Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T01:25:48.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Land Requisitions and State–Village Power Restructuring in Southern China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2015

Siu Wai Wong
Siu Wai Wong*
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Land requisitions for urban development have led to a rapid growth of wealthy, autonomous villages in southern China. However, the underlying causes of this emerging phenomenon and its impact on local governance have been largely unexplored by the existing literature. Through an in-depth analysis of the contestations and negotiations between the local state and villagers when dealing with the various problems arising from land compensation, this study explains how and why land requisitions strengthened the collective power of villagers in defending their rightful interests. This bolstered power has in turn forced the local state constantly to adjust its tactics when addressing the needs of villagers in order to avoid widespread conflicts and potential social unrest. The findings provide new insights into the complexities of land conflicts and their actual impact on state–village power restructuring in southern China.

摘要

在中国的南方, 大量征用农民土地发展城市已催生了一批富裕、财政独立的村庄 (社区) 。然而, 这种现象产生的真正原因及其对地方治理的具体影响却长期被学术界所忽略。通过深入分析地方政府和村民在处理土地补偿问题上的角力与妥协, 本文解释 了征地如何逐渐强化了村民捍卫合法权益的集体力量, 反过来迫使地方政府不断地调整补偿方案及政策回应村民的需求, 从而避免引发更广泛的冲突和潜在的社会动荡。本文揭示了中国南方土地矛盾的复杂性, 并重新审视了解决这些矛盾的过程和结果如何改变了政府与村庄 (社区) 之间的权力关系。

Keywords

land requisition; China; conflicts; resistance; urbanization; local state; self-governance征地农村发展土地矛盾城市化地方治理村庄自治
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 224 , December 2015 , pp. 888 - 908
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bach, Jonathan. 2010. “They come in peasants and leave citizens: urban villages and the making of Shenzhen, China.” Cultural Anthropology 25(3), 421–458.Google Scholar
Cai, Jiming. 2011. “Tudifubai de zhidu fenxi – difang zhengfu kao tudi shengcai, jucai” (Analysis of the land corruption system – local governments rely on land to make money and become rich). Reminwang, http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026/15873220.html. Accessed on 22 June 2014.Google Scholar
Chan, Anita, Madsen, Richard and Unger, Jonathan. 2009. Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
GDD Gazetteer Editorial Board. 1993. Guangzhou jingji kaifaqu zhi: 1984–1990 (Guangzhou Economic and Technological District Gazetteer: 1984–1990) . Guangzhou: Guangdong People's Publishing House.Google Scholar
GDD Gazetteer Editorial Board. 2004. Guangzhou jingji kaifaqu zhi: 1991–2000 (Guangzhou Economic and Technological District Gazetteer: 1991–2000) . Guangzhou: Guangdong People's Publishing House.Google Scholar
Guo, Xiaolin. 2001. “Land expropriation and rural conflicts in China.” The China Quarterly 166, 422–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, Peter. 2005. Institutions in Transition: Land Ownership, Property Rights, and Social Conflict in China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ho, Sam P.S. 1994. Rural China in Transition: Non-agricultural Development in Rural Jiangsu, 1978–1990. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hsing, You-tien. 2006. “Brokering power and property in China's townships.” The Pacific Review 19(1), 103–124.Google Scholar
Hsing, You-tien. 2010. The Great Urban Transformation: Politics of Land and Property in China. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Li, Shenglan. 2004. Woguo nongcun chanquan zhidu yu nongcun chengzhehua fazhan (Rural Property Rights System and Urbanization of the Countryside in China). Guangzhou: Zhongshan University Press.Google Scholar
Liu, Yaling. 2009. “The rise of the peasant rentier class in urbanizing China: the transition path and welfare policy in Wenzhou and Wuxi.” Taiwanese Sociology 18, 5–41.Google Scholar
Liu, Yansui, Wang, Jieyong and Long, Hualou. 2010. “Analysis of arable land loss and its impact on rural sustainability in southern Jiangsu province of China.” Journal of Environmental Management 91(3), 646–653.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luogang Gazetteer Office. 2001. Luogangzhen zhi (Luogang Gazetteer) . Guangzhou: Luogang Gazetteer Office of Guangzhou Baiyuan District.Google Scholar
Oi, Jean C. 1992. “Fiscal reform and the economic foundations of local state corporatism in China.” World Politics 45, 99–126.Google Scholar
Po, Lanchih. 2011. “Property rights reforms and changing grassroots governance in China's urban–rural peripheries: the case of Changping district in Beijing.” Urban Studies 48(3), 509–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sargeson, Sally. 2012. “Villains, victims and aspiring proprietors: framing ‘land-losing villagers’ in China's strategies of accumulation.” Journal of Contemporary China 21(77), 757–777.Google Scholar
Siu, Helen F. 2007. “Grounding displacement: uncivil urban spaces in postreform south China.” American Ethnologist 34(2), 329–350.Google Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy J. 1999. Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State and the Logic of Market Economy. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Soto, Hiroshi. 2006. “Housing inequality and housing poverty in urban China in the late 1990s.” China Economic Review 17(1), 37–55.Google Scholar
Yep, Ray. 2013. “Containing land grabs: a misguided response to rural conflicts over land.” Journal of Contemporary China 22(80), 273–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar