Visualization Analysis of Research on “Three Types of Land” Reform in China ()
1. Introduction
The rural land system is the basic system of the country, and its system reform concerns the vital interests of farmers. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, important arrangements have been made for the “three types of land” in rural areas, such as the expropriation of rural land, the marketing of collective for-profit construction land, and the reform of the homestead system. Since 2015, relevant pilot units have been implemented in 33 regions across the country, resulting in innovative results. The report to the 19th CPC National Congress proposed implementing the rural revitalization strategy. In 2023, the No. 1 document of the CPC Central Committee and The State Council, the 20th document to guide the work of Agriculture, Rural areas, and farmers since the beginning of the new century, was released, which pointed out that in comprehensively building a modern socialist country, the most difficult task is still in the rural areas, and it is crucial to maintain the basic agenda of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. Solving the problems of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers is the top priority (Yan et al., 2022). Yan also pointed out that deepening the reform of the rural land system is mainly to promote the reform of rural contracted land, residential land, and collective management construction land. The reform of the “three types of land” is the core driving force of the reform of the rural land system and plays a role in promoting rural revitalization. Visual analysis of the relevant literature on rural land system reform helps to clarify the status quo, trends, and hotspots of land reform research, as well as to find problems and provide scientific guidance in the context of rural revitalization. Therefore, this paper carries out a visual analysis based on CiteSpace software, combs the key achievements of rural system reform from 2005 to 2024, and draws relevant visual maps to provide basis and reference.
2. Data Sources and Research Methods
2.1. Data Sources
The data in this paper are from the core journals related to the “three types of lands” reform in the CNKI database, and CNKI’s advanced retrieval function is used. According to the conditions of (keyword = “three types of land”) OR (keyword = rural land expropriation) OR (keyword = collective management construction land entering the market) OR (keyword = homestead system reform), the search was carried out with accurate matching, China launched the pilot reform of the “three types of land” in 2015. However, the specific contents of the reform—rural land expropriation, collective management of construction land entering the market, and homestead system reform—had already been advanced in both theoretical and practical aspects prior to this. Therefore, this paper extends the data selection back by another 10 years to more comprehensively reflect the actual situation of research on the “three types of land” reform. That is, the time span is set from 2005 to 2024. In the process of retrieval, in order to ensure the quality of literature analysis, the source category of the retrieved journals was set as the core journals, including Peking University Core, CSSCI, etc. A total of 557 related results were retrieved, the search results unrelated to the keywords were excluded, and 419 valid literatures were retained as the search data.
2.2. Research Methods
In this paper, CiteSpace software was used to visually analyze the retrieved literature, and the results, such as the annual number of publications and trends, author cooperation network, time graph, keyword co-occurrence, and clustering, were formed. The in-depth analysis of the research status, hotspots and trends of rural land system reform in different time periods was conducive to the control and prediction of research hotspots by future scholars.
