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The Demise of China's Peasantry as a Class

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Sally Sargeson
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Theorists of class have long predicted the end of the peasantry: Marx, Hobsbawm and Bernstein have all argued that in the transition to capitalism, peasants would be either transformed into individual specialized commodity producers (commercial farmers), or forced into wage-labour by fragmentation of their land holdings, and dispossession, debt and impoverishment. On the other hand, these theorists have been uncharacteristically ambivalent about whether or not the peasantry constitutes a class. Marx, for example, argued that although peasants' economic exploitation and political and social subordination placed them in an antagonistic relationship with other classes, they lacked any consciousness of, and capacity to articulate, their common class interests, much less organize politically. Pointing to the uneven, contradictory impacts of globalized agriculture and consequent differentiation among agriculturalists, Bernstein, too, cautions that ‘“the peasantry” is hardly a uniform or analytically helpful social category in contemporary capitalism… The same stricture necessarily applies to any views of peasants as a (single) “class” (“exploited” or otherwise)‘.

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Research Article
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Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 13 , July 2016 , e4
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References

Notes

1 Marx, Karl (1954), Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1. Moscow: Progress Publishers, pp. 667–695; Hobsbawm, Eric (1994), The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991, London: Abacus, pp. 289–299, 415; Bernstein, Henry (2001). ‘“The peasantry” in global capitalism: Who, where and why?’ Socialist Register, 32, pp. 1–51; Bernstein, Henry (2009), ‘Agrarian questions from transition to globalization’, in A. Haroon Akram Lodhi and Christobal Kay (eds), Peasants and Globalization: Political Economy, Rural Transformation and the Agrarian Question, Abingdon: Routledge.

2 Marx, Karl (1852), The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louise Bonaparte, p. 62 (accessed 8 January 2013).

3 Bernstein (2001), p. 32.

4 Communist Party of China Central Committee (1958), ‘Resolution on some questions concerning the People's Communes, 10 December 1958‘, in M. Selden (ed.), The People's Republic of China: A Documentary History of Revolutionary Change, London: Monthly Review Press.

5 Wang, Xunli (1990), ‘Zhengque renshi he duidai woguo nongmin jieji’ (Correct understