How extensive is our nation's wealth? While it was difficult to provide a complete picture before, the state is now moving to establish a clear and comprehensive ledger. Recently, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Improving the Management System for Natural Resource Assets." This document serves as a guiding framework for the nation to create an inventory, register, strengthen management, and enhance the value of its mountains, waters, and other natural assets, representing a significant reform in China's natural resource sector.

The process of "creating an inventory" first involves taking stock of what assets exist, their locations, and their value. This will allow for dynamic monitoring of the national wealth on a unified ledger. "Registration" refers to promoting the confirmation and registration of natural resource rights, enabling transactions of these assets with a clear "title deed." Well-defined property rights are expected to stimulate greater market vitality. To draw an analogy, in the past, natural resource assets like mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts were distributed across various "small shops." The rights to use them had to be procured from different places, and accounts were kept in separate ledgers. As the collective owners of these assets, the people could not see a unified account and were unable to track whether the asset pool was growing or shrinking, or if the national wealth was increasing or decreasing.

The introduction of these "Opinions" is akin to consolidating the goods from the "small shops" into one "large supermarket," with the entire population as the owners of this "supermarket." This "supermarket" not only centralizes the "goods" but also offers a richer variety. Categories that were previously hard to find in the "small shops," such as abandoned mining pits, caves, and uninhabited islands, will now be listed and available here.