China Rural Land: An Endless Game

As we know, the fundamental restricting of China agriculture development is that too many people with few land, which resulting in low level of cultivated lands per capita. This question has been more complicated in recent years. The cost of agricultural product is going up constantly, while price of agricultural product is falling instead of growing. This has suppressed the enthusiasm that peasants should have putting one's surplus into the farmland to a great extent, and also have partly reduced the profit from that institutional innovation of the rural output-based contract responsibility system. Then, the function of rural land seems to be only keeping peasant's basic living condition, and maintaining the stability of the countryside as an acting social security.The dramatic effect of urbanization and industrialization make some good-location farmland more valuable than others, because the industry land will make more value than the same farmland. So question is following. On the one hand we must guarantee agricultural foundation and make grain supply stable, then the rural cultivated land should be strictly protected. Especially, agriculture undertakes the functions of absorbing the surplus workforce and the social security. On the other hand, there will be a great rise in value as farmland is used for industry and commerce land. Then, who can enjoy the benefits?In this paper, after analyzing a large number of cases and legal provisions, we find that only a small part of benefits is allocated to rural collective who is the owners of the land. While small amount of compensation is allocated to peasant who is the user of the land. The major part of income of transformation has become the incomes of the governments at all levels. We can see that the country is the monopolistic lawmaker and has legalized this interest distribution pattern. The pattern also guaranteed by the government with structural power in the practice of expropriation of rural land. So, it is not a market activity in general meaning. It is not harm-compensate behavior in legal meaning, either, but a special mode that power-decision and power-benefit. Then, the governments at all levels seem to be make great efforts to become" the profit government". This violates the prerequisite that " can't fight for profit with the people" in modern democratic state. Because this kind of power -profit mode violates the market rule, it is a threat to property rights system including rural land right. It will make all property rights in instable state that could be expropriated in any time. If so, it may become a monster that engulfs market economy. We should pay great attention to this situation. Because China countryside have already be in the development dilemma. Just at this kind of meaning, the farmland expropriation is destroying the rational foundation, and is threatening the economic efficiency.Simultaneously, a large number of cases have proved that in the benefit struggle of farmland, the country can depend on state power and organize the administration system to ensure incomes. But the peasants and rural collective is not passive puppet. On the contrary, they strengthen their powers and seek their rights by all sorts of tactics and technology. Then, all sorts of struggle and conspiracy, resist and compromise have appeared among the three parts. The law and stipulation sometimes become legalization weapon everybody fight for, sometimes be abandoned by everyone. In this process of competition, interests are being cashed constantly and the law is being utilized constantly, only power has been at the scene all the time, but its appearance is changing constantly. Well, power is not only shown as force, it also shown as exchanging, and state, and cooperation......