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Interpretations and Situations

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The Relationship between Land-lost Farmers and Local Government in China

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Abstract

When trying to understand a particular setting and the relations taking place within that setting, we cannot satisfy ourselves with examining official documents and regulations alone. People are not passive receptors of written regulations but active interpreters.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    More detailed description and analysis of categorisations within the group of land-lost farmers as a whole can be found in Chap. 6.

  2. 2.

    Before land expropriation, the setting of the village followed that during the period of People’s Commune, when rural administration was graded into echelons of commune, production brigade, and production team (Ho 2001).

  3. 3.

    Zhongguo 90 % Yiwan Fuweng wei ‘Gaogan’ Zidi (90 % of Chinese Billionaires are Juniors of ‘High-ranking Officials’), http://bbs1.people.com.cn/postDetail.do?id=93401446&boardId=2, accessed 24 Feb 2011.

  4. 4.

    China’s Anti-corruption Battle Set to be Intensified, http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0704/c90000-9081101.html, accessed 11 Aug 2016.

  5. 5.

    This means that compensation is given once and for all.

  6. 6.

    A unit of weight in China = 500 g.

  7. 7.

    A unit of Chinese currency = 1/10 yuan.

  8. 8.

    More details can be referred to in Appendix C.

  9. 9.

    Jiang (2003) analysed the characteristic of governmentalisation of Chinese judiciary since 1949, which has become an important constituent of socialist judiciary after repeated intensification by several-decade political movement, manifesting a sort of continuity with traditional Chinese judiciary deriving from imperial power.

  10. 10.

    And some will further argue that according to Arrow’s theorem, it is senseless to wish a collective being has a collective will (see Riker 1982).

  11. 11.

    For description and analysis on China’s hukou system, see Cheng and Selden (1994).

  12. 12.

    There were many detailed variations in the way this system works, at different times and in different places: see, for example, Chan et al. (1992), Parish and Whyte (1978), Potter and Potter (1990).

  13. 13.

    This may appear prevalent in developing countries. As Mitra finds out in his study, in India, ‘[w]ithin the general populace, we now begin to identify conglomerates of benefit-seekers whose choices are based on interest rather than social and economic obligation’ (1980: 71).

  14. 14.

    This falls into the priority given by Jenkins (1982) to historical theory, which holds that peasants rebel because of their economic concern, over structural theory, which instead emphasises political class relations.

  15. 15.

    Though, those with more knowledge within land-lost farmers tend to allege that they are safeguarding their deserved rights, even ‘for the whole group’. Refer to Chap. 6 for more detail.

  16. 16.

    For specialised discussion of ‘pressure-increasing mechanism’, refer to Yu (2007).

  17. 17.

    Art. 41, Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (1982), http://english.people.com.cn/constitution/constitution.html, accessed 13 Jun 2011.

  18. 18.

    Art. 4, Regulations on Letters and Visits (2005), http://www.gjxfj.gov.cn/2006-03/07/content_6399309.htm, accessed 13 Jun 2011.

  19. 19.

    Refer to Chap. 7 for more information.

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  1. School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Haidian District, Beijing, China

    Hongping Lian

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Lian, H. (2017). Interpretations and Situations. In: The Relationship between Land-lost Farmers and Local Government in China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2768-0_5

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