Following up to a previous post, the good news from China is that the Chinese Communist Party has finally bowed to the wishes of its 700 million rural farmers and acknowledged publically that those who have been living and working on the land, feeding themselves and China’s distant urban economic engines, would be given secure and transferable land-use rights. Some of the benefits from this move include higher rural incomes and more sustainable resource management; but the greatest benefits won’t be known until Beijing fully implements the policy – it’s the mystery of markets, although its implementation in China remains a mystery in itself. Earlier land policy reforms meant to empower peasant farmers in rural China didn’t exactly go as planned:
Of the tens of thousands of peasant protests that occur every year in China, nearly half relate to land grabs, said a report in Caijing, an influential Beijing magazine. Tighter approval procedures introduced in 2006 have simply resulted in local officials forcing peasants to rent their land, instead of seizing it outright. This problem, the report said, was getting “worse and worse”. From The Economist this week….
No one knew in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping partially decentralized economic control, how effectively it would spur growth, spark entrepreneurship, and reduce poverty. This last reform represents another step along that same path, allowing market forces to guide the widest possible cross-section of people toward higher living standards. Although there is mystery surrounding exactly what good will come of this step, it is no mystery that good will come. It has taken long enough.
Published Date: October 21, 2008