Author: Wang Lisheng Zhu Penghua
Abstract: The urbanization construction with the county seat as an important carrier is a reform process that adheres to the principle of people-centered in the new development stage of new urbanization, accelerates the improvement of the level of urban-rural integration development, and promotes the high-quality development of new urbanization and rural revitalization by comprehensively strengthening the promotion of county construction. To promote the urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier, we should establish the concept of "urban-rural equivalence", strive to solve the problem of unbalanced and insufficient urbanization development, and improve the development quality and governance efficiency of the county. In the new stage of development, to promote the urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier, it is necessary to adhere to the practical direction of scientific positioning and classified promotion, consolidate the practical foundation of industry-city integration and smart development, adhere to the practical requirements of urban-rural interaction and integrated development, and highlight the practical characteristics of cultural inheritance and green development.
I. Introduction
Urbanization is a natural historical process of migration of agricultural migrants to cities and towns along with the agglomeration of non-agricultural industries, which is the only way for national modernization and an important symbol of a modern socialist country (Zhu Penghua, 2019 [1]). The county seat is the most closely related and direct typical area of the rural area, and has always been an important carrier for absorbing the agricultural transfer population and promoting urbanization. From the perspective of urbanization pattern, county towns are an important part of the urban system in mainland China, which is of great significance for promoting the coordinated development of new urbanization and rural revitalization, building an urbanization pattern of coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and small towns, and a new type of urban-rural relationship between industry and agriculture. From the perspective of the county, the county is the economic, political and cultural center of the county, the leader of economic development, the link between the flow of urban and rural factors and the integration of industries, and plays an important role in promoting high-quality development and common prosperity for all people. From the perspective of county governance, county towns are grassroots administrative units with complete administrative functions and are a key part of national governance (Wang Lisheng, 2020 [2]). From the perspective of Chinese characteristics of urbanization, the new type of urbanization is the urbanization with a huge population, the urbanization of common prosperity for all the people, the urbanization of the coordination of material civilization and spiritual civilization, the urbanization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and the urbanization of peaceful development. As a new measure of new urbanization, urbanization with county towns as an important carrier is bound to be an important support for Chinese-style modernization. This paper attempts to analyze the basic connotation and main challenges of urbanization construction with county towns as important carriers, and clarifies its practical path.
Second, the basic connotation of urbanization construction with county towns as important carriers
Theoretically, urbanization has obvious interdisciplinary characteristics, which are at least directly related to economics, demography, sociology, geography, urban planning and other disciplines. From the perspective of political economy, urbanization construction with county towns as important carriers is a reform process that adheres to the principle of people-centered and urbanization quality upgrading in the new development stage of new urbanization, accelerates the improvement of urban-rural integration development level, and promotes the high-quality development of new urbanization and rural revitalization by comprehensively strengthening the promotion of county construction. Urbanization with county towns as important carriers is an important part of new urbanization, a new type of urbanization at the county level, and a new strategic measure for new urbanization in the new development stage. To deeply understand and grasp the basic connotation of urbanization construction with county towns as important carriers, it is necessary to pay attention to the following aspects.
(1) Development direction: The new type of urbanization has entered a new stage of development
Urbanization is first of all a historical category, and the stage is an important dimension to grasp the law of urbanization development, and it is also an important basis for choosing an urbanization development strategy. Since 2012, when the Central Economic Work Conference first proposed the new urbanization strategy, the mainland's urbanization construction has made historic achievements that have attracted the attention of the world, providing strong support for building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and realizing the first centenary goal (Zhu Penghua and Liu Xuexia, 2023[5]). At the end of 2022, the urbanization rate of the permanent population was 65.22%, and the mainland has entered the late stage of rapid urbanization (urbanization rate of 30% to 70%), and the new urbanization has also entered a new stage of comprehensively improving the quality of development. In this new stage of development, the mainland's economic and social development is also undergoing profound changes, which inevitably requires improving the implementation of the new-type urbanization strategy and proposing new development strategies in accordance with the changes in the main contradictions. From the perspective of urbanization, spatial distribution of urbanization, urban development and urban governance, compared with large cities above the prefectural and municipal levels, the development of new urbanization in small and medium-sized cities in mainland China, mainly county seats, is obviously insufficient, and has become the main contradiction of new urbanization. As the new type of urbanization has entered a new stage, it is extremely important and urgent to comprehensively improve the quality of the development of new urbanization and promote the urbanization construction with the county seat as an important carrier. First, the construction and improvement of the county-level commercial system is a key part of the construction of a unified national market, and the urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier is an important support for the construction of a new development pattern; Second, the county economy is an important part of the mainland's national economy, and it is also a weak link in high-quality development. Third, the development and structural adjustment of county-level industries is an important link in optimizing the overall supply structure of the mainland, and county-level consumption is an important part of the mainland's domestic demand. It can be seen that promoting urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier is a new measure based on the scientific judgment of the development stage of new urbanization, which is in line with the actual economic and social development of the mainland, can better meet the production and living needs of county residents and the needs of agricultural transfer population to the county for employment and settlement, and will provide a strong impetus for comprehensively improving the quality of new urbanization development and promoting high-quality economic development.
(2) Development goals: Promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas
The integrated development of urban and rural areas is an important goal of promoting new urbanization, which is not only the main result of the high-quality development of new urbanization, but also the key driving force for the high-quality development of new urbanization. At present, relative to the quality of urban development and urbanization efficiency, the uncoordinated and unbalanced development of urban and rural areas has become the main factor affecting the quality of urbanization in mainland China (Zhu Penghua and Liu Xuexia, 2017 [6]). In the 10 years since the implementation of the new urbanization strategy, although the mainland has made remarkable progress in accelerating the urbanization of the rural transfer population, optimizing the spatial layout of urbanization, improving the quality of urban development and governance, and coordinating urban and rural development, the problems such as the unsmooth flow of factors between urban and rural areas, the uncoordinated industrial development, and the unreasonable allocation of public resources are still prominent. In the new stage of development, the new urbanization will inevitably take the promotion of urban-rural integration development as the main goal, and accelerate the quality and upgrading of the new urbanization construction by promoting the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, reshaping the new urban-rural relationship, and taking the path of urban-rural integrated development. It can be seen that the development goal of urbanization construction with county towns as important carriers is inevitably urban-rural integrated development, and promoting urban-rural integrated development with counties as the basic unit is a strategic choice for new urbanization based on the new development stage. On the one hand, it is necessary to vigorously develop the county economy, improve quality and efficiency through industrial supporting facilities, consolidate the industrial foundation of the county, enhance the industrial support capacity of the county, and improve the ability and quality of the county to gather the agricultural transfer population. At the same time, we will vigorously promote the construction of the county to make up for the weaknesses and strengths of the county, promote the upgrading of municipal public facilities, environmental infrastructure, public service facilities, etc., improve the carrying capacity of the county for the population, and better meet the needs of the county's residents in production and life, as well as the needs of the agricultural transfer population to the county for employment, entrepreneurship and settlement. On the other hand, we should give full play to the role of county towns in connecting large and medium-sized cities and serving rural areas, and promote the high-quality development of people-centered new urbanization in counties, promote the development of county industries, and extend infrastructure and public services to rural areas, so as to enhance the radiation and driving capacity of county urbanization to rural areas, and accelerate rural revitalization and urban-rural integrated development.
(3) Development principles: adhere to the people-centered
Nowadays, cities and towns have become an important carrier for people to enjoy a better life, and the new type of urbanization must adhere to the "people-centered" approach to promote all-round human development and social fairness and justice (Hu Zucai, 2021 [7]). It can be seen that to promote the urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier, we must "take people as the core" and adhere to the people-centered development philosophy. On the one hand, to promote the urbanization construction with the county seat as an important carrier, it is necessary to draw wisdom and strength from the people, let the majority of urban and rural residents participate in it, and guide the orderly flow of all kinds of talents in urban and rural areas; On the other hand, enhancing the comprehensive carrying capacity of the county is the fundamental starting point for promoting the construction of the county, so that urban and rural residents can share the fruits of promoting the urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier. By improving the quality of county development, county governance and urban population, the best resources will be used to protect and improve people's livelihood, so that more residents can enjoy a safe, healthy and high-quality urban life, and constantly realize the people's yearning for a better life. The first is to improve the ability of the rural migrant population to integrate into the county, strengthen the vocational skills training of migrant workers, especially the new generation of migrant workers, and improve their ability to employ, start a business and integrate into urban society; The second is to strengthen the county's public service supply capacity, promote the full coverage of basic public services such as education, medical and health care, culture and sports, and social security, strengthen the humanistic care of the government, communities and enterprises for the agricultural transfer population, and enhance their sense of belonging, security and happiness in the county's work and life; Third, it is necessary to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the rural migrant population in rural areas and solve the worries of migrant workers who have settled in urban areas. On the one hand, it is necessary to protect the "three rights" (land contracting rights, homestead use rights, and collective income distribution rights) of migrant workers who have settled in urban areas in accordance with the law, and on the other hand, it is necessary to improve the voluntary paid market-based exit mechanism for the three rights and interests (Zhu Penghua and Liu Xuexia, 2023[5]). In short, adhering to the people-centered principle is to promote the development of urbanization with the county as an important carrier, adhere to the direction of common prosperity, promote human modernization through the construction of new urbanization at the county level, and provide a strong impetus and solid support for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country.
