How to make China even richer

When talking with some of my foreign friends, I am surprised with their knowledge about China. Sometime I feel ashamed, as a Chinese, of how little I know of my own country. This article, How to make China even richer, gives me a sense of what might be going on in the countryside of my country. Unlike the articles published by Chinese news agencies, which has to obey certain rules in order not to perish, its viewpoint is straightforward: "Let the peasants own their land". It also briefly discussed the pros and cons of its argument.

Pros: "If peasants could mortgage their land (after having the possesion of the land, of course), they could raise money to boost its productivity. Ownership would give them an incentive to do so. And if peasants could sell their land, they could acquire sufficient capital to start life anew in urban areas. This would boost urban consumption and encourage the migration of unproductive rural labour into the cities. For China to sustain its impressive growth rate and reduce inequalities, getting the many tens of millions of underemployed peasants off the land and into wealth-creating jobs is essential. The exodus would help those left behind to expand their land holdings and use them more efficiently."

Cons: "Communist Party ideologues are all too aware that a failure to handle rural issues properly can be destabilising. They worry that allowing peasants to sell their land could restore a rural landowning class, and that peasants would sell up in huge numbers and descend upon ill-prepared cities, throwing up shanty towns and pushing up crime."

I am quite interested in how the author describes the history of China at the end of its article; it lets me remind of what I learn in my Chinese history course in middle school.

"The leadership knows that China's history has been one of recurring bloody upheavals by landless peasants; it is caught between wanting to retain control and wanting to avoid another upheaval."

Image Credit: Economist.