Rural Reform in China

As with most developing countries, agriculture and rural economy play an important role in China's national economy as farmers comprise a substantial portion of the labor force. In Rural Reform in China, Cai Fang, Wang De-wen, and Du Yang present the methods that China has employed to tackle the three rural problems, thereby giving valuable insights into the theory and practice of development economics and development policies. It gives a step-by-step analysis of the swift yet thorough abolishment of the People's Communes that represented socialism and the process of implementing the household responsibility system, lending support to the theory that China advanced in the way of incremental reform. The book also elaborates on major issues such as the reform of the land system, the industrialization in rural areas, the migration of surplus rural labor, and the effort to build the new socialist countryside. The authors then discuss the challenges that have emerged due to the rural reform such as the formulation of a redistribution policy to narrow the income gap, bringing about the transition from the first to the second Lewisian turning point, and the clearance of institutional obstacles that hinder urban-rural labor migration.