(4) Development strategy: Persist in deepening the reform and innovation of systems and mechanisms
New-type urbanization is essentially a process of systemic reform, which improves the level and quality of urbanization by actively changing the superstructure and adjusting production relations (Zhu Penghua, 2017 [1]). Urbanization with county towns as an important carrier is an important link in the new development stage of new urbanization, and its essence is also a reform process. Therefore, insisting on deepening the reform and innovation of the system and mechanism is the development strategy of urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier, and releasing new vitality and injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of new urbanization at the county level by deepening reform and promoting innovation. Strengthen the top-level design of the system of urbanization construction with county towns as important carriers, and form an institutional environment conducive to ensuring and improving people's livelihood, promoting urban-rural integrated development, and improving the quality of new urbanization by deepening the reform and innovation of institutional mechanisms in key areas and key links such as the urbanization of the agricultural transfer population, land management, investment and financing, county governance, and ecological environment. First, the value orientation of deepening the reform and innovation of the system and mechanism is to protect and improve people's livelihood, adhere to the people-centered new urbanization, and the reform and innovation of any system must be based on improving the welfare of urban and rural residents in the county, rather than only a few people or value-added services of capital. Second, to deepen the reform of the system and mechanism, it is necessary to respect the law, understand, respect, and comply with the law of urban development, and use rational and scientific methods to study and explore the law of new urbanization at the county level [9]. Give full play to the role of comprehensive pilots, explore experiences in pilot areas, and then summarize and promote typical experiences and effective practices. Third, on the premise of upholding and strengthening the party's overall leadership, the core of deepening the reform of the system and mechanism is to correctly handle the relationship between the market, society, and the government. It is necessary to deepen the supply-side structural reform as the main line, let the market play a decisive role in the allocation of resources, and promote the high-quality development of the county economy; It is necessary to give full play to the active role of social organizations in the development of county towns and the governance of county seats, so that social forces can participate more in promoting the urbanization construction with county towns as important carriers; It is also necessary to give better play to the role of the government, focus on strengthening the supply of public goods in the county, make up for the weaknesses of the county, promote the better combination of effective markets and promising governments, and promote the high-quality development of new urbanization and rural revitalization.
3. The main challenges of urbanization construction with county towns as important carriers
Since the implementation of the new urbanization strategy, great achievements have been made in the urbanization of counties in mainland China, but there are also some outstanding problems that must be paid great attention to and solved. For example, the epistemology of new urbanization, the insufficient development of urbanization at the county level, the relatively lagging development of the county seat, and the relatively low governance efficiency of the county are the main challenges faced by the urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier.
(1) Epistemology: "urban bias" rather than "urban-rural equivalence"
Understanding is the precursor to action, and certain practice is carried out under the guidance of certain understanding and judgment. Although the new type of urbanization emphasizes pattern optimization and urban-rural integration, the concept of "urban bias" is still very common in practice. From the perspective of world economic history, in the process of industrialization and urbanization, all countries have chosen to focus on industry and cities, and have experienced a stage of development in which the relationship between urban and rural areas is antagonistic and uneven. This "rural-urban dichotomy" development has given rise to a number of theories characterized by an "urban bias" and an urban-rural duality. For example, François Peyroux's theory of "growth poles" (Perroux, 1950 [10]), based on which Muirdahl proposed the theory of cyclic accumulation causality (Myrdal, 1957 [11]) and Hirschman proposed the theory of core and periphery zones (Hirshman, 1958 [12]); The theory of urban-rural dual economic structure based on the "Lewis-Lanis-Fergentine" model (Lewis, 1954[13]; Ranis and Fei, 1961 [14]), as well as the "Jorgenson" model (Jorgenson, 1967 [15]) and the "Todaro" model (Todaro, 1969 [16]) proposed by Dale Jorgenson and Michael Todaro, respectively. These theories have exerted a very extensive influence on the theoretical circles of all countries in the world, including the mainland. In fact, the "urban-biased" urban-rural relationship causes the vast majority of resources to flow to cities, which is the root cause of the imbalance between urban and rural development (Lipton, 1977[17]). The "urban-rural dichotomy" model of development ignores the essential significance of social development (McGee, 2008 [18]). Due to the limitation of the development stage, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the mainland has also adopted a development model of "urban bias" for a considerable period of time, and thus formed a deep-rooted concept of "urban bias", and changing this concept is the primary challenge of urbanization construction with county towns as an important carrier. At present, the new type of urbanization has entered a new stage, and it is necessary to regard the rural areas as independent strategic areas rather than the appendages of the cities, and give the rural and urban areas a completely equal subject status, and establish institutional mechanisms and policy systems to promote the high-quality development of the new urbanization under this premise (Wang Lisheng et al., 2018 [19]). Theoretically, it is necessary to abandon the Western theory of "urban bias", return to the Marxist theory of urban-rural relations, and adhere to the new development concept to lead the construction of new urbanization. Urban and rural areas are an organic spatial whole, especially in the construction of new urbanization at the county level, it is necessary to realize the interactive and balanced development of urban and rural areas through the equal two-way flow of urban and rural elements. At the level of value and cognition, establishing the concept of "urban-rural equivalence" is the key to promoting the urbanization construction with the county seat as an important carrier, which will inevitably lead to major changes in thinking and practice.
