Cultivated land protection (CLP) entered the new era of macro administration in
1999 in China. This paper presents a holistic analysis of cultivated land use change concerning
the three goals of the CLP, i.e., grain security, ecological security and harmonizing
regional development. Farmers’ willingness to grow grain has been the key factor in safeguarding
grain security. Grain-for-green policy has contributed to improving ecological state
especially in the western provinces. Effects of the land macro-control of the CLP on harmonizing
regional development were significant. Moreover, cultivated land use change in
1999–2007 points out the way of the evolving policy in the future. From the viewpoint of
normative concept of multifunctionality, we discuss development of the three land functions,
i.e., production function, environmental function and carrier function. Finally, we propose to
emphasize multifunctional land management based on regional differences to promote transition
of the CLP.