Rights Defense Network Policy and Regulations Commentary: Six Departments Jointly Issue the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Renovation and Upgrading of Old Urban Blocks and Factory Areas — Preventing a New Policy for People’s Livelihoods from Becoming a Feast for the Powerful; Renovation of Old Urban Blocks Must Uphold Human Rights and Equality

Special Commentator: Zhang Haoran

On October 23, 2026, the General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce, and the General Office of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Renovation and Upgrading of Old Urban Blocks and Factory Areas, setting out a systematic plan for upgrading and renovating old urban blocks and factory areas nationwide. Grounded in improving the quality and efficiency of urban renewal, this new policy focuses on prominent problems such as aging facilities, outdated functions, limited business formats, and insufficient use of space in old areas, and sets out a systematic path for renovation and upgrading. The document requires local authorities to assess their cities, accurately identify shortcomings and weaknesses in old urban blocks and factory areas under their jurisdiction, plan the renovation schedule scientifically, and advance quality upgrades in stages and by category. The renovation will focus on old residential blocks, old commercial districts, old industrial areas, and areas around transport hubs. Through facility upgrades, environmental improvements, renewal of business formats, and more effective use of space, it aims to improve public amenities, revitalize neighborhoods, and preserve the city’s cultural heritage. The policy also specifies that approval services should be optimized and financing models innovated; it encourages participation by private capital, calls on residents and businesses to jointly develop and govern their neighborhoods, and seeks to establish long-term operating and management mechanisms, continuously improving urban livability and overall capacity. (For details, see: https://www.mohurd.gov.cn/gongkai/zc/wjk/art/2026/art_4e701b22880944b38799ca132532dfbd.html )

Commentary: Preventing a New Policy for People’s Livelihoods from Becoming a Feast for the Powerful Renovation of Old Urban Blocks Must Uphold Human Rights and Equality

On October 23, six departments jointly issued guiding opinions on renovating and upgrading old urban blocks and factory areas. At the level of top-level policy design, every measure—making use of idle space, upgrading urban facilities, optimizing the mix of businesses in neighborhoods, promoting the integration of stations and cities, and preserving urban heritage—is grounded in improving people’s livelihoods and advancing cities. The intent is to benefit the public, and the direction is positive. These are measures to improve urban functions and enhance people’s well-being.

Policy is meant to serve the public, but a look at past urban renewal projects across the country shows that even the best top-level design often cannot withstand the most distorted implementation at the grassroots level. Many new policies intended to benefit cities and the public, once they reach the last mile of local implementation, can easily be turned into tools for a small number of powerholders to profit. Renovation of old urban blocks and factory areas has become a “golden track” for rent-seeking by grassroots officials.

For people who truly hope their cities will improve and their lives will get better, the issuance of a policy document is good news for their livelihoods. But for some grassroots officials with ulterior motives, looking for opportunities to profit, it has become a “window of opportunity to cash in” that they can readily seize. Renovation projects are scattered across many sites, involve complex funding chains, and face gaps in oversight. From project approval and construction bidding to contracting, materials procurement, acceptance, and settlement, the entire chain is rife with room for manipulation. Taking advantage of policy implementation and project expansion, officials in many places have engaged in backroom dealings and favoritism, privately assigning projects meant to be transparent public works awarded through fair competition to relatives, associates, and connected parties.

Behind the seemingly sweeping urban transformation, a closed loop of vested interests has already taken shape: power decides on projects, connections secure contracts, capital captures the gains, and the public bears the costs. The gains from renewal that should benefit the whole city are privately appropriated by a small circle; public projects that should be openly bid have become “business reserved for insiders.” This corruption of power concealed behind urban renewal is more harmful and more devastating than construction defects. It directly undermines the fairness at the heart of public policy, erodes public trust in the government, and completely distorts a new policy intended to benefit the public.

The undercurrents of power-seeking for private gain inevitably go hand in hand with the continued erosion of people’s rights. To make way for projects awarded through connections, meet performance targets, or cut renovation costs, the lawful rights and interests of residents are wantonly disregarded. At the local implementation level, a distorted logic prevails: focus only on the speed of renovation, look only at the results of renewal, and seek only to get projects underway, while ignoring the human rights at stake in people’s rights to housing, property, and survival.

In practice, many old urban block renovation projects are caught in a vicious cycle: residents’ wishes are not considered, there is no adequate consultation, and compensation and resettlement are not provided; a demolition begins on the strength of a single notice. Many people’s homes are forcibly torn down and old houses razed in an instant, while promised resettlement housing remains nowhere in sight and lawful compensation is long overdue or absent. To be sure, public demands do not have to be accommodated without qualification; a few people who make exorbitant demands or unreasonably obstruct work should receive a fair ruling through judicial proceedings and be dealt with in accordance with the law. But the biggest problem at the grassroots level today is that fair judicial procedures are often missing, while crude administrative force always comes first.

Grassroots governance has long been turned upside down: ordinary people’s reasonable efforts to defend their rights are readily branded as obstructing development, while officials often turn a blind eye to the transfer of benefits through power-seeking for private gain. On one side, projects awarded through connections are rampant and the undercurrents of benefit transfers run deep; on the other, people have no stable homes, their grievances go unanswered, and they have nowhere to seek redress. As cities look newer and newer, the gray areas of power grow ever larger, while the living space of people at the bottom of society grows ever narrower.

More worthy of reflection is that the core purpose of urban renewal is to put people first, improve quality, and benefit the public. It must never sacrifice people’s rights for a polished cityscape, nor use public policy as a vehicle to nourish corruption. Old urban blocks carry the everyday memories of generations of residents, and old factory areas bear the marks of a city’s development over time. The ultimate purpose of renovation and upgrading is for existing residents to share in the gains of development and live in secure, comfortable homes—not to drive local people from their homes and make room for capital and power.

Real urban progress has never been about the surface prosperity of towering buildings and polished streets and alleys. Its deeper measure is the warmth of a city where rights are protected, fairness can be felt, and justice is put into practice. If grassroots power is allowed to overstep its bounds at will, if rent-seeking corruption is allowed to erode people’s livelihoods, and if people’s basic human rights are repeatedly trampled, then even the most perfect policy design and the most ambitious renewal project will ultimately be a tree without roots and water without a source.

Renovation of old urban blocks and factory areas must create a new look and a new feel while upholding the bottom line of fairness, the red line of human rights, and the firewall against corruption. Only by tightening institutional constraints, severing chains of vested interests, ensuring transparent operations, severely punishing favoritism and power-seeking for private gain, and putting resettlement compensation and the protection of people’s rights first can a new policy intended to benefit the public return to its original purpose of serving the people, and urban renewal truly benefit the public and earn their trust.