Land reform in China
A December 24th Reuters report, suggests that some peasants in China are getting more assertive. And a January 3rd article from Asia Times Online seconds that idea.China Detains Farmers Urging Land Privatization
"China has detained at least three farmers on subversion charges for making bold calls for private land ownership in the countryside, an attempt to curb land seizures by corrupt officials, their families said... [P]easants... signed an open letter declaring that 70,000 farmers in the region enjoyed permanent private ownership of 10,000 hectares of collective land...
"China's constitution stipulates that for its 750 million rural dwellers, farm land is owned either by the state or by the collective -- normally in the form of a village or a township.
"Under the collective ownership system, farmers are vulnerable to land being expropriated by local officials who pocket the gains, a practice which has incited some of the country's most violent protests in recent years.
"But peasant complaints in the past have revolved around compensation standards, corruption and lack of transparency, rather than challenging the collective ownership policy itself..."
China faces a second land revolution
"Fed up after their land was seized and their protests ignored, farmers have taken to the Internet to declare an end to collective land ownership in China. What began as an isolated protest last month has turned into a movement that has spread to three provinces and one municipality. So far, the central government has largely ignored the farmers' bold declarations, which most analysts think will come to naught.
"But, while it is true that this cyber revolt will probably pay no dividends in the short term, it could eventually lead to a long-overdue second land revolution as China faces the need to modernize its agriculture in the same way it is modernizing other industries.
"Such a revolution may not end with private ownership of farmland... but it could provide farmers with land-use rights strong enough to protect them from the continuing onslaught of greedy developers and corrupt local officials who routinely conspire to seize farmland for profitable commercial development..."
Labels: China, participation, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:19 AM
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Edward Cody, writing in the Washington Post adds more information about the politics of land in rural China.
Farmers Rise In Challenge To Chinese Land Policy
"About 1,000 farmers gathered in the village meeting hall... on Dec. 19 and proclaimed what amounted to a revolt against China's communist land-ownership system.
"The broad, flat fields surrounding Changchunling belong to the farmers who work them, they declared, and not to the local government. The farmers then began dividing up the village's collective holdings, with the goal of making each family the owner of a private plot...
"The redistribution exercise at Changchunling was not an isolated incident. Rather, it marked what appears to be the start of a backlash against China's system of collective land ownership in rural areas...
"Here in the jurisdiction of Fujin, more than 70 villages have tried to privatize their lands over the past month, according to local farmers...
"The nascent movement, although tiny within a peasant population of 700 million, has confronted the Chinese Communist Party with a difficult challenge: If the experience of the past 30 years has shown the wisdom of privatizing state-owned industry and moving toward a market economy, why would it not be wise to privatize the land and bring it into the market economy, as well?...
"Because of what appears to be a firm party stand, the farmers' current efforts to change the system might not survive China's repressive security apparatus...."
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