The Importance of Land Reform in the Reconstruction of China

Abstract

Land reform has been vital to the reconstruction of China because it gave peasants the opportunity to equal distribution of land to all who farmed it. The author outlines the history of this land reform & points out aspects of its success & reasons for declines during the hardship years of 1959 to 1961. Despite revanchist forces that deny the success of the New Democratic Revolution, peasant communities expanded crop production, achieved village government, empowered women, & started primary education & literacy campaigns. Deng reformers dissolved many collectives, starting with the least profitable & offering incentives & pressures for the others to follow until they had again privatized agriculture & undone 30 years of cooperatives efforts. The vast majority of the family contracts that were established have stagnated due to lack of capital, fragmentation of land, & an attitude of self-centered anarchy. The author encourages a return to the more productive approach of collective agriculture. L. A. Hoffman