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Rural Welfare in Fujian, 1976–1978: The Maoist Legacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Thomas P. Lyons
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The literature on interregional disparities in China has become quite extensive, as has that on absolute poverty and its regional incidence. But most of this work deals with huge “regions” – entire provinces or even groups of provinces (“coastal” versus “western” China) – each of which is comparable, in area and population, to a good-sized country. Needless to say, there may well be large variations within such regions at any point in time, and large spatial shifts within them over time. Many studies suggest, for example, that, contrary to the “Maoist model,” relative disparities among provinces did not narrow significantly during the Maoist era. Can the same be said of disparities among counties, within individual provinces? And are the broad spatial patterns of poverty, as observed across provinces, somehow replicated in microcosm within particular provinces?

Type
Research Notes
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 160 , December 1999 , pp. 953 - 976
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1999

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References

1. Concerning disparities, see Lyons, Thomas P., “Interprovincial disparities in China: output and consumption, 1952–1987,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 39, No. 3 (04 1991), pp. 471–506CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tsui, Kai-yuen, “China's regional inequality, 1952–1985,” Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol. 15, No. 1 (1991), pp. 1–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and, for sources to 1989, the citations therein. See also Fan, C. Cindy, “Of belts and ladders: state policy and uneven regional development in post-Mao China,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 85, No. 3 (1995), pp. 421–489CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tsui, Kai-yuen, “Economic reform and interprovincial inequalities in China,” Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 50, No. 2 (08 1996), pp. 353–368CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jian, Tianlun, Sachs, Jeffrey D. and Warner, Andrew M., “Trends in regional inequality in China,” China Economic Review, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1996), pp. 1–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wei, Yehua and Ma, Laurence J. C., “Changing patterns of spatial inequality in China, 1952–1990,” Third World Planning Review, Vol. 18, No. 2 (1996), pp. 177–191CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rozelle, Scott, “Stagnation without equity: patterns of growth and inequality in China's rural economy,” China Journal, No. 35 (1996), pp. 63–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; World Bank, China 2020: Sharing Rising Incomes (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1997)Google Scholar; and Yuk-shing, Cheng, “Regional income distribution in China, 1978–95,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Adelaide, 1997, and sources cited therein.Google Scholar

2. For the conclusion that relative disparities among provinces did not narrow, see, e.g., Lyons, “Interprovincial disparities,”Google ScholarTsui, Kai-yuen, “China's regional inequality,”Google Scholar and Jian, , Sachs, and Warner, , “Trends.”Google Scholar

3. Studies using intraprovincial data (for Guangdong and Jiangsu) include Luk, C. M., “Regional development and open policy: the case of Guangdong,” in Veeck, Gregory (ed.), The Uneven Landscape: Geographic Studies in Post-Reform China (Baton Rouge: Geoscience Publications, 1991), pp. 151–170Google Scholar; Rozelle, Scott, “Rural industrialization and increasing inequality: emerging patterns in China's reforming economy,” Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol. 19, No. 3 (1994), pp. 362–391CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Fan, , “Belts and ladders,” pp. 434–442Google Scholar. Studies using nation-wide county-level data include Tsui, Kai-yuen, “Decomposition of China's regional inequalities,” Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol. 17, No. 3 (09 1993), pp. 600–627 (for 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Knight, John and Song, Lina, “The spatial contribution to income inequality in rural China,” Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 17, No. 2 (06 1993), pp. 195–213 (for 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Yuk-shing, Cheng, “Intercounty rural inequality,” ch. 5Google Scholar in Cheng, , “Regional income distribution” (for 1985–1991).Google Scholar

4. The two most important compendia are Guojia tongji ju, guomin jingji pingheng tongji si, Guomin shouru tongji ziliao huibian 1949–1985 (Compendium of National Income Statistics 1949–1985) (Beijing: Zhongguo tongji, 1987)Google Scholar; and Guojia tongji ju, Quanguo ge sheng zizhiqu zhixiashi lishi tongji ziliao huibian 1949–1989 (Compendium of Nationwide Provincial Historical Statistics 1949–1989) (Beijing: Zhongguo tongji, 1990)Google Scholar. Data for more recent years are available in Statistical Yearbook of China, compiled annually by the State Statistical Bureau.

5. Lyons, Thomas P., “Intraprovincial disparities in China: Fujian province,” Economic Geography, Vol. 74, No. 4 (1988), pp. 405–432.Google Scholar

6. All of the shares in this paragraph are taken from Fujian sheng tongji ju, Fujian tongji nianjian 1983 (Fujian Statistical Yearbook 1983) (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin, 1984), p. 182.Google Scholar

7. Ibid. p. 185. Concerning the reliability of such data, see, e.g., Travers, S. Lee, “Bias in Chinese economic statistics: the case of the typical example investigation,” The China Quarterly, No. 91 (09 1982), pp. 478–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Nongye bu renmin gongshe guanliju, “1977–1979 nian quanguo qiong xian qingkuang” (“1977–1979 nationwide situation in poor countries”), Xinhua yuebao (New China Monthly), No. 2 (1981), p. 119Google Scholar. The 11 “chronic-poverty” counties are shown in Figure 2. Apart from the poverty benchmark in terms of distributed collective income, some reports of the early 1980s place the poverty line, as of 1978, at 100 yuan per capita in terms of net rural income from all sources. This is somewhat higher than the 50-yuan benchmark would suggest: as noted earlier, 50 yuan of collective income would equate to about 77 yuan of income from all sources province-wide, since collective income reportedly constituted 65.11% of the total. The 100-yuan standard, however, is not wildly out of line (a 30% increase, compared to 77 yuan) and probably reflects a more realistic assessment of what constitutes a minimal standard of well-being, with some allowance for necessities other than food. The 100-yuan standard is given in, e.g., Ruiyao, Zhang and Shidao, Ni, Fujian jingji gailun (Survey of the Fujian Economy), (Fuzhou: Fujian sheng jihua weiyuanhui, 1984), p. 634Google Scholar. Concerning definition of the poverty line in terms of rural net income from all sources, see also Ruizhen, Yan and Yuan, Wang, Poverty and Development: A Study of China's Poor Areas (Beijing: New World Press, 1992), pp. 16–23.Google Scholar

9. Shouning xian difang zhi bianzuan weiyuanhui, Shouning xian zhi (Shouning County Gazatteer) (Xiamen: Lujiang, 1992), p. 133Google Scholar; Xiamen shi tongji ju, Minnan sanjiao diquji Xia-Zhang-Quan jingji kaifaqu shehui jingji gaikuang (Social and Economic Survey of South-eastern Fujian and the Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Economic Open Area) (Xiamen: Xiamen tongji ju, 1985), p. 133.Google Scholar

10. Shouning County Gazatteer, p. 133Google Scholar; Zherong xian difang zhi bianzuan weiyuanhui, Zherong xian zhi (Zherong County Gazatteer) (Beijing: Zhonghua shu ju, 1995), p. 137Google Scholar. For Fujian: Fujian Statistical Yearbook 1983, p. 185.Google Scholar

11. Provincial data from Fujian sheng tongji ju, Fujian tongji nianjian 1984 (Fujian Statistical Yearbook 1984) (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin, 1985), p. 226Google Scholar; county data from Ruiyao, Zhang and Zengrong, Lu, Fujian diqu jingji (Fujian Regional Economy) (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin, 1986), p. 460Google Scholar, and Zherong County Gazatteer, pp. 137–38Google Scholar. The latter source reports 2.9 bikes per 100 households, which I take to be an error. If “households” rather than “residents” is in fact intended, then the county-wide ownership ratio would be only 0.7 bicycles per 100 rural residents.

