Straits Times
BEIJING - THE growing rights movement among Chinese peasants stems from China's ambiguous and frequently abused land ownership-acquisition policies.
Under China's collective ownership system, farmers do not own land, neither do they have the right to sell it. Instead, a tenure system is used to allocate 'use rights' to rural households for crop cultivation.
On paper, only central and provincial-level governments have the power to approve the acquisition of arable land for non-agricultural use.
Central government directives have also repeatedly spelt out instructions for fair and prompt compensation for arable land taken from farmers.
But in practice, the village chief or city government influences, if not dictates, land-use decisions - a major source of corruption at the local level.
Peasants often end up with just a fraction of the appropriate compensation, if they are paid at all. In his book, Breaking Through The Structural Obstacles To Development, Professor Zhou Tiangyong writes that Chinese peasants got only 10 per cent of the five trillion yuan (S$1 trillion) that total acquired rural land is worth, based on market prices.
'The other 4.5 trillion yuan should have been the income for the farming collective, but instead it became the windfall profits of the property developers and the various levels of governments,' added Prof Zhou, vice-director of research at the elite Central Party School.
In a major speech on rural reform in late December, Premier Wen Jiabao acknowledged what analysts have said for years - that China's economic development is built largely on the exploitation of the country's peasants, who make up two-thirds of the population.
One main reason for China's rapid urbanisation and industrialisation was the availability of cheap land acquired from the peasants, the Premier said.
'But the price of this is the sacrifice of large tracts of arable land and low compensations to the farmers,' he warned.
'If we don't recognise this, we would continue blindly acquiring farmland, leading to imbalances and over-investment, creating large numbers of landless peasants (as a result).
'This would create problems for the stability and sustainability of the countryside and the socio-economy.'
Beijing has been studying land-reform proposals for years, but remains deeply cautious about suggestions to better define rural land-ownership rights or lift the state monopoly on the sale of land.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr Chen Xiwen, a senior government official in charge of rural policy, ruled out suggestions to let farmers buy or sell their land for now, but said the government would gradually reform its land-acquisition policies. The issue had widespread consequences. If it got out of control, it could result in a massive loss of land resources.
'In the absence of sufficient safeguards, reforms can only be gradual,' he said.
In the meantime, the Chinese leadership is seeking to ease rising discontent with an ambitious spending programme to lift rural living, educational and health standards.
It is hoped that greater investment in the countryside will boost rural income, thereby allowing two-thirds of the population to consume and spend more. China is keen to unlock domestic spending as a new engine of economic growth.
Analysts are divided on whether China's rural reforms can succeed without addressing the thorny questions of land-ownership and rights.
Associate Professor Jiang Wenran thinks the land issue will neither make nor break the bid to improve rural living.
'The land-rights issue is not the key issue that is going to make Chinese peasants better or worse off,' said Prof Jiang of the University of Alberta in Canada.
'I think the key question here is whether they can reform the governing structure of the countryside.'
Bloated rural bureaucracy, especially at township level, is putting a strain on peasants, who are slapped with a variety of fees and taxes by officials desperate to fill local coffers.
Yet Beijing cannot afford to drastically cut down this layer of rural bureaucracy as the central government relies heavily on these township officials to keep the countryside in check, Prof Jiang pointed out.
No easy solution is in sight, but Prof Zhou of the Central Party School thinks Beijing cannot go on skirting the land issue forever. He wrote: 'The crux to boosting rural income and consumption is in recognising and protecting the various rights of the peasants.'