(2) Urbanization pattern: the development of urbanization is unbalanced and insufficient
At the end of 2022, there were 920.71 million urban residents in mainland China, with an urbanization rate of 65.22%, which has exceeded the world average (56.16% at the end of 2020) and is still lower than the average level of upper-middle-income countries (67.57% at the end of 2020). 1. On the whole, the urbanization pattern of the mainland has achieved remarkable results in the construction of new urbanization, and a new urbanization pattern of coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and small towns has been initially formed. However, the problem of unbalanced and insufficient urbanization development has not been fundamentally eliminated, and the problem of "big city disease" in some megacities is prominent, while there are many shortcomings and weaknesses in the functional quality of most counties (small and medium-sized cities) (Hu Zucai, 2021[20]). From the perspective of provinces, even excluding municipalities directly under the central government and Tibet Autonomous Region, there is a difference of 24.1 percentage points between Guangdong Province (74.14%) and Yunnan Province (50.04%), which has the highest urbanization rate in mainland China, and the standard deviation of the provincial urbanization rate is 11.05%. From the perspective of the eight major economic regions, in 2020, the urbanization rate of permanent residents in the eastern coastal region (75.24%), southern coastal (72.10%) and northeast China (67.72%) has exceeded the average level of upper middle-income countries (67.57%), while the southwest region (56.04%) and the greater northwest region (55.01%) are still lower than the world average (56.16%). 2. The southeast coastal areas, urban agglomerations, and large cities not only have a relatively high urbanization rate, but also have a significantly higher level of urban infrastructure such as water, electricity, roads, gas, and information networks, as well as public services such as education, medical care, culture, and social security, which are also significantly higher than those in the central and western regions, small and medium-sized cities, and especially county seats. The insufficient development of urbanization is mainly manifested in the low level and quality of urbanization in small and medium-sized cities, mainly county seats, which is difficult to support the high-quality development of new urbanization. At the end of 2020, there were 116.01 million migrant workers in townships and 39.96 million in counties outside townships and towns, accounting for 40.6% and 14.0% of the total number of migrant workers (285.6 million), respectively (Ye Xingqing, 2021[21]). In 2020, the urban population density of counties in mainland China was 1 869 people/square kilometer, which was lower than the national average urban population density of 2 778 people/square kilometer [22]. It can be seen that at present, the population agglomeration capacity of mainland counties is relatively weak, and the quality of urbanization of agricultural transfer population is not high.
(3) Urban development: The development of county towns is relatively lagging behind
Since the construction of the new type of urbanization, the mainland's large, medium, and small cities and towns have made tremendous development achievements, but the development of county towns has lagged behind. From the perspective of economic development, although the county has the foundation of general urban development, the overall economic development of the county is relatively backward, and the development imbalance is more prominent. In 2020, the per capita GDP of counties in mainland China was 48,979 yuan, far lower than the national average (71,828 yuan). the added value of the secondary industry at the county level was 2,067.75 billion yuan, accounting for only 5.4 percent of the national (38,356.24 billion yuan); The added value of the tertiary industry at the county level was 2,280.89 billion yuan, accounting for only 4.1 percent of the national (55,197.37 billion yuan). In 2020, there were 120 counties with local general public budget revenue of less than 100 million yuan, and their total revenue was 6339.86 million yuan, which was less than Jiashan County (7178.83 million yuan), Ninghai County (6791.38 million yuan), Changxing County (6755.39 million yuan), Deqing County (6708.2 million yuan) and other counties, and only 14.8% of the county-level city of Kunshan City (42.8028 million yuan). From the perspective of urban infrastructure construction (see Table 1), the water supply penetration rate, gas penetration rate, sewage treatment rate, per capita park green space area, green coverage rate of built-up areas, and green space rate of built-up areas are significantly lower than the national average level. In 2020, the investment in fixed assets for the construction of municipal and municipal public facilities in mainland China reached 3,888.43 billion yuan, accounting for only 17.4% of the investment in fixed assets for the construction of municipal public facilities in cities (2,228.39 billion yuan) in the same period. From the perspective of basic urban public services, the overall level of public services such as education, medical care, culture, sports, and social security in the county is lower than the national urban average. For example, in 2020, the number of beds in medical institutions per 10,000 people in cities was 88.1, compared with 48.8 beds in county medical institutions in the same period, and the average number of beds in civil affairs institutions providing accommodation in cities was 40.8 per 10,000 people, compared with 34.9 in counties during the same period [22,23,24].
Table 1 Level of shared facilities in cities and county cities (2020)
| index | water supply penetration (%) | Gas penetration (%) | Human-level Road area (sqm) | sewage Processing rate (%) | Parks per capita Green area (sqm) | Greening of built-up areas Coverage (%) | Jiancheng District Green space rate (%) | per 10,000 people Public toilets are available (Seats) |
| National urban average | 99.99 | 97.87 | 18.04 | 97.53 | 14.78 | 42.06 | 38.24 | 3.07 |
| The national county average | 96.66 | 89.07 | 18.92 | 95.05 | 13.44 | 37.58 | 33.55 | 3.51 |
Data sources: China County Construction Statistical Yearbook (2020) [22], China County Statistical Yearbook (2021 County and City Volume) [23], and China Urban Construction Statistical Yearbook (2022) [24].
