Abstract
In spite of thirty years of rule by the Communist Party China has remained a predominantly agricultural country. Consequently the success of its agricultural policy will be the key to the success of the whole programme of the four modernisations. Approximately 800 million peasants live in 50 000 people’s communes, but population concentration is very high, with about 90 per cent of the total population living in 40 per cent of the land area. The scale of the problems facing agriculture means that the state must make an enormous investment in agriculture to introduce modern machinery and to carry out large-scale agricultural capital construction. This is the objective but it is not economically feasible nor is it possible to rectify quickly the unequal exchange in value between industrial and agricultural products. This means that policies to achieve growth and raise living standards will still have to be based largely on making use of the large population and on development through incentive.
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References
For a detailed description of land reform in one village see W. Hinton, Fanshen (Penguin Books, 1972).
The Agrarian Reform Law (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1951).
The categorisations were: landlord, rich peasant, middle peasant, poor peasant and farm labourer.
New China’s Economic Achievements, 1949–1952 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1952), p. 194. One mu equals one-sixth of an acre.
F. Schurmann, Ideoloġy and Organisation in Communist China (University of California Press, 1968), p. 442.
Mao’s speech was not released until October 1955, presumably to avoid risk to the harvest because of the speed-up.
Xue Muqiao, ‘Economic Work Must Grasp the Laws of Economic Development’ in Documents on Communist Affairs (Macmillan, 1980).
Ibid.
Formerly these industries were run by the local government. In 1979 and 1980 there were suggestions that this system should be reverted to.
Reported in The Guardian (10 June 1980).
These regulations were first drawn up under Mao’s supervision in 1962.
Beijing Review (BR), no. 12 (1980), pp. 14–15.
‘Regulations on the Work in the Rural People’s Communes (Revised Draft), in Issues and Studies, vol. XV, no. 10, p. 93.
Guangming Daily (Guangming Ribao GMRB) (6 November 1979).
People’s Daily (Renmin Ribao RMRB) (14 May 1980).
BR, no. 9 (1979), pp. 5–6.
BR, no. 12 (1980), p. 20.
BR, no. 4 (1980), p. 21.
Xue Muqiao, ‘Economic Work Must Grasp the Laws of Economic Development’.
BR, no. 16 (1979), p. 15.
Ibid., p. 19.
‘Regulations on the Work in Rural People’s Communes (Revised Draft)’ in Issues and Studies, vol. XV, no. 10, p. 106.
Normally 5 to 7 per cent of the Production team’s cultivable land is used for private plots.
The total area for this varies but at most totals 15 to 17 per cent of the production team’s cultivable land.
BR, no. 16 (1979), p. 24.
BR, no. 15 (1980), p. 23.
Summary of World Broadcasts: the Far East (SWB FE 6374).
BR, no. 12 (1979), p. 8.
Ibid.
BR, no. 22 (1979), pp. 4–5. The average price of grain dropped by 20 per cent.
BR, no. 47 (1979), p. 6.
BR, no. 12 (1979), p. 8.
BR, no. 5 (1980), p. 7.
Ibid.
See for example ‘The Operation of Commune and Brigade-run Enterprises Must Benefit the Enrichment of the Production Teams’ in SWB FE/6337.
BR, no. 16 (1980), p. 7.
BR, no. 20 (1979), p. 5.
Selected further reading
S. J. Burki, A Study of Chinese Communes (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969).
F. W. Crook, ‘The Commune System in the People’s Republic of China, 1963–74’ in Joint Economic Committee, 1974 Congress, First Session, China: A Reassesment of the Economy (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975), pp. 366–410.
W. Hinton, Fanshen (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972).
R. Hofheinz, ‘Rural Administration in Communist China in R. Mac-Farquhar (ed.), China Under Mao: Politics Takes Command (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1966), pp. 79–118.
J. Myrdal, Report from a Chinese Village (New York: Pantheon, 1965).
J. Myrdal and G. Kessle, China: The Revolution Continued (New York: Pantheon, 1970).
C. Riskin, ‘China’s Rural Industries: Self Reliant Systems or Independent Kingdoms’ in China Quarterly, no. 73, pp. 77–98.
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© 1981 Tony Saich
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Saich, T. (1981). Rural China. In: China: Politics and Government. China in Focus series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16590-2_10
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