The historical rural development of China.

        There are several determinants that contributed to China’s historical rural decline.  The nation’s political instability was an instrumental factor that contributed to the nation’s agricultural demise.  Chinese history from the arrival of Westerners and the first Opium war until the rise of the communist party points towards China’s inability to secure a stable atmosphere and provide investment in rural agricultural regions.  Contrasted with China, under the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government was engaged in constructing a productive economy.  During the Meiji Restoration, the economic reforms implemented we so successful that the production of food began to grow faster than the population.  Japan was able to enjoy such economic success party because trade with Western nations occurred much later than other nations.  For example, trading activity between Western countries and China commenced earlier than Japan and was for this reason unable to enjoy the economic success that Japan was familiar with.  After the first Opium War and the first unequal treaty several trading ports opened, westerners were granted special concessions within China’s borders – extraterritorial rights, exemption from Chinese laws, etc.  With the pervasive influence of Western aggressions, the governance of the Qing Dynasty was undermined.  Throughout this period of imperialism, the rural decline in China was exacerbated.  Widespread famine and illness was all too common.  At the hands of Western brutality, China’s landscape was no longer admired for its beauty but was now characterized by “deserted villages where packs of wild dogs tore at rotting corpses.” (p. 51) Canals once used for irrigation were “filled with dead bodies and stagnate filth.” (p.51) Confucian doctrine no longer applied, rather brutality and oppression dominated rural live.  The Chinese peasantry was unwilling forced to serve in the military, grueling labor, and mandatory taxation.  

With the absence of Western imperialism and an effective government under the Meiji leadership, which adamantly embraced modernization and restructuring, Japan was able to evade the misfortunes of China.  Since Japan is scare in land and abundant in labor, agricultural production had reached it’s zenith and was at a plateau.  After the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, Japan successfully colonized Korea and Taiwan and used them as their agricultural extensions.  Thus, the Japanese colonizers brought with them far superior farming methods.  Furthermore, the Japanese government provided their colonial extensions with state-of-art inputs, such as chemical fertilizers and effective tools, and seeds.  During this period, Japan’s colonies, under the Meiji restoration achieved phenomenal agricultural growth – Taiwan’s sugar cane production was lucrative and globally competitive.  On the other hand, China’s land shortage and archaic farming methods subjected its agricultural output to inevitable stagnation.  China’s was faced with the problem of how to feed its increasing population, given the agricultural sector was not expanding.  Established farming methods and China’s inherent focus on tradition prevented the implementation of crop rotation, plowing methods, fertilizer use, etc.  China’s agricultural stagnancy continued until 1949, with the founding of the People’s Republic of China.  

The establishment of communist China under Mao Zedong marked a new direction in rural development. From the 1950’s until the 1980’s, China adopted and executed radical reforms to stimulate rural agricultural production.  The People’s Republic of China instituted many policies to change the Country’s preconceived notions of the peasant class – it sought to identify the peasantry as the lifeblood of communist China.  Following the establishment of the new nation, communist policies granted peasants economic sovereignty in the form of land. Furthermore, to uphold their favored status in society and to preserve revolutionary mantras, Mao considered agricultural collectivization as the most efficient way to promote growth in the rural sector.  Collectivization was seen as the idea means of organization: it would combine scarce resources, provide employment to rural surplus laborers and transfer revolutionary fervor into dedication towards expanding agricultural output.  Mao’s idea of rural collectives also allowed the communists to successfully recruit labor to construct small-scale public projects.  Through China’s looking glass, collectivization was considered a success.  It provided an effective means to mobilize labor and to construct projects that would eventually provide positive long-run effects for China’s agriculture sector.  In addition, collectivization efficiently accumulated capital, supplied farmers with new technology, and modern farming techniques.  Lastly, collectivization provided a means for rural villagers to cooperate and forge close relationships.