Foreword

Understanding the agriculture, rural areas and farmers of China is a starting point for understanding Chinese history and culture and also for understanding the present situation of China’s economy and society. To a certain extent, the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers in China are greatly related to both history and reality. Vertically, these issues run down through the entire process of China’s historical development. The changes and evolution of land, tax and state governance systems, the development of agricultural production and engineering technology, and the inheritance of humanistic spirit with Chinese characteristics are inextricably linked with China’s agricultural and rural development. Horizontally, the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers are related to various aspects of China’s present politics, economy, society and culture, and are also a microcosm of China’s overall situation, its social changes and the evolution of people’s lives. Just as British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) once said, the factor we seek is not something simple but complex; not a unified entity but a relationship. Therefore, understanding the rural areas and farmers has an irreplaceable role in understanding the evolution of China’s politics, economy, society and culture; further, to understand rural areas and farmers, we must focus on factors in history and observe the reality, so as to fully grasp the elements and core of development of China’s rural areas and farmers.

China’s agricultural civilization was a stand-alone chapter in world’s civilization. It kept on going, and is now 10,000 years old. In their practice of over hundreds and thousands of years, China’s farmers developed unique farming systems, technical systems and ideas. China’s agricultural history is amazing in its depth. The reason that rulers of different dynasties made agriculture, rural areas and farmers their top priorities in state governance was that these matters related not only to the state’s future and overall socio-economic development, but also to the welfare of every ordinary citizen. As such, they had a bearing on how the people felt toward state power. As early as two millennia ago, Emperor Wen of the Western Han (203-157 BC) said, “Agriculture should be put first, because people rely on it.”(1)After the Zhou Dynasty (1046-221 BC), emperors of each dynasty would lead their ministers in ploughing the land just before spring, so as to set a good example to all the country’s farmers. Since the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), local government officials had an important annual task, namely, “farming encouragement,” which meant that, on the cusp of spring, officials should urge people to pay attention to farming tasks of the season. Today, Chinese President Xi Jinping also stressed, “Without agricultural modernization, rural prosperity and farmers’ peaceful and contented life, our national modernization is not complete, comprehensive or solid.” Chinese rulers in different dynasties established a variety of systems and policies to support agricultural development in their times, and agricultural progress was made generation after generation, persevering right down to the present day. In short, agricultural civilization permeates China’s entire history.

Today, the most fundamental factors of China’s “three rural issues”(2) are the issues of land system and food. There are two reasons for this: first, the historical mission of China’s agriculture is to feed the people growing and multiplying on this land, and the minimal goal of rural development in China is to feed and clothe its people. Second, the land system is the fundamental system of a country, one that adjusts basic economic relations and forms of distribution between government and people, people and land, and people and people. So, to some extent, land issues can be also interpreted as food issues. Further, if the land system does not meet the laws of agriculture and the needs of farmers, food issues will inevitably be difficult to solve.

Today, China is a vast country with a population exceeding 1.3 billion. If China’s own food supply became inadequate, no one country or even the whole international community could help solve the problem. In 2016, China’s total grain output was 616 million tons, while the global trade amount of grain was only around 350 million tons, representing just 54.6 percent of China’s grain demand. In other words, the world total of internationally traded grain would only feed the Chinese for half a year. In 1949, at the point of political regime change in China, Dean Acheson, then US Secretary of State, predicted the “inevitable collapse”of the Communist regime, on the grounds that, like the Kuomintang government and dynastic regimes before that, it would be unable to bring China’s huge population out of hunger. History shows Acheson’s words to be only half correct. The food problem was indeed a major problem in China, and the dynastic rulers were rarely capable of really solving it. When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the government under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) faced a great test: would it be able to solve this problem? In 1994, when the average per capita amount of grain in China was more than 370 kg, Lester Brown, an American scholar, wrote a book called Who Will Feed China?, claiming that with the increase of population, reduction of cultivated land area and improvement of people’s living standards, China would be confronted with food shortages in the 21st century, and thus cause a worldwide food crisis. It was no surprise to hear different voices about China’s food demands and future prospects, and these were undoubtedly a wake-up call for China. China’s rulers modestly accepted his advice and focused more attention than previously on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and made the “three rural issues” a top priority of government work. By 2015, the average per capita amount of grain in China had topped 450 kg.

Facts speak louder than words. After 1978, a market-oriented rural reform became a historic turning point in China’s agricultural development. It broke the shackles of the planned economic system and promoted the rapid development of the rural economy, thus creating a miracle of using less than 9 percent of the world’s land to feed nearly 21 percent of its population. Not only that: it led and promoted the comprehensive development of China’s economic system, effectively supporting the rapid growth of China’s economy. Undoubtedly, the supply of food in China affects the supply of food in the world. Furthermore, the improvement of China’s rural living standards is conducive to realizing global poverty reduction targets. This is because, in the foreseeable future, even if China’s urbanized population exceeds 70 percent, this leaves over 400 million people living in rural areas. If their lives cannot be improved, China’s comprehensively well-off society cannot be completed on schedule; furthermore, the world’s poverty problems will not be effectively solved, and even the international economic development track will be significantly impacted. Therefore, China’s agricultural and rural development concerns not just China itself: it closely concerns the development of the global village too.

At the end of 2001, with China’s accession to the WTO, its agricultural sector became more open to the world, and more closely linked with world agriculture. In the world trade system, as a large producer and consumer of agricultural products, China plays an increasingly significant role in the development pattern of world’s agriculture. Today, China’s agricultural and rural development proves again that Chinese people have the resolve, ability and wisdom to solve food problems and can contribute to the mission of global poverty reduction. At present, China has successfully filled the stomachs of her own people: the next steps are the pursuit of healthier and more nutritious eating, how to make agriculture more environmentally friendly, and how to take advantage of various functions of agriculture. These will enable Chinese farmers to live more decent, dignified and happier lives, and make China’s rural society more harmonious and stable, thereby making a greater contribution to the peace and development of humanity.

As the editor of this book, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to those organizations and people who have contributed so much to the final publication of the book. In the course of writing, I received every support from Luo Dan and Zhang Zheng at the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, with whose assistance the work of collecting original sources and editing of some chapters was completed. Meanwhile, I am also grateful to compilers at Foreign Languages Press and the translators for their arduous efforts to support the book’s publication.

(1)　See “Emperor Wen’s Records” in the Book of Han. Emperor Wen said, “Agriculture should be put first, because people rely on it. If people give up farming and choose something else, they will be poor and everything will go badly.”

(2)　“Three rural issues” is a collective term for issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers in China.