Time Magazine writes about the recent reforms in land ownership laws for China’s farmers:
Three decades ago, the Party approved another set of rural reforms, liberating a billion peasants from the collectivized farming imposed by Mao Zedong and allowing them to farm their plots for a profit. That decision is widely regarded as marking the start of China’s stunning economic boom. But ownership of the land remained with the state; farmers had to renew leases every 30 years and their sale was forbidden.
Now faced by a yawning chasm between urban and rural incomes and rising unrest in the countryside, the Chinese leadership has taken a cautious middle road, stopping short of allowing outright sale and purchase of rural land and instead approving the trading of the peasants’ leases and extending terms beyond 30 years. That amounts to the right to sell in all but name and potentially frees up hundreds of millions of rural Chinese — until now second-class citizens in their own country — to head for the big city. China’s urban dwellers may well wonder how they will cope as hordes of their country cousins appear on their doorsteps, seeking their piece of the Chinese dream.
