Since being appointed as the first minister of the newly established Ministry of Natural Resources on March 19, Lu Hao has been in office for over a month. During this period of more than a month, the youngest “top leader” among the State Council’s ministries and commissions has attended the inaugural ceremony of the Ministry of Natural Resources, chaired symposiums, and traveled nonstop—from Xiong’an in the north to Hainan in the south.

　　Public opinion holds that, judging from the series of activities undertaken since Lu Hao took office, exploring the planning formulation under the “integrated multi-plan” model is becoming a key approach for the Ministry of Natural Resources to fulfill its new functions and carry out new tasks. The fact that the new minister has dared to tackle the most challenging and thorny issues demonstrates both his courage and competence, and also reflects the central authorities’ careful consideration and profound intentions in personnel selection.

　　North-South Survey

　　The Xiong'an New Area was Lu Hao’s first stop outside Beijing after taking office as Minister of Natural Resources.

　　On April 11, in the Xiong'an New Area, Lu Hao conducted a research visit to explore policy innovations related to land and spatial planning and use control, ecological conservation, and natural resource management.

　　After leaving Xiong’an, Lu Hao headed south to Hainan. From April 12 to 15, he conducted research in three cities—Haikou, Wenchang, and Sanya. The research covered topics including the impact of land reclamation projects on marine dynamics and biodiversity, changes, conservation, and restoration efforts in mangrove nature reserves and coral reef nature reserves, ecological restoration of urban rivers and lakes, deep-sea science and engineering, territorial spatial planning, integrated land-sea management, and the construction of a comprehensive information management platform for “multi-plan integration.”

　　In addition to these two field trips outside Beijing, information released by the Ministry of Natural Resources also shows that on March 26 and 27—about a week after taking office—Lu Hao, in his capacity as Party Group Secretary and Minister, chaired two consecutive Party Group meetings. The topics of these meetings were institutional reform and ecological civilization construction, respectively.

　　Following these two Party Group meetings, Lu Hao consecutively chaired and convened five symposiums from March 29 to April 4. These symposiums invited heads of relevant business departments and bureaus, local government officials, experts and scholars, heads of related ministries and commissions, and representatives from enterprises to discuss how to refine the function positioning of the Ministry of Natural Resources already determined by the central authorities, scientifically restructure its organizational framework, and effectively carry out natural resource management work, while also soliciting opinions and suggestions from all relevant parties.

　　In addition, on April 3 and April 9, Lu Hao led teams to visit the Environmental and Resource Protection Committee of the National People's Congress and the Population, Resources, and Environment Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, respectively, to listen to their opinions and suggestions.

　　Establish a unified spatial planning system.

　　Judging from Lu Hao’s two field trips out of Beijing, both visits involved land and spatial planning. In Xiong’an, he conducted a study on land and spatial planning as well as use-control measures; in Hainan, he inspected the construction of a comprehensive information management platform for land and spatial planning, integrated land-sea coordination, and “multi-plan integration.”

　　According to the "State Council Institutional Reform Plan," the newly established Ministry of Natural Resources will assume unified responsibility for all land-use control and ecological conservation and restoration tasks.

　　China’s current spatial planning system comprises four main components: the Overall Plan for Land Use, Urban and Rural Planning, Functional Zone Planning, and Ecological Functional Zoning. These plans are respectively organized and prepared by the former Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the former Ministry of Environmental Protection. Due to the fragmented nature of the agencies responsible for preparing and managing these plans—as well as inconsistencies in their hierarchical structures and preparation standards—problems such as conflicting planning objectives and contradictory content frequently arise. In an interview with China Newsweek, Zhang Weichen, a senior engineer at the Institute of Land and Resource Economics, pointed out that previously, there was a lack of information sharing and mutual communication among departments, leading to mutual constraints, conflicts over power boundaries, and a clear departmental bias. Moreover, entrenched departmental interests have become deeply ingrained, making it impossible to achieve coordinated efforts and posing significant challenges to the protection of natural resources.

　　“This has led to the spatial regulatory authority, which was previously centered on land, being dispersed across different government ministries,” said Zhang Weichen. “The crux of conflicts in spatial planning lies in the competition over control of land development rights.”

　　In August 2014, four government departments—the National Development and Reform Commission, the former Ministry of Land and Resources, the former Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development—jointly issued the “Notice on Launching Pilot Work for ‘Multi-Plan Integration’ at the City and County Levels.” Twenty-eight cities and counties were selected to serve as pilot sites, with each of the four departments providing guidance separately. However, the results were less than satisfactory, primarily because each department focused on its own spatial planning responsibilities when carrying out the “multi-plan integration” pilot, leading to a lack of standardization in both planning criteria and procedures.

　　Zhang Weichen believes that “integrated multi-plan management” does not simply involve “piecing together” various plans or abolishing any legally mandated plan. Rather, it entails appropriately aligning diverse plans—covering economic, social, land-use, environmental, water-resource, urban-rural development, and integrated transportation and social services—on a unified spatial information platform, based on actual conditions. This ensures the consistency of key spatial parameters such as task objectives, protected areas, development strategies, project arrangements, and urban-rural layouts as defined by these “multiple plans,” thereby optimizing spatial layout, efficiently allocating various resources, and continuously enhancing the government’s capacity for spatial regulation and governance.

　　In his view, this is the toughest “hard bone” to crack.