3. Visual Analysis of Literature
3.1. Annual Publication Volumes Analysis
According to the selected distribution years of documents related to China’s “three types of land” reform, the annual trend of the number of published documents is obtained (Figure 1). As can be seen from the figure, from 2005 to 2008 was the initial exploration stage, and the number of documents related to the “three types of land” reform began to increase, but the development trend was slow. It emphasized the need to accelerate the reform of rural land expropriation and requisition system (Wang, 2008). Many scholars began to pay attention to rural land expropriation, but the number of papers published by authors was small. From 2009 to 2015, the period of slow growth was maintained at a relatively low level from 2009 to 2012. During this period, the policy was promoted relatively slowly, and the land system reform was complicated and uncertain, resulting in certain fluctuations. From 2013 to 2015, the number of published papers showed a relatively obvious growth trend, which was related to the continuous advancement of rural land system reform in 2013. Important arrangements were made in the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference, respectively, to provide research direction and policy basis for the academic community. From 2016 to 2019, the peak period, the number of published papers increased from 41 to 51, reaching a peak, which was a prosperous period for domestic research on the “three types of land” reform. The main factor for the rapid growth of the number of published papers is that the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and The General Office of the State Council issued Opinions on the Pilot Reform of Rural Land Expropriation, Market Entry of Collective Management Construction Land and homestead System at the end of 2014, which selected about 30 administrative regions in China to carry out the pilot. In the process of land system reform in the pilot regions, there are also some important policy documents on the emphasis and deployment of the system reform. In 2017, the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy provided scholars with a rich practical basis and policy basis conducive to scholars conducting in-depth analysis and discussion of the actual situation in order to produce a large number of high-quality results. The pilot reform of the “three types of land” in rural areas has achieved significant results and has also laid a solid foundation for the revision of the Land Administration Law. The new revision of the Land Administration Law in 2019 fully absorbed the mature practices from the reforms. After that, the number of papers directly focusing on the “three types of land” reform as a precise research topic correspondingly decreased. From 2020 to 2024, a period of steady decline, the number of published papers gradually dropped from 45 to 23. Due to the continuous advancement and deepening of the “three types of land” reform, the research not only focuses on the interpretation and discussion of policies, but also studies from a micro perspective, such as actual case studies in specific regions, etc. The research period is lengthened, and the number of published papers may decrease. In addition, when the breakthrough point of land system reform has not yet been formed, the number of published papers will also decrease. An in-depth analysis of the trend of the number of published papers on the “three types of land” reform in rural China in the past 20 years shows that the policies issued by the state directly guide the research direction and research hotspots of scholars and the practical progress of rural land system reform has also become an important driving force for research.
From the research trends mentioned above, it can be seen that from 2005 to 2014, the majority of studies focused on a single aspect of the “three types of land” reform, with rural land reform tending to concentrate on specific content areas. From 2015 to 2019, the majority of studies focused on the “three types of land” as an integrated reform, with rural land reform being simultaneously advanced in practice. Since 2020, studies on rural system reform have mostly been based on previous research and have explored how to promote rural revitalization. Deepening the reform of the rural land system is an important part of empowering the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside. The research findings on the “three types of land” reform have provided a foundation for studying rural revitalization.
Figure 1. Annual trend of the number of published papers.
3.2. Analysis of Authors and Cooperation Network
CiteSpace software was used to analyze the main authors of the “three types of land” reform research in China from 2005 to 2024 and their associations. As shown in Figure 2, author cooperation network, the correlation between core authors can be seen. The size of authors’ names in the figure can represent the number of authors’ publications, and the lines between their names represent the cooperation between authors. The authors with more papers are Lv Ping, Yue Yongbing, and Song Zhihong, which can be seen that they have long been researching in the field of land system, followed by Zhang Zhanlu, Lin Chao, and other authors. Finally, Zhou Zhiwu, Wang Liangjian, and other authors cooperated closely with each other. From the perspective of author cooperation, there are 87 collaborations among 271 authors, and the network density is 0.0024. The academic research relationship between the authors is not close, relatively scattered, mostly between two authors, and there are few large-scale research teams, which reflects that China’s research force on the reform of the rural land system of “three types of land” is not concentrated.
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Figure 2. Author collaboration network.
3.3. Keyword Analysis
3.3.1. Keyword Co-Occurrence Analysis
This figure is a keyword co-occurrence map about China’s “three types of land” reform, with a total of 115 keywords, 185 lines, and a density of 0.0282. In Figure 3, the circle size of keyword nodes in keyword co-occurrence indicates the frequency of keyword occurrence. The larger the circle, the more frequent the keyword will appear. Secondly, the more the color of the circle appears, the longer the keyword will last. The lines between keywords represent the links between keywords. The more lines, the closer the links between keywords, and the more connections between the collective management construction land into the market, rural revitalization, and other keywords are important research groups. In addition, the color of the circle and the color of the line correspond to the year, from which it can be seen that the study of land expropriation and rural land expropriation has the longest time span and has been the research hotspot of scholars. The keywords of urban and rural integrated development and the reform of “three types of land” have also attracted much attention from the academic circle. The outer ring of keywords, such as the market entry of collective management construction land, land expropriation, rural land expropriation, and rural revitalization, is purple, indicating that these keywords have become hotspots in the research field recently. This indicates that the academic community has been paying close attention to the trend of rural land system reform in the past 20 years and also indicates that rural land system reform is crucial to narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas and rural revitalization.