(4) Urban governance: The governance efficiency of the county is relatively low
Improving the efficiency of urban governance is an important part of the new urbanization, and the governance efficiency of counties in mainland China is relatively low compared with large cities with high administrative level, developed market, active social organizations and abundant talents. From the perspective of governance concept, compared with modern metropolises, county towns generally have the problem of lagging governance concepts. It is mainly manifested in the serious official-oriented thinking of the decision-making level and functional departments in the county, the indifference to the concept of governance according to law, and the unclear direction of promoting the modernization of governance. From the perspective of the administrative management system, although the county has a complete system and complete functions, its administrative level is low, and it is at the end of the urban administrative system. In the context of administrative strength and policy preference driving factors, the governance system of county towns has weaknesses and relatively insufficient governance capabilities. In 2020, the general public budget revenue of mainland counties was 314,916,621 million yuan, and the expenditure was 938,722,212 million yuan, accounting for only 33.5% of the expenditure. The fiscal deficit ratio at the county level is relatively high, especially in the central and western regions, where the fiscal revenue exceeds the expenditure of only 2.3% of the counties [23]. The barriers of the administrative system and the financial difficulties directly limit the modernization process of the county's governance system and governance capacity. From the perspective of the degree of marketization, there is an obvious gap between the county and the big city, and the development of political and business relations, business environment and market environment is relatively lagging behind. As a result, the level of participation of market players in the governance of the county is not high, and the comprehensive carrying capacity of the city is weak. In terms of the degree of participation of social organizations, the total number of registered social organizations in mainland China was 894 162 at the end of 2020, and the proportion of social organizations in counties is not high (about 38.5%), their capacity is not strong, and the opportunities to participate in governance are also few, and the phenomenon of "social failure" in county governance is common [23]. From the point of view of the management team, the competition in the selection and selection of civil servants in large and medium-sized cities is fierce and the overall quality is relatively high, while the civil servants in county towns have difficulty recruiting and retaining outstanding personnel because of their low salaries and benefits and the low quality of basic public services such as education. From the perspective of governance methods, the responsibilities of county governance are distributed among different functional departments (there are at least nine types of governance practices), and there is a lack of effective work coordination between various departments, and the problems of overlapping and unclear responsibilities are prominent, making it difficult to form a joint governance force (Wu Xiaolin, 2021 [25]). At present, many counties in mainland China have also started the construction of smart cities, covering almost all fields such as industry, government affairs, transportation, education, medical care, and public services. However, due to the imperfection of the digital comprehensive technology platform, it is impossible to completely solve the problem of information asymmetry and incompleteness, and it is often a "headache and foot pain" in the governance of county seats, and can only start from the "group" instead of realizing the "people-oriented" refined governance (Zhu Penghua and Liu Xuexia, 2023 [5]). As a result, although a lot of financial, material and human resources have been invested in the construction of smart cities, it is difficult to play its due role and achieve the effect of "treating both the symptoms and the root causes".
Fourth, the practical path of urbanization construction with the county seat as an important carrier
In the new stage of development, promoting urbanization with county towns as important carriers is a strategic measure to promote the high-quality development of people-centered new urbanization, and it is also a new strategy for the practice of Chinese-style modernization. In the face of problems and challenges, to promote the construction of new urbanization at the county level, we must adhere to the people-centered, scientifically establish the direction of practice, consolidate the foundation of practice, adhere to the requirements of practice, and highlight the characteristics of practice.
(1) Practice direction: scientific positioning, classification and advancement
The counties in different regions of the mainland are different in terms of resource endowment, human history, economic and social foundation, etc., and even within the same metropolitan area or urban agglomeration, the development of county economy is characterized by diversity and complexity. Therefore, it is necessary to respect the law of urbanization and the law of county development, and scientifically determine the new urbanization path of different types of counties according to the location conditions, resource and environmental carrying capacity, industrial base, development stage, functional positioning, etc. The first category: counties around large cities, strengthen the overall planning and docking of the development plan of large cities, and focus on building themselves into satellite counties with convenient commuting, industrial facilities and complementary functions with neighboring large cities. Counties located in urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas, adjacent to national or regional central cities, should take advantage of the opportunity of the integrated development of urban agglomerations and the construction of metropolitan areas to make full use of the radiation and driving functions of large cities to achieve their own rapid development. With the intercity rail transit docking as a breakthrough, we will take the initiative to undertake the industrial and population transfer of large cities, the construction of professional markets and logistics bases, and the relief of intensive public service resources, so as to provide strong support for optimizing the spatial pattern of urbanization. The second category: professional functional counties, focusing on strengthening their advantages and characteristics, and developing into a city of advanced manufacturing, cultural tourism, trade and logistics, and border characteristics. For the county with the advantages of characteristic resources, industrial base, location and transportation, it is necessary to develop the characteristic economy and pillar industries by relying on the advantageous resources through government planning and market-oriented operation, and rely on the advantages of location and transportation to develop the trade and logistics industry, and strive to improve the employment absorption capacity of the county. For the small border counties far away from the central cities, we should give full play to their role as the frontier of opening up, focus on the development of border trade and characteristic industries, and at the same time make up for the shortcomings of infrastructure and public services, and improve their ability to defend and consolidate the border. The third category: the county seat of the main agricultural product producing area, focusing on the development of rural secondary and tertiary industries through agglomeration, and building itself into a characteristic county town that supports the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. The county town located in the main agricultural product producing area has