由于国内房地产市场的崩盘，中国地方政府正面临严重的财政困境。土地出让收入在2021年（全国房价的最高峰期）占地方政府总收入的约40%，此后下降了一半以上，迫使债务沉重的城市削减公共部门的工资。作为应对，各市政当局正在寻找新的收入来源，从激进的监管罚款到将国有实体的短期高息债务置换为低利率、长期官方债券。他们还在执行中央政府于2022年发起的“盘活存量国有资产”的指令，而没有采取彻底的私有化。

湖南省岳阳市通过其“岳阳模式”展示了这一转变，该模式专注于集约化发展和盘活未充分利用的国有资产。岳阳市将一个破旧的面积达三平方公里（相当于纽约中央公园大小）的滨水区改造成步行区和商业地产，从而产生市政租金收入。它还将零散的湖泊经营权整合到一个单一的国有实体下以提高渔业权价值，并将一个失败的旅游开发项目改造成一个容纳了80家入驻企业的人力资源综合体，管理该综合体的市政公司还持有这些企业的股份。

这一资产盘活运动正呈现出积极的财政趋势。“国有资产有偿使用收入”作为地方收入来源不断增长，在盘活力度最大的十个省份中，此类收费占2025年财政支出的10%，高于2021年的仅5%。尽管这种货币化手段无法完全解决中国根深蒂固的债务危机，但它标志着从粗放的城市扩张向更精细、更集约的治理模式转变，使财政受限的中国能够从有限的资源中榨取更多价值。

Chinese local governments are facing severe fiscal distress due to a crash in the national property market. Land sales, which accounted for approximately 40% of total local government revenues in 2021—the peak year for domestic home prices—have since fallen by more than half, forcing debt-burdened cities to cut public sector wages. In response, municipalities are seeking new revenue streams, ranging from aggressive regulatory fines to swapping high-interest, short-term debt of state entities for lower-rate, longer-term official bonds. They are also implementing a central government directive launched in 2022 to "revitalize existing state assets" without outright privatization.

The city of Yueyang in Hunan province exemplifies this shift through its "Yueyang model," which focuses on intensive development and putting underused state-owned assets to work. Yueyang renovated a run-down three-square-kilometer waterfront area (comparable to New York's Central Park) into pedestrian spaces and commercial properties, generating municipal rental income. It also consolidated fragmented lake operating rights under a single state entity to increase fishing right values, and converted a failed tourist development into a human-resources complex that houses 80 tenant firms, with the managing municipal company taking equity stakes in these businesses.

This asset revitalization campaign is showing positive financial trends. "Charges on usage of state assets" have grown as a source of local revenue, accounting for 10% of expenditures in the ten most aggressive provinces in 2025, up from just 5% in 2021. Although this monetization cannot fully resolve China's deep-seated debt crisis, it marks a transition from extensive urban sprawl to a more refined, intensive model of governance, allowing a financially constrained China to squeeze more value from less.

Source: A squeezed China is trying to wring more from its state assets

Subtitle: Its latest campaign won’t solve its debt woes, but inches in the right directio

Dateline: Jul 16, 2026 04:58 AM