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Figure 3. Keywords co-occurrence.
In the analysis, the frequency and mediation centrality of the literature can reflect the hotspots and trends in the research field. Intermediary centrality is an index that measures the importance of nodes in the network. The greater the centrality of nodes and the more connections between keywords, the greater the role it plays in the communication between nodes. Table 1 lists high-frequency words and key words of high importance, from which it can be seen that the theme of the reform of “three types of land” is more focused, focusing on land expropriation, collective management construction land and collective management construction land market, etc. These keywords are closely related to other keywords, which can better clarify the relationship between keywords. For example, high-frequency keywords such as land expropriation and market entry of collective for-profit construction land are both important components of the “three types of land” reform and have always been hot topics in the research field. In order for collective construction land to enter the market, it is necessary to solve the problem of land expropriation (Liu, 2014), actively improve the market entry system of collective construction land, and strengthen the rural collective economy. Promote the appearance of the value of rural land element assets to promote the realization of rural revitalization, which is in line with the objective reality.
Table 1. Keywords frequency and centrality.
Sort |
Frequency |
Centrality |
Vintage |
Keywords |
1 |
41 |
0.67 |
2005 |
Land expropriation |
2 |
100 |
0.58 |
2015 |
Construction land for collective use |
3 |
54 |
0.51 |
2016 |
Collective for-profit construction
land is put on the market |
4 |
23 |
0.2 |
2007 |
Rural land expropriation |
5 |
3 |
0.16 |
2014 |
Allocation mechanism |
6 |
15 |
0.1 |
2019 |
Rural revitalization |
7 |
22 |
0.09 |
2015 |
Entering the market |
8 |
6 |
0.09 |
2015 |
Collective construction land |
9 |
5 |
0.09 |
2021 |
Urban-rural integration |
10 |
7 |
0.08 |
2007 |
Rural land |
11 |
21 |
0.06 |
2016 |
The “three types of land” reform |
3.3.2. Keywords Prominence Analysis
Use CiteSpace keywords to highlight functional science to grasp the future development trend of the research field, and analyze the keywords with a sudden increase in a short time to judge the research frontier trend. In the figure (Figure 4), the top 15 keywords are captured. The longer the outburst time of the keywords, the greater the continuous influence of the keywords and the research hotspots of the academic circle in a certain period of time. According to the keyword prominence chart, it can be seen that the change in research hotspots has gone through three stages. The first stage was from 2005 to 2014 when the academic community began to focus on land expropriation, rural land expropriation, and its land system. Just as the deep-seated contradictions restricting the development of rural areas and agriculture had not been eliminated at that time, the rural economic and social development was still lagging behind, and the rural reform and development were still in the critical stage, making it a hot topic for scholars to study. In the second stage, from 2015 to 2019, scholars focused on collective construction land. In terms of collective management of construction land, in order to eliminate the institutional obstacles of the urban-rural dual structure, build a unified urban and rural construction land market, and provide guarantee for rural revitalization. In the third stage, from 2019 to 2024, scholars will focus on rural revitalization and urban-rural integration. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the rural revitalization strategy, which made the relevant land system reform research at this stage gradually integrate with the national strategy, and the research focus also shifted to rural revitalization, which played a role in promoting the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.
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Figure 4. Keywords prominence.
4. Keyword Cluster Analysis of “Three Types of Land”
Reform Research
CiteSpace software was used to perform cluster analysis on keywords, and the clustering time graph on the research topic of “three types of land” reform was obtained (Figure 5). As is shown in the figure, there are 115 network nodes and 185 connections. The network density is 0.0282; the value of Modularity Q is 0.6259 (greater than 0.3), indicating that the cluster structure is as significant as Silhouette S; the value of Cliquettes is 0.9027 (greater than 0.7), indicating that the cluster is reasonable and convincing. In the figure, keyword 1 is aggregated into 6 categories, which are #0 collectively operated construction land entered the market, #1 collective operated construction land, #2 land expropriation, #3 rural land expropriation, #4 rural land, and #5 collective construction land. Moreover, it can be seen from the figure when a certain keyword begins to appear. For example, in 2005, the keyword land expropriation began to appear. In 2015, some scholars began to conduct research on the market entry of collective for-profit construction land.
