Land Ownership, Property Rights and Social Conflict in China

摘要

Reform in rural China since decollectivization in the early 1980s has devolved increasing degrees of responsibility and usufruct to households. Rights of access andrnusufruct are, however, only some of the many rights that come under the rubric of "property rights." Nearly 30 years after the first stirrings of rural reform, there is still hesitation, for example over the degree of freedom landholders have in deciding on cropping and land use patterns, and whether or not to permit the right to buy and sell land. The abolition of grain taxes in 2004 widened the array of cropping choices in many places. On the other hand, regulations requiring the conversion of sloping land from agriculture to grassland or forestry following the logging ban in 1999 have severely restricted household decision-making rights in order to safeguard a public interest as defined at the highest levels of government.