Early Communist China: Two Studies by Ronald S. Suleski

Author:Ronald S. Suleski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
Published: 2020-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

IV. The Course of Agrarian Reform in Kwangtung

Land reform in Kwangtung was not begun on an extensive and systematic scale until the autumn of 1950. After the inauguration of the Central-South MAC in February as the top state authority in the region, the first tasks set for the provincial administrations were those of tax collection and bond sales to the people, not land reform.1 These exactions (the bond sales were forced ones) caused a certain amount of unrest, even riots, and were followed by a period of economic stagnation, with some shops closing and others refusing to accept the new paper currency of the regime.2 The only arm of the new regime in evidence in most areas for some time was the PLA, and it was under its shield that taxes were collected. As William Skinner observed at this time in Szechuan, this situation did not facilitate the acceptance of the first political workers in the countryside, most of whom were attached to PLA units.3

In March, 1950, the Central-South MAC gave orders to press ahead with organization and political work in the rural areas; peasants' associations and people's militia units were to be formed, as well as new local governments, where possible, and the campaign of rent and interest reduction and refund of deposits was to be begun.4 This did not seem so much an eagerness to push ahead with the process of land reform itself as an attempt to establish order and carry on propaganda, reassuring the peasants that the land and property of the poor would be protected under the new regime. It was claimed that this movement had been extended to parts of seventy-five hsien in Kwangtung by the end of May.5 Since large numbers of agrarian reform cadres had not yet been trained by this time, it was probably the political workers of the PLA who handled most of the work, as in Skinner's area in Szechuan.

This campaign encountered problems almost immediately. As early as April 18, the Central-South MAC had to reduce the intensity of the movement to secure rent reductions and deposit refunds, issuing strict standards for cadre work so as not to disrupt agricultural production.6 Most local areas in Kwangtung were probably not even touched by the initial phase of rent reduction at this time. A more important task was to lay a solid foundation for eventual large-scale implementation of agrarian reform by extending the government structure at least as far down as the hsien level, and establishing agrarian reform committees in each hsien to begin organizational work.7 Until the fall, the PLA continued to “suppress bandits” and confiscate arms, and mass organizations were formed in some areas of the countryside.8

First Steps: October, 1950 to April, 1951

The absence of any large-scale effort to implement even the first stages of agrarian reform in Kwangtung for most of 1950 can be seen from the modesty of the plan for the winter of 1950–51. This was revealed by the authorities on October 8, in a report

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