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Rural buzzwords in 30 years

By Wu Yunhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-10 14:13

The rural economic reform, which will determine the fortune of the country's 730 million rural residents, started 30 years ago. Although the reform faced widespread political resistance from top policymakers in its early stage, senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping gave farmers strong backing and later the reform proved to be a great success after it not only prompted a change in the means of agricultural production, but also in Chinese farmers' lifestyles. In the past 30 years there were eight frequently used phrases by both government officials and the farmers that help describe and define the unprecedented reform. The phrases are:

1) The rural household responsibility contract

The rural household responsibility contract was a great invention of Chinese peasants and a landmark event of China's rural economic reform. On a winter night in December, 1978, 18 rural residents, worried about the survival of their families, secretly gathered in a small house to press their fingerprints on a contract in Xiaogang village of Fengyang county in Anhui province to initiate the rural responsibility contract. Their initiative has since spread and developed into a system approved by the central government and implemented throughout the country. The household responsibility contract system allotted land contracts and management rights to every family in the countryside - a combination of rights and responsibilities - was eagerly embraced by Chinese peasants. By 1983 the rural contract system had been widely implemented across the country and at the end of the year, more than 90 percent of the Chinese rural households had joined the system. As a result, Xiaogang village of Fengyang county was later widely called the birthplace of the reform.

2) New rich/nouveau riche

New rich (wanyuanhu in Chinese pinyin) refers to the rural household which saw their individual assets reach or exceed 10,000 yuan ($1,464). It became a psychological measure of the nation to evaluate whether a rural family was newly rich since the reform. At the beginning of the reform, only a few rural households had saved more than 10,000 yuan, while the majority was still striving for basics. These nouveau riche were described as the "good cat" by the senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in his famous quote: "No matter if they are white or black cats, they are good cats if they can catch mice." Since then an increasing number of Chinese rural families have seen their private assets exceed 10,000 yuan and the wanyuanhu has already become a memory of the reform.

3) Agricultural tax

For Chinese peasants, the agricultural tax was an unpleasant memory, dating back 2,600 years, when the warring states dukes of the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) in ancient China started to levy the tax on their peasants for their field work and yields. On December 29, 2005, participants in the 19th session of the 10th National People's Congress Standing Committee approved the abolition of the 2,600-year-old agricultural tax in China in a move that was warmly welcomed by Chinese farmers and widely considered a milestone in the country's rural economic reform.

4) Scissors gap

The scissors gap describes the wide divide in income growths between rural and urban residents. The widening gap is mainly attributed to rural problems, which are getting increasingly serious due to previously hidden conflicts that have emerged. As the socialist market economy developed, disadvantages inf the household contract system gradually emerged, severely hindering rural productivity and the balance between urban and rural economic development. Growth in grain production has leveled off and farmers' incomes have grown slowly since 1997. Unclear division of land ownership, unstable land contract rights and defects in the system for transferring land rights have resulted in farmers with little motivation to invest in their land. The central government has taken steps to eliminate the scissors gap with a series of measures. This year the government has set a goal of doubling per capita disposable income of rural residents by 2020 from the 2008 level.

5) Migrant workers

Migrant workers in cities were farmers by origin. Although for a long time they have been the most vulnerable community in Chinese cities in terms of their rights and interests, they are widely considered the great contributors to the development of China's urban infrastructure construction and the service industry. The slow growth of farmers' income has made many of them abandon all or part of their land, in order to travel to cities for work. Oftentimes only older women stay home to work in rural areas. In 2006, the State Council has promulgated a rule - "Several Suggestion for Solving Migrant Workers' Problem" - in order to help guarantee their interests and rights such as payment, insurance, social security, housing and children's education.

6) Xinnonghe

The Xinnonghe is a popular Chinese phrase which stands for the pilot project for a new system of cooperative medical and healthcare services in rural areas. Implementation of the Xinnonghe is part of the Chinese government's efforts to settle the "sannong wenti (rural problem, farmers' problem and agricultural problem)" in the countryside. At present, the projects have been carried out in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country, involving a rural population of 800 million.

7) Initial audition/Internet audition

Initial audition/Internet audition (haixuan in Chinese pinyin) was once widely used by Chinese media in their reports of Super Girl, the Chinese version of the American Idol song contest broadcast by Hunan Television in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In fact, the haixuan was first used in villages and townships across the country before the 21st century. According to the Law on the Framework of Villagers Committee promulgated by the central government in 1998, Chinese farmers have the right to vote for the village leader candidates. They are expected by law to elect their leaders at village levels and township people's congress deputies through "audition", which is supposed to reflect the country's political and democratic reform in the vast rural areas. Official statistics show that more than 700 million farmers have exercised their right to vote.

8) New countryside

During the fifth plenum of the 16th Central Committee of Communist Party of China in October, 2005, General Secretary Hu Jintao for the first time proposed the development of a "socialistic new countryside in China" and the members approved it. The new countryside policy stipulates several targets that include fundamentally increasing farmers' incomes; improving the rural natural environment; building a social security system for farmers and upgrading the quality of education. The policy was proposed at a time when per capita farmland had decreased 100 million mu (6.7 million hectares) in seven years and meanwhile, the rural population kept increasing.