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Figure 5. Keywords clustering time map.
Table 2 shows 6 groups of keyword clusters, including keyword cluster size, centrality, and tag words. The centrality of each cluster is greater than 0.75, indicating that the clustering effect is ideal. According to the clustering results, this paper summarizes the hot directions into three research topics: market entry of collective commercial construction land, rural land expropriation, rural land, and homestead system reform.
Table 2. Keywords cluster analysis.
Cluster ID |
Cluster name |
Size |
Centrality |
Year |
Keywords |
#0 |
Collectively operated
construction land
entered the market |
26 |
0.929 |
2020 |
Collective for-profit construction land is put on the market; Land system reform; Land administration
law; Land requisition system; PSM-DID model; “Three types of land” reform; “Three rural” issues; Rural
revitalization strategy; Land value-added income |
#1 |
Collective operating
construction land |
25 |
0.77 |
2017 |
Collectively operated construction land; Income
distribution; Local government; The circulation of
legal issues in the market; Rural collective for-profit construction land; Land put into the market |
#2 |
Land expropriation |
22 |
0.943 |
2008 |
Land expropriation; Fair compensation; Reform
direction; Compensation standard; Public interest; Compensation standard; Collection procedure;
Government role; Landless farmers |
#3 |
Rural land
expropriation |
11 |
0.977 |
2014 |
Rural land expropriation; Mass incidents; Land
expropriation compensation; Land requisition
dispute; Urban-rural integration; The 14th
Five-Year Plan; Element rights; Land requisition boundary and procedure; Dual land market |
#4 |
Rural land |
9 |
0.97 |
2008 |
Rural land; Human rights protection; The right
to develop agricultural land; Farmers’ rights and
interests; Legal system; Legal system; Agricultural
land development right; Rural land; Human rights
protection; Farmers’ rights and interests |
#5 |
Collective construction land |
5 |
0.984 |
2015 |
Homestead; Price influencing factors;
Administrative intervention; Dominant mode;
Price form; “Grading-Valuation-Amendment”;
Benchmark land price; Revision system;
Administrative intervention |
4.1. Research on the Market of Collective Commercial Construction Land
The implementation of the rural revitalization strategy is an important basis for building a modern economic system, and the reform of the “three types of land” land system is the breakthrough of the rural revitalization strategy. The market entry of collective for-profit construction land in the “three types of land” reform empowers rural revitalization, is an important engine to promote the development of rural industries, and lays the foundation for rural revitalization. The entry of rural collective commercial construction land into the market refers to the circulation of this part of the land in the market, including transfer, rental, and shares, and is the process of optimizing the allocation of the right of use of rural collective commercial construction land in the market. Kong Xiangzhi pointed out the problems in the market-oriented allocation of rural factors, such as insufficient mobilization of resources and assets, poor flow of factors across urban and rural areas and across regions (Kong & Zhou, 2020), unimpeded flow of capital to the countryside and mismatch between supply and demand of “land-industry” (Zhang & Xia, 2023). Through continuous exploration, gradually improving the collective management of the construction land market system promotes the establishment of a sound urban and rural unified construction land market. Wang Yanan believes that by reconstructing the mode and pattern of rural land use, activating land elements, and realizing the spatial profit effect of land elements activation into asset value transformation (Wang et al., 2022), market entry has injected new vitality into rural economy and promoted rural revitalization on the basis of safeguarding rural collective rights and interests. Shi Mei believes that the market entry of rural collective operational construction land provides a road to the market for rural revitalization, opens up the channels for the flow of urban and rural land elements, and promotes the cracking of the dual structure of urban and rural land (Shi, 2020). The ability to guarantee land