Rural Reform in Contemporary China: Development, Efficiency, and Fairness

Abstract

This article examines the contradictory outcomes of China's rural reform since 1978. It traces four periods of rural reform policies through cyclical rounds of policy implementation, structural transformations, and economic, social, and environmental outcomes. The analysis reveals that contradictory outcomes are embedded within conflicting goals framing rural reform policies, specifically goals to modernize China's rural regions and fair resource allocation among its inhabitants. In addition, the Chinese central government has repeatedly resorted to a top-down, campaign-style approach, creating conflicting objectives between short-term quota fulfillment and sustainable structural adjustment policies. The research suggests that the socio-environmental contradictions emerging from rural transformations in China must be viewed within the global political economic context that favors growth oriented, efficiency-based development strategies.China celebrated the 40 th anniversary of its rural reform in 2018 and promulgated a new 'Rural Revitalization Development Strategy' to reduce persistent and concentrated rural poverty and promote the vertical and horizontal integration of its agriculture. 1 The celebration was the culmination of sweeping structural transformations throughout China's rural regions as the state has worked to develop and modernize its agriculture. Since 2010, the per capita grain output of China has exceeded international food security standards for self-sufficiency, fulfilling the difficult task of feeding 1.3 billion people. China has met the food demand of nearly 20 percent of the world's population with 'only 5 percent of the world's freshwater and 8 percent of its arable land.' 2 The nation has emerged as the world's second-largest economy and is the largest developing agricultural country in the world; as such, the reforms have been considered by some a success. 3 Nevertheless, these structural reforms are contradictory; as growth rates and modernization have advanced, so too have environmental degradation, stagnation in agricultural productivity, widespread dispossession, and rural-urban inequalities and regional disparities.This analysis explores the historical, global, and domestic context of China's agricultural development focusing on the cyclical rounds of policy implementation, structural transformations, and contradictory outcomes emerging after rural reforms. It aims to explore these contradictory CONTACT Yongji Xue

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