Legal information

No matter you are the boss holding the mining rights or you are runningConstruction land approvalDevelopers, or grassroots civil servants in the Natural Resources Bureau, as long as your business involves these fields, you must read this article today. If you don't keep up with the pace, the approval materials you are preparing according to the "old process" may become waste paper in the next second.

Many friends may think: "If it is scrapped, it will be scrapped. If the old does not go away, the new will not come in."

Wrong! This is the biggest cognitive trap. Abolition of old documents often means that certain "gray operating channels" in the past have been completely blocked, or the "hidden rules" of approval have changed.

Let’s zoom in on a specific pain point: For example, the abolition document includes the “Notice on Increasing the Disposal of Idle Land” and the “Opinions on Standardizing Land Registration.”

What does this mean? In the past, some places identified "idle land" based on these old policies, or some land registration defects left over from history. Starting this year, the legal basis has changed! If an enterprise still uses the old "Opinions" from 2012 to claim rights with the administrative agency, the administrative agency can completely ignore it on the grounds that "the document has been abolished and the basis does not exist."

In fact, many business owners have not realized the seriousness of the problem. The most severe blow in this cleanup is hidden in Article 2 of the document: “Documents issued in the name of departments, bureaus, divisions and other internal agencies shall not be used as the basis for administrative management.”

To put it in layman's terms, the days when certain departments could control an enterprise with just a "note" or "internal notice" are over. Any administrative management must come up with formal regulations or legal provisions. For enterprises, this is actually a powerful tool for safeguarding rights - if any department comes up with an "old notice from 2000" to embarrass you in the future, you can tell them directly: This document will be invalidated in 2026!

Now that the old rules are gone, what should we do in 2026? Focus on these 3 core changes, which are directly related to your pocketbook:

First, the burden on construction land approval will be reduced.

The abolished list includes a long list of old process documents regarding "submission to the State Council for approval of construction land" (such as Land and Resources Development [2000] No. 201, etc.). This means that the country is simplifying the cumbersome procedures for high-level approvals. In the future, when large projects are implemented, the wrangling links will be greatly reduced. If your project is in the process of being submitted for filing, quickly check whether it still comes with the abolished “backup materials”.

Second, "threshold adjustment" for the use of minerals and sea areas.

For example, the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Prices for Exploration Rights and Mining Rights" and the "Review Rules for Sea Area User Fee Waivers and Waivers" were abolished, marking that the mineral resource royalty system and the sea area usage fee exemption mechanism have entered a new stage. The price calculated by the "old method" in the past may no longer be applicable. It is recommended that the mining rights holder undergo a compliance physical examination as soon as possible to avoid being judged as "underpayment" due to insufficient payment according to the old regulations.

Third, satellite film law enforcement andArable land occupation and compensation"Rule iteration".

Like "Rules for Determining the Legality of Land Satellite Photo Law Enforcement Patterns”, “Notice on the Warehousing of Land Maps for Facility Agriculture”, etc. are among those to be abolished. This means that the law enforcement judgment standards for satellite films in 2026 will be fully updated. "Patterns" that were not illegal before may not be illegal this year; facility agricultural land that did not need to be put into storage before may now have a new interpretation.