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The Political Implications of Document No. 1, 1984

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Kenneth Lieberthal
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Extract

The Chinese countryside is currently experiencing a return to the family farming system, with enormous implications for the lives and fortunes of some 80 per cent of the country's population. Little of this could have been foreseen in 1979, when the rural reform really got under way nationwide. Although each subsequent year has witnessed new initiatives, the major turning-point came with the issue of Central Document No. 1 of 1983, which fully blessed and promoted the “responsibility” system. Central Document No. 1 of 1984, by comparison, is less path-breaking. Indeed, in most respects the latter simply reaffirms the initiatives of the former, or reiterates support for policies announced in the press during the intervening year. The few significant additions made by the 1984 Document, however, highlight the most dramatic and consequential factors of the agricultural reform.

Type
Recent Developments
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 101 , March 1985 , pp. 109 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1985

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References

1. Extensive excerpts from Central Document No. 1, 1983 are available in: Xinhua Domestic Service in Chinese, 10 04 1983Google Scholar; Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), 13 04 1983, K1–13Google Scholar. The text of the 1984 Document No. 1 is in Xinhua Domestic Service in Chinese, 11 06 1984Google Scholar; FBIS, 13 06 1984, K1–11Google Scholar. It is also translated in full on pp. 132–144 of this issue.

2. The first paragraph of the 1984 Document specifies that its predecessor of 1983 should continue to be implemented.

3. FBIS, 13 06 1984, p. K–1Google Scholar. For orchards and other specialized land the contract period is extended even longer.

4. Ibid. p. K-2.

5. Ibid. p. K-2.

6. Ibid. p. K-7.

7. Ibid. 13 June 1984, p. K-11.

8. Ibid. 13 June 1984, p. K-4.

9. Section V of Central Document No. 1, 1984, states that, “We must adhere to the principle of taking the planned economy as the leading factor … we must strengthen control and overcome the negative state of affairs which might appear…. The variety and quantity subject to unified or fixed state prices should be further reduced.” FBIS, 13 06 1984, p. K–5.Google Scholar

10. The state still has considerable leverage over families on the birth control issue, but this leverage must now take the form more of political coercion and less of economic incentives than was the case four years ago.

11. FBIS, 13 06 1984, pp. K7–8.Google Scholar

12. Personal observation while visiting Taiyuan in August 1984.

13. In this regard, Central Document No. 1, 1984, is curiously ambivalent about the “spiritual pollution” issue, stating that, “While we do not put forward the slogan of spiritual pollution in the rural areas, neither should we relax the ideological and political work there.” FBIS, 13 06 1984, p. K–10.Google Scholar

14. About 50% of China's land is not irrigated and thus remains highly vulnerable to drought, regardless of the form of agricultural production being practised.