Communist China's Agrarian Policy, 1954-56

C HINA HAS NOW embarked on a vast new program of agricultural collectivization which will almost certainly entrench Communist rule in countryside much more firmly than ever before. The Communist leaders in China have always laid great emphasis on agriculture in their drive to consolidate their power and are now once again engaged in an immense reorganization of countryside. It is still too early to predict consequences of this ambitious social experiment which may have far-reaching significance for other Asian nations. It may be useful, however, first to trace main stages of Communist agrarian policy which led up to collectivization plan and then to examine reports on progress (and difficulties) and specific plans as announced by Government and Party leaders. Any such survey of course, suffers from inevitable limitations of Communist official source materials not subject to checking by independent observers. Chinese Communist land policy in I950-53 period, during which Agrarian Reform Law of June i95o represented basic policy, coincided with initial phase of Communist political and economic consolidation on Chinese mainland, and was itself an important aspect of consolidation process. The main objectives of land redistribution program carried out during those years were elimination of landed gentry in countryside and expansion and strengthening of Communist political organization among peasantry, thus laying foundations for eventual socialist reorganization of agriculture. The beginning of a new phase was indicated in so-called general line of which became official policy during 1953. China was now declared to have entered a of transition, during which there would be a steady transformation of Chinese economy into a completely socialist pattern. Mao Tse-tung defined main tasks of state during this transitional period as the gradual realization, over a considerably long period of time, of socialist industrialization of state, and gradual realization of socialist transformation by state of agriculture, handicrafts, and private industry and commerce.' The new period, therefore, was to be

Agrarian reform · Agrarian society · Agriculture · China · Communism · Communist state · Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Gentry · Geography · Land reform · Mainland China · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Law

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