12. Bicycles, from 1.54 per hundred in 1978 to 6.77 in 1984; radios, from 1.17 to 5.97; clocks and watches, from 9.83 to 34.68. Fujian Statistical Yearbook 1983, p. 185, and 1984, p. 226.Google Scholar

13. The rich counties are listed in Zhongguo nongye nianjian bianji weiyuanhui, Zhongguo nongye nianjian 1981 (China Agricultural Yearbook 1981) (Beijing: Nongye, 1982), pp. 69–70.Google Scholar

14. Population data from Fujian sheng tongji ju, Fujian sheng renkou tongji ziliao huibian 1949–1988 (Compendium of Fujian Provincial Population Statistics 1949–1988) (Beijing: Zhongguo tongji, 1989), pp. 54–55.Google Scholar

15. E.g., about one-fourth of the villages in Shanghang, as of 1987; Shanghang xian difang zhi bianzuan weiyuanhui, Shanghang xian zhi (Shanghai County Gazatteer) (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin, 1993), p. 279.Google Scholar

16. Gross value is not the best indicator of output, but it is the only one available for 1978 at county level. Net material product (NMP) is available at county level from 1984, and gross national product (GNP) from 1987.

17. For further comment, see Rozelle, , “Rural industrialization.”Google Scholar

18. This possibility is examined, using 1970s commune data, in Griffin, Keith and Saith, Ashwani, “The pattern of income inequality in rural China,” Oxford Economic Papers, Vol. 34, No. 1 (03 1982), pp. 172–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19. This point is elaborated at greater length in Lyons, Thomas P., “China's war on poverty: a case study of Fujian, 1985–1990” (Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992)Google Scholar, and Lyons, , “Intraprovincial disparities.”Google Scholar Concerning the effects of Maoist policy on parts of eastern Fujian, see also Lardy, Nicholas R., Agriculture in China's Modern Economic Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 64–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. Concerning the national Third Front, see Naughton, Barry, “The Third Front: defence industrialization in the Chinese interior,” The China Quarterly, No. 115 (09 1988), pp. 351–387CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Fujian's small Third Front is briefly described in Bingcen, Chen, Dangdai Zhongguo de Fujian (Contemporary China's Fujian) (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo, 1991), p. 126.Google Scholar

21. All of the data in the table have been deflated by the rural retail price index The distributed collective income data for 1978 have been scaled up by the province-wide ratio of rural net income (from all sources) to distributed collective income, to make the levels roughly comparable throughout the table. The adjustments made here, both for inflation and for 1978 coverage, are very crude, but serve to provide an indication of trends until better data, and especially county-level price indices, become available.

22. For 1983–95, the number of counties is held constant at 68 (with Shishi included in Jinjiang). The number of counties in the 1978 map is 67, with Putian city included in Putian county. (The two were separated in 1983.) The 68th county is added to the highest income group for 1983, 1988 and 1995.

23. This does not imply that every poor county grew relatively quickly between 1978 and 1983; as shown in Figure 4, Anxi clearly did not.

24. The evolution of intercounty disparities in output is examined at greater length in Lyons, , “Intraprovincial disparities.”Google Scholar

25. Zhang, and Ni, , Survey of the Fujian Economy, p. 634Google Scholar; Fujian sheng tongji ju, Fujian shehui tongji ziliao (Fujian Social Statistics) (Fuzhou: Fujian sheng tongji ju, 1986), p. 53Google Scholar; Fujian nianjian bianzuan weiyuanhui, Fujian nianjian 1996 (Fujian Yearbook 1996) (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin, 1996), p. 254Google Scholar. As noted earlier, the poverty line was 200 yuan of net income per capita as of 1985; as of 1995, it was JSOyuan, reflecting mainly the inflation of intervening years.

26. All of the data are available (on diskette) from the author upon request.

27. This was apparently intended to mean below 50 yuan in each of the three years; in practice, it seems to have been interpreted as below 50 yuan per year, on average (i.e., income in one or two years, considered individually, could be somewhat above the 50-yuan mark).

28. Fujian Statistical Yearbook 1983, p. 185.Google Scholar

29. All of these data are collected (on diskette) in Lyons, Thomas P., The Economic Geography of Fujian: A Sourcebook (Volume 1) (Ithaca: Cornell East Asia Series, 1995).Google Scholar