution on Key Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reform (《中共中央关于全面深化改革若干重大问题的决定》), which fundamentally restructured China's collective land trading framework. The Resolution removed the decades-old prohibition on direct market entry of collective-owned construction land, established the principle of equal-rights trading between collective and state-owned land, and set the institutional trajectory that culminated in the 2019 amendment to the Land Management Law,enabling collective operational construction land to be transacted directly without government expropriation as an intermediary step.
China's Dual Land Tenure System
China operates a dual ownership system codified in the Constitution (Articles 10 and 8). Urban land belongs to the state; rural and suburban land belongs to the collective大城新闻网, held by village cooperatives. Within this structure, rural land is further divided into agricultural land (arable, forest, grassland) and collective construction land (industrial, commercial, residential, public facilities). Before the 2013 reform, the only legal pathway for converting rural construction land into a commercial asset was government expropriation, conversion to state ownership, and auction. This created a persistent "price scissors" gap: the expropriation compensation paid to farmers was often below 20% of the market value realized after conversion, generating widespread public concern and fiscal transfer imbalances between central and local governments.
Key Provisions of the 2013 Resolution
The Resolution contained four critical land-reform directives:
1. Collective construction land that conforms to the territory plan and meets statutory conditions shall be permitted to enter the market directly and be traded on equal terms with state-owned construction land.
2. The trading revenue from such transactions shall be shared fairly among the state, the collective, and individual farmers in accordance with statutory ratios.
3. A rural housing security system shall be established so that farmers' residency rights are protected before any land is expropriated or re-allocated.
4. The expropriation system itself shall be reformed to narrow the scope of permissible expropriation (limited to public-interest projects) and raise compensation standards to reflect market value rather than historical output.
The "Separation of Three Rights" Model (三权分置)
Beginning in 2014 and formalized through successive Central Document No. 1 releases, the state introduced the tripartite separation of rural land rights: collective ownership (所有权), household qualification right (承包权/资格权), and usage right (经营权). For homestead (宅基地),the analogous separation distinguishes collective ownership中国土地改革 十八届三中全会 集体土地交易 英文, household residency qualification, and the right to lease or transfer usage. This model allows farmers to monetize their usage rights—leasing, mortgaging, or transferring—without altering the underlying collective ownership, thereby creating a tradable asset within the existing constitutional framework.
Implementation Timeline (2015–2019)
2015: The State Council approved 33 pilot counties nationwide to test direct market entry of collective operational construction land, with local governments drafting trading platforms, valuation mechanisms, and revenue-sharing rules.
2017: Pilot experience was reviewed and the scope of "operational construction land" (经营性建设用地) was defined to include industrial, commercial, tourism,and service-use land中国土地改革 十八届三中全会 集体土地交易 英文, excluding residential and public-facility land.
2019: The amended Land Management Law, effective 1 August 2019, codified direct market entry in Articles 63–64, abolishing the expropriation requirement for operational construction land and mandating that trading revenue be shared between the collective, the land-using party, and the state.
Key English Terminology
Practical Considerations for International Stakeholders
Foreign investors and researchers engaging with China's collective land market should note: (1) any collective land transaction requires approval by the village cooperative assembly, satisfying the village-level democratic procedure (村民自治) under the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees; (2) the land use must conform to the unified territorial spatial plan (国土空间规划) and the annual land-supply plan; (3) post-2019, title registration follows the unified real-estate registration regime under the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Registration (《不动产登记暂行条例》, 2015); and (4) compensation for expropriation, where still applicable, is calculated using zone-based land prices (区片综合地价) revised at least every three years, replacing the former 30-multiple-of-agricultural-output formula.
The 2013 Plenary Session Resolution remains the institutional anchor for all subsequent collective land trading legislation in the People's Republic of China, and its principles are reflected in every major land-law amendment since 2019.