for rural industrial development has been enhanced, and the stock of collective construction land has been revitalized and prioritized for rural allocation, adding impetus to rural revitalization. However, some studies have pointed out that the entry of collective for-profit construction land into the market does not necessarily promote economic growth. On the premise of appropriately reducing the price of urban land factors, increasing the price of collective land factors can promote economic growth (Fang & Hu, 2022). In addition, some scholars explored the pilot practice of the market entry of collective for-profit construction land, and the practice showed that the road of the market entry of collective for-profit construction land has obvious advantages in seeking to revitalize rural land assets and promote rural revitalization (Chen & Wu, 2022). The research team constructed an analytical framework of “capital going to the countryside—land management—changes in agricultural administration” through long-term field investigation (Yang & Yang, 2022). Zeng Dongming proposed to expand the use of collective commercial construction land in the market, mentioned that commercial and residential land can be properly developed, and through the development of commercial and residential land, the infrastructure construction of villages and towns can be promoted, the urbanization of cities can be promoted, so as to promote rural revitalization (Zeng et al., 2021). With the implementation of the new Land Administration Law, scholars put forward a development mechanism based on the goal of compatibility and urban-rural integration of rural revitalization. The rural collective commercial construction land should be subordinated to territorial spatial planning, and the market scale of rural collective commercial construction land should be expanded (Weng et al., 2022).
4.2. Rural Land Expropriation Issues
The land expropriation system is an important part of the land system, a key link in rural revitalization, and the most difficult reform in the “three types of land” reform. If land expropriation is done well, it will improve the current situation of the rural social environment and promote the development of the rural economy. If land expropriation is not done well, it will hinder economic development and cause social contradictions. In the above analysis, the issue of rural land expropriation has been a hot research issue in academic circles since 2005. Many scholars pointed out that the land expropriation problems at that time, such as the insufficient definition of the purpose of “public interest”, led to the abuse of the land expropriation right (Cao, 2006), the land expropriation procedures were not strict, and the land expropriation compensation was unreasonable, which led to conflicts. Moreover, some studies have found that the unreasonable “system structure” of land expropriation is the institutional root of disputes (Liu et al., 2019). In addition, the development mode based on land expropriation has resulted in the waste of land resources and the imbalance of urban and rural structures to a certain extent (Zhang, 2024). Therefore, it is necessary to improve the land expropriation system, solve the problem of rural collective land expropriation, establish the procedures for identifying “public interests”, clarify the scope of rural collective land expropriation, and establish a scientific land expropriation compensation mechanism (Liu, 2018a). Some scholars believe that the reform of the land expropriation system and the establishment of the market system of collective for-profit construction land are complementary to each other as a whole system, and only by strictly limiting the scope of land expropriation can space be reserved for the market of collective for-profit construction land (Liu, 2020). The reform of the rural land expropriation system is a crucial part of the “three types of land” reform. The improvement of the expropriation system can avoid the waste of land resources, reduce land acquisition disputes and social contradictions, and maintain rural social harmony, which also affects the market entry of collective commercial construction land and the reform system of residential land, promote the integration of urban and rural development, and indirectly increase farmers’ property income. It is conducive to rural revitalization.