good conditions for agricultural development, but its economic strength is not strong, and its population agglomeration capacity is limited. Such counties should highlight their main functions, effectively serve the high-quality development of agriculture, and maintain national food security. At the same time, it is necessary to focus on extending the agricultural industrial chain, and through vigorously developing the agricultural product processing industry and agricultural productive service industries, more people will be concentrated in agricultural transfers, so that they can complete urbanization in county seats. Category 4: Counties in key ecological function areas, which undertake the transfer of overloaded population in ecological areas in an orderly manner and develop into ecologically livable cities. Counties located in key ecological function zones should focus on serving the supply of ecological products and ensuring the ecological security of the country. Such counties are constrained by the natural geographical environment, and are generally not suitable for large-scale development of manufacturing, but should develop green industries and clean energy according to their own conditions to provide support for building a solid ecological security barrier. At the same time, the government should innovate the mode of fiscal transfer payment, improve the level of public infrastructure and the supply capacity of public services, and improve the quality of urbanization of the overloaded migrant population in ecological areas. The fifth category: population loss counties, focusing on revitalizing the stock of urban construction land, building a diversified industrial system, and developing into a compact city suitable for living and working. Resource depletion, industrial decline, and low quality of public resources are the main characteristics of counties with serious population loss, and they are also the main causes of "small city disease". Such counties should strictly control the increase of urban construction land, shift to a compact development model, and cultivate distinctive, dynamic and competitive new business forms by supporting the diversified development of industries, so as to improve the income and consumption level of the left-behind population. At the same time, the government should strengthen the protection and improvement of people's livelihood, promote the appropriate concentration of population by adjusting the allocation of public service resources, and improve the efficiency of county governance (Zhu Penghua and Liu Xuexia, 2023[5]).
(2) Practical basis: industry-city integration, smart development
Industry is the foundation for promoting the urbanization construction of the county as an important carrier, and there is industrial agglomeration, only then can there be population agglomeration, and it is necessary to coordinate industrial development, municipal facilities construction and public service supply, and promote the development of the county with high quality. The "invisible hand" of the market and the "visible hand" of the government are the two sources of power for urbanization, while the weak market strength and low government governance efficiency are the fundamental reasons for the relative lag of the new urbanization construction at the county level (Zhu Penghua, 2017 [1]). In cultivating and developing industries with county characteristics and advantages, it is necessary to give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, take the initiative to undertake the industries transferred from large cities in an orderly manner according to its own comparative advantages, and promote the optimization and upgrading of local industries. Agriculture is the foundation of the county's economy, and the county should focus on the development of agricultural productive services and promote the development of agricultural product processing industry clusters. While enhancing the industrial support of the county, it is also necessary to improve the function of the industrial platform and improve the commercial circulation network. On the one hand, it is necessary to rely on various platforms such as industrial clusters, development zones, and pioneer parks in the county to improve public supporting facilities, guide the high-quality development of county-level industries, and improve the work and quality of life of the agricultural transfer population; On the other hand, the development of logistics centers and professional markets, to create a unique county manufacturing products and agricultural and sideline products distribution transit center. Build a low-temperature processing center for fresh food that serves urban consumption, and improve the cold chain logistics facilities in the county. In particular, the core of the integrated development of industry and city is "people", combined with the actual industrial development of the county, targeted and high-quality vocational skills training for migrant workers is carried out to improve their skill quality and employment and entrepreneurship ability.
In terms of the construction of municipal facilities and the supply of public services, it is necessary to give better play to the role of the government and promote the construction of smart cities in the upgrading and expansion of public facilities such as public services, environmental sanitation, municipal utilities, and industrial facilities. One of the major characteristics of modernization is intelligence, which liberates city managers from complicated urban governance, laborers from heavy urban production and labor, and citizens from tedious urban life. Therefore, the high-quality development of new urbanization should work scientific, intelligent and humane, which also requires the urbanization construction with county towns as an important carrier to take the road of smart development. Building new infrastructure and promoting digital transformation are the basic projects for the smart development of the county. On the basis of accelerating the full coverage of 5G networks and the construction of high-speed optical fiber broadband networks, the county will carry out intelligent transformation of municipal facilities such as transportation, water, electricity, gas, and heat, establish an intelligent management platform and big data processing platform based on various sensors and the Internet of Things, and implement the unified management of one network for the operation of the county, reduce the cost of urban governance, and improve the operation efficiency and safety performance of municipal infrastructure. Promote the all-in-one network of administrative services and public services, improve the convenience, satisfaction and sense of gain of market entities and residents, and improve the livelihood and well-being of the county. For the county seat, it is necessary to govern the city "like embroidery", and to implement the "people-centered new urbanization" to every living individual. This is also a new stage of new urbanization into a new stage of development, the construction of a new feature of smart cities, from meeting the general and public needs of urban residents to meeting the needs of special situations, personalized and occasional needs, truly considerate, responsive, and constantly improve the quality of smart city construction, so that the county becomes more livable, suitable for business, and suitable for travel. In addition, in order to meet the requirements of the socialist market economic system and the modernization of national governance for the flattening of the administrative management system, the reform of counties (cities) directly under the jurisdiction of the province should be carried out in an orderly manner on the basis of the experience of the previous pilot projects. Facts have proved that this reform of the administrative management system can effectively promote the economic development of the county (Wei Dongming et al., 2021[27]), and then improve the administrative management and public service capacity of the county-level government.
