Urban-Rural Dual Structure in China:From “Exploitation Type” to “Protection Type”

In China, the urban-rural dual structure is not only a natural difference in industrial structure, but also a state-dominated system setting. In the first three decades after the founding of new China, because of the obvious “urban preference” and the policy of discrimination against rural areas, the urban-rural dual structure had a sense of “exploitation”. Since the late 1990s, with the development of market economy, as well as the population movements and the implementation of national agricultural policy, the “exploitation” of urban-rural dual structure in China is weakening, and its “protective” function is growing. Maintaining the “protection type” of the urban-rural dual structure enables the majority of farmers to freely “advance or be back” in the market economy, is not only a great significance for the interests of farmers, but also conducive to maintaining the resilient social structure, which has a strategic value for the social stability in rural areas and the economic development of the country. In this sense, the goal of new urbanization should not be based on a radical way to break or eradicate the urban-rural dual structure, but further weaken the “exploitation” of the urban-rural dual structure and strengthen its protective function to the farmers.