　　Niu Xiong, an associate researcher at the Institute of Resource and Environmental Policy of the Development Research Center of the State Council, told China Newsweek that a key purpose of establishing a powerful Ministry of Natural Resources is to address the issue of overlapping spatial planning and to impose strict controls on land use across the country.

　　From the very beginning of his tenure, Lu Hao has been actively exploring planning preparation under the “integrated multi-plan” model and has dared to tackle the toughest challenges.

　　As for why Lu Hao chose Xiong'an New Area and Hainan as his research subjects, Zhang Weichen believes that, in addition to these two places’ special status, their roles in national land spatial planning also played a significant part.

　　As a new city set to be built on a “blank slate,” Xiong’an enjoys inherent advantages in spatial planning. The Xiong’an New Area will draw on international best practices, organize and prepare its plans to high standards and with high quality, and implement “integrated multi-plan approaches” to create a model for urban development. As early as May last year, the former Ministry of Natural Resources had already designated Xiong’an as a pilot zone for reform in land and resource management and as a testing ground for innovative policies, providing targeted support in areas such as ensuring land-use needs, land-supply policies, urban geological surveys, unified real estate registration, and related land tax and fee policies.

　　Hainan was the first province in the country to launch a pilot program for integrating multiple planning schemes at the provincial level. Bold in innovation and courageous in breaking new ground, Hainan has developed replicable and scalable reform experiences, earning high praise from the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform, which described Hainan as having “taken a step forward and explored valuable experience in promoting the establishment of a unified spatial planning system across the entire province.” At the beginning of 2017, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the “Pilot Program for Provincial Spatial Planning,” requiring that, building on the pilot efforts in Hainan and other regions, seven additional provinces—Jilin, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Henan, Guangxi, and Guizhou—be included in the scope of the provincial spatial planning pilot program, thereby advancing the reform of integrating multiple planning schemes at the provincial level.

　　External analysts believe that these signs indicate that establishing a unified spatial planning system is likely to become a key focus for Lu Hao’s work after he takes office.

　　An economics background is an advantage.

　　In addition to establishing a spatial planning system, the regulation of natural resource development, utilization, and conservation; fulfilling the duties of the owner of all types of natural resource assets owned by the people; improving the national management system for natural resource assets; and setting up a system for the paid use of natural resources—all these are considered “hard nuts to crack” that the Ministry of Natural Resources must tackle. Some of these “hard nuts” are the result of historical accumulation, while others represent “virgin territory” yet to be explored. But for Lu Hao, they all pose significant challenges.

　　Before taking office as Minister of Natural Resources, Lu Hao was already one of the most closely watched senior officials in the media. Born in 1967, he has repeatedly broken records for being the youngest official since entering politics: at age 35, he became Vice Mayor of Beijing; at age 41, he served as First Secretary of the Secretariat of the Communist Youth League Central Committee, becoming the then-youngest official at the ministerial level; and at age 46, he was elected Governor of Heilongjiang Province, making him China’s youngest provincial governor. Now, as head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, he once again becomes the youngest minister in the State Council.

　　Facing problems head-on and unafraid of challenges—this is the impression Lu Hao has left on the media. In March 2016, in response to the wage-payment crisis at Longmei Group, Lu Hao openly admitted that the information he had disclosed a few days earlier was incorrect. He stated frankly, “It’s true that underground workers have not been paid their wages; I got this wrong.” He further emphasized, “If you’re wrong, you’re wrong—and when you’re wrong, you’ve got to correct it.”

　　During the Two Sessions held that same year, Lu Hao did not shy away from addressing the issue of the exorbitantly priced fish that had been exposed in Heilongjiang. He said, “In my view, the ‘exorbitantly priced fish’ incident was not accidental; a significant number of grassroots cadres and business operators still have a noticeable gap in their awareness of accepting oversight from both society and public opinion.” He believes that such incidents present an excellent opportunity to improve work, as they provide the relevant departments with a chance to engage in focused and profound self-reflection.

　　Looking back now, his five-year stint in politics in Heilongjiang can rightly be described as an early “rehearsal” for Lu Hao’s leadership of the Ministry of Natural Resources. As a province rich in natural resources, Heilongjiang is home to nearly all types of natural resources—mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes, and grasslands.

　　Before leaving Heilongjiang, on January 26 this year, Lu Hao, while attending the first session of the 13th People’s Congress of Heilongjiang Province, stated that we should integrate traditional and emerging advantageous resources with new technologies, new business forms, and new business models to promote industrial transformation and innovation-driven entrepreneurship.

　　In the Heilongjiang Provincial Government’s work report, he stated that we must “promote market-oriented reforms in the allocation of public resources, with all projects—including mineral resources—being awarded through open bidding,” and “launch pilot programs to integrate land use, environmental protection, urban planning, and other related plans into a single, unified framework.” These tasks precisely represent the challenges facing the Ministry of Natural Resources.

　　In addition, his professional background in economics and management is also considered to be a key strength of Lu Hao’s leadership at the Ministry of Natural Resources.

　　Zhang Weichen, a senior engineer at the Institute of Land and Resources Economics, said in an interview with China Newsweek that one of the biggest changes—from the Ministry of Land and Resources to the Ministry of Natural Resources—is the shift from past resource management to resource asset management. “And when it comes to managing assets, what’s most needed is precisely the specialized knowledge of economic management.”