(3) Practical requirements: urban-rural interaction and integrated development
Under the guidance of the concept of "urban-rural equivalence", adhering to the interaction and integrated development of urban and rural areas is an inevitable requirement for promoting new urbanization at the county level in the new development stage. As a fully functional administrative unit, the county seat is located at the "end of the city and the head of the countryside", with a complete urbanization foundation, and is a natural carrier connecting the city and serving the countryside. At the end of 2021, about 740 million people lived in counties, and most of the rural population (498 million) also lived in counties. 3. As the link between large and medium-sized cities and villages, the county seat is not only the center of information gathering and diffusion in the county, but also the core and leader of the county economy. Therefore, in promoting the urbanization construction with the county seat as an important carrier, the county seat is the main position to promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas, and plays an important role in accepting the radiation of large cities and driving the development of small towns. The first is to enhance the connection function of large and medium-sized cities to radiate county and rural areas. From the perspective of spatial pattern, to give full play to the leading role of large and medium-sized cities in rural revitalization, and truly realize the "urban to rural areas and industry to promote agriculture", we must consider the intermediate link of the county seat. The county seat is a channel and link for the two-way free flow of urban and rural resources, and through the establishment of a cooperation platform linking the leading enterprises in large and medium-sized cities and the main body of rural industry operation in the county, the formation of a cooperation model of the whole industry chain will be promoted, so that each other can complement each other's advantages and develop together. The development of producer services is an important measure for large and medium-sized cities to drive rural revitalization across regions, and counties should play an important role as nodes and bridges to promote the formation of a supply chain network covering the production services, processing and warehousing, circulation and marketing required by the entire agricultural industry chain (Wang Lisheng, 2022 [28]). The second is to promote the integrated development of urban and rural industries in the county. The free flow and equal exchange of urban and rural elements is the basis for the realization of industrial integration and development, and on the basis of fully protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the agricultural transfer population in rural areas, we should accelerate the realization of urbanization in the county area, and guide the talents in the county to return to their hometowns and start businesses through innovative incentive policies. Taking the opportunity of exploring and implementing the system of entering the market for rural collective management construction land, we should revitalize rural idle resources, encourage county industrial and commercial capital to "return to the hometown" to provide financial, technical, managerial, data and other support for the development of rural industries, and establish an incentive mechanism and benefit-sharing mechanism conducive to the transformation and promotion of agriculture-related scientific research achievements. Optimize and upgrade various industrial parks in the county, build a platform for the coordinated development of urban and rural industries at the county level, build a farmers' market network, e-commerce platform, and cold chain logistics that connect urban and rural areas, and improve the efficiency of agricultural products entering the city and industrial products entering the township. The town should be built into an important carrier for the integration of urban and rural industries, realize the diversification of the rural economy and the development of the whole agricultural industry chain, and form a new pattern of endogenous urban-rural integration development (Wang Lisheng, 2020 [2]). The third is to promote the extension of county infrastructure to rural areas. On the basis of speeding up the strength and weakness of county infrastructure, we should promote the extension of county infrastructure to rural areas, and realize the unified planning, construction and management of urban and rural infrastructure. Improve the integrated planning mechanism for urban and rural infrastructure, and make overall plans for the layout of roads, transportation, water supply, heat supply, gas supply, power supply, communications and other facilities within the county. With the county government as the main body of responsibility, improve the mechanism for the integration of urban and rural infrastructure, and form a hierarchical and diversified investment system. Clarify the ownership of infrastructure property rights and the main body responsible for management and protection, introduce market-oriented operation, and establish an integrated management and protection mechanism for urban and rural areas. Fourth, promote the coverage of public services in counties to rural areas. On the basis of improving the level and quality of public services in county towns, we should vigorously promote the full coverage of public services at the county level, so that the basic public service standards in urban and rural areas will be unified and the systems will be on track. With the county as a unit, establish an urban-rural education consortium, fully implement the "county management and school employment" of compulsory education teachers, and the exchange and rotation of principals and teachers in the county, and promote the balanced allocation of high-quality educational resources and the sharing of urban and rural areas. Guide county-level hospitals and township health centers to establish medical and health communities, and form a county-level networked medical and health service operation mechanism through stationing, patrolling, and job rotation, so as to improve the capacity of rural medical services. Coordinate the layout, service supply and team building of urban and rural public cultural facilities at the county level, build a pattern in which the government, the market and society jointly participate in the construction of the urban and rural public cultural service system, and promote the coverage of cultural resources in the county to the countryside. Improve the unified social insurance system in urban and rural areas, establish a three-level pension service network connecting counties and villages, and form a multi-level rural old-age security system such as inclusive and mutual-aid. Coordinate the urban and rural social assistance system, and improve the basic living security level of the urban and rural people, especially the rural people. Promote the effective connection between consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, improve the rural governance mechanism, enhance the capacity of rural governance, and maintain the bottom line of not returning to poverty on a large scale (Wang Lisheng, 2022 [28]).
(4) Practical characteristics: cultural inheritance, green development
Culture is an important force for national development and national rejuvenation, and it is also an important support for the new urbanization of the county. Because it is closest to the grassroots and rural areas, the county has strong local characteristics and has well preserved the regional cultural heritage and customs. In promoting the urbanization construction with the county seat as an important carrier, it is necessary to strengthen the protection and inheritance of natural history and cultural heritage, and build a beautiful county town with historical memory, cultural context, regional features and ethnic characteristics. The cultural heritage is destroyed, and the city lacks vitality no matter how new and good it is. It is necessary to unify the renovation and upgrading of the old city with the protection of historical relics and the preservation of historical context, not only to improve the living environment, but also to protect the historical and cultural heritage, so that history and culture and modern life can be integrated. [29] On the one hand, it is necessary to protect the historical and national cultural heritage in the renewal of the county, and combine the protection of cultural relics with the upgrading of urban functions to improve the quality of urban development. It is necessary not only to protect famous historical and cultural cities, towns and towns as a whole, but also to protect revolutionary cultural relics, red sites, historical buildings, and industrial heritage in the process of revitalization and utilization. On the other hand, it is necessary to integrate traditional cultural elements into the construction of the new area of the county and coordinate with the original natural and cultural characteristics. Promote the integration of intangible cultural heritage into the construction of the county, and continue the historical context by exploring the city's cultural resources and the inheritance and innovation of architectural design, so as to avoid the same situation of a thousand cities. In short, the renewal and construction of the county town should pay attention to the inheritance of excellent traditional culture, preserve the cultural memory of the county, and promote the development of local characteristic culture. At the same time, it is also necessary to pay attention to the development of cultural diversity, promote the integration of traditional and modern, local and foreign cultures, and form a diversified and open modern county culture.
Green is the background color of the new urbanization, and it is necessary to integrate the concept of green development into the urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier, strengthen environmental protection and ecological restoration, save and intensively utilize resources, promote the formation of a green, circular and low-carbon production and lifestyle and urban construction and operation mode, and comprehensively improve the development and governance quality of the county. The first is to build a beautiful county town where man and nature coexist in harmony. Relying on the natural geographical conditions of the county, the construction of ecological green corridors, the implementation of ecological restoration projects, the barren slopes, abandoned land, polluted land and other land greening, strengthen the construction of urban parks and green space, improve the green coverage rate and green space rate of built-up areas. Restore the ecological and water environment of wetlands such as rivers, lakes and coastal areas, carry out ecological transformation, restore and enhance the self-purification capacity of water bodies, and completely eliminate black and odorous water bodies. At the same time, improve the infrastructure and public services of the county, increase the space for public activities, promote the development of new forms and functions of the city, improve the efficiency of county governance, and enhance the livelihood and well-being of the county. The second is to enhance the county's garbage and sewage collection and treatment capacity. In the upgrading of county and municipal facilities, the garbage room and transfer station will be renovated, the domestic waste classification and treatment system and incineration treatment facilities will be built according to local conditions, and the collection and centralized utilization and disposal facilities of hazardous waste such as medical treatment will be rationally arranged, and the comprehensive utilization of bulk solid waste will be promoted. Improve the collection capacity of the county's sewage pipe network, promote the transformation of rain and sewage diversion, expand and transform the existing sewage treatment plant, and gradually implement the resource utilization of sewage and the harmless disposal of sludge, so as to strictly prevent the county's pollution from "going to the mountains and going to the countryside". The third is to promote green, circular and low-carbon production and lifestyle. Strictly control the development of high-energy-consuming and high-emission industries in the industrial development layout of the county, and promote the recycling transformation of various industrial parks. Encourage the development of non-fossil energy consumption and distributed energy, and electrify public transportation, logistics and distribution, municipal sanitation and other vehicles. Implement green building actions and promote green building materials, green buildings, and green construction. Promote civilized, healthy and green living habits, reduce the consumption of disposable consumer goods and packaging materials, and promote energy-saving, low-carbon and water-saving products and environmentally friendly renewable products. Widely mobilize and organize the masses to participate in the environmental governance of the county, carry out the creation of green life in the county, advocate green travel, and the construction of green families and green communities.
About author:WANG Lisheng, male, born in January 1963, researcher of the School of Philosophy, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, doctor of law, main research direction of Chinese Marxist philosophy, socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, rural revitalization*Zhu Penghua, male, born in July 1982, associate researcher of the School of Economics, Shandong University, doctor of economics, main research direction is Marxist political economy, urbanization, urban-rural integration development.
Fund: "Research on the Political Economy of High-quality Development" of Shandong Provincial Social Science Planning Project (Project No.: 22CXSXJ01)
Source: Journal of Central University of Finance and Economics