4.3. Homestead System Reform
The reform of the homestead system is related to the vital interests of farmers and is also an important part of the “three types of land” reform, which promotes the implementation of rural revitalization and is of great significance to the landing of rural revitalization industries and financial support (Liu, 2018b). It is particularly important to carry out the reform of the homestead system. Among them, Liu Shuangliang believes that the “separation of three rights” of the homestead is the core of rural homestead system reform and an important starting point for rural revitalization (Liu, 2021). Zhang Yong proposed to break the “umbilical cord” relationship between farmers and rural housing land, further refine and enrich the property rights and capabilities of residential land, expand the current “two rights” to “three rights” to promote the reasonable allocation of residential land (Zhang, 2018), and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas. In addition, under the background of rural revitalization, Qiao Luyin proposed that the homestead system should be reformed in the circulation of the right of use and the conversion of the use of homestead, which will help promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas (Qiao & Liu, 2019). After 2015, the reform of “three types of land” has been practiced and explored in many places, and scholars have obtained research results through practice and exploration. Xia Zhuzhi proposed that the reform path of the homestead system to promote rural revitalization should be diversified. Through homestead renovation, a rural revitalization model dominated by exogenous collectives should be formed (Xia, 2021). Based on the survey data of pilot areas of the homestead system reform in Jiangxi Province, Lu Ping’s research team proposed to build the common rights and interests of multiple subjects, clarify the rights and interests sharing mechanism of multiple subjects, strengthen the human connection network of multiple subjects, and give play to the role of rural social and cultural ties (Lv et al., 2024). Chen Weihua believes that it is necessary to flexibly explore the “separation of three rights”, emphasize the guidance of planning, and expand the use function of homestead (Chen & Lv, 2022). Considering the particularity of homestead, Fan Yi proposed that the reform should be carried out in a market-oriented way, which is conducive to the revitalization of rural stock assets (Fan & Tong, 2020) and is of great significance to rural revitalization. To sum up, the implementation of rural revitalization is inseparable from the reform and innovation of the homestead system, which provides impetus for rural development.
5. Conclusion and Prospect
In this paper, the core journals of the CNKI database are used as data, and CiteSpace is used to visualize the reform of “three lands” in China. In terms of research status, the “three Plots” reform and its contents have always been an important research topic and a research hotspot in the academic circle. In recent years, the quantity and quality of relevant research results of China’s “three types of land” reform have remained at a high level, but there are few researches on some of them, so the “three types of land” reform still has great development prospects and a good development trend. From the perspective of the distribution of researchers, the relevant mature author cooperation network has not yet been established, and the research team needs to be expanded. In terms of research hotspots, land expropriation has always been a research hotspot and has become a cross-integration research field in law, economics, geography, and other disciplines. In recent years, the market entry of collective construction land and the reform of the homestead system have also become a research hotspot, which is closely related to the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. In terms of research trends, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the practice and exploration of the “three types of land” reform have been deepening. In order to improve the unified urban and rural construction land market and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, it also reflects that the “three types of land” reform also needs to match the development trend of The Times.
Looking forward to the future, the research on the “three types of land” reform can be deepened from these aspects. First of all, the research on land system reform should be strengthened based on practice. The research on land system reform only focuses on macro research issues and cannot solve the root causes of the problems existing in the land system. The pilot areas should be selected for investigation, the problems should be analyzed according to data, and corresponding suggestions should be put forward to enhance the guiding significance of the research results for reform practice. When selecting pilot areas, it is essential to cover a variety of region types. For example, one could choose economically developed areas such as Daxing District in Beijing, major agricultural counties like Jinzhai County in Anhui Province, and regions undergoing economic transformation like Dingzhou City in Hebei Province. The unique characteristics and challenges faced by these areas give their pilot work distinct content and forms. Conducting research in these regions can better bridge the gap between theory and practice. Secondly, focus on the reform to keep pace with The Times, in-depth study of the relationship between the “three types of land” reform and rural revitalization strategy, according to the rural revitalization strategy to put forward the corresponding measures of land system reform, activate the rural internal development momentum, and play a driving role in the implementation of rural revitalization strategy. Finally, rural scale preservation. In the process of studying land reform, we should not only consider its economic benefits, but also consider its social benefits. Only by keeping the red line of basic farmland protection can we promote rural revitalization.
In short, in the past two decades, China has issued many policies on the “three types of land” reform, which provides important issues for academic research. In the context of the implementation of rural revitalization, China’s “three types of land” reform still has great room for development. Its research findings and trends should advance in tandem with The Times, analyze the problems existing in the current reform process, and propose scientific solutions. Sum up its experience, form a research theory with Chinese characteristics, and provide theoretical guidance for future research.
Funding
Sponsored by the team-building subsidy of “Xuezhi Professorship” of the College of Applied Arts and Science of Beijing Union University (BUUCAS-XZJSTD-2024004).