Against the backdrop of rapid urbanization, China faces a critical dilemma: reconciling the competing demands of economic growth and food security. The “Linkage” Policy, conceptualized as a localized variant of Transferable Development Rights (TDR), facilitates the balance among urban expansion, cultivated land preservation, and rural development through transferring construction land quotas between urban and rural sectors. However, its implementation reveals institutional complexities arising from China’s dual land tenure system, decentralized governance structures, and stakeholder conflicts. Through a systematic analysis of China’s land use and governance, this chapter proposes three preliminary arguments of this book: (1) the “Linkage” Policy has restructured land property rights, enabling market-driven transactions within China’s state-dominated land regime; (2) diverse governance structures—government-dominated, market-invested, and self-organized—have emerged, each with distinct efficiency and equity implications; and (3) policy performance varies significantly depending on local institutional arrangements, often diverging from central government objectives. By integrating Property Rights Theory, Transaction Cost Economics, and empirical case studies, this book aims to contribute to broader debates on sustainable urbanization, institutional diversity in centralized systems, and the adaptability of TDR mechanisms in developing economies.