A Land Grab Epidemic: China’s Wonderful World of Wukans

A few days ago, the Global Times posted a brief opinion piece that questioned the West’s preoccupation with the Wukan village uprising last year and concluded: “China cannot be understood by focusing on the small details, something Western media would do well to appreciate.”

Despite this sage advice, I’ve always liked details and found myself captivated by a just-released survey of 1,791 Chinese farming households across 17 provinces. Conducted by Landesa Rural Development Institute, Renmin University, and Michigan State University, the survey explored issues surrounding rural land use and retention. The survey is especially valuable because it has been conducted five times since 1999, thereby providing a sense for whether conditions have been improving or worsening over time.

Some of the most striking findings:

None of this is a good deal for the farmers, and the result, according to Chinese researchers, is that land conflicts are the source of 65 percent of the more than 180,000 protests China experiences annually.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who never misses an opportunity these days to push for a bit more political reform, made the issue of farmers’ rights a central point in his early February 2012 visit to Guangdong. He noted, “The root of the problem is that the land is the property of the farmers, but this right has not been protected in the way it should be.” Wen also noted, “We must certainly protect the voting rights of farmers, and be unwavering in properly carrying out village self-governance and direct election of village committees.”

Despite Wen’s best efforts, without a real system of official accountability or the rule of law, there seems little likelihood that farmers will gain the upper hand any time soon. The Global Times notwithstanding, the details of the survey data say it all: more Wukans are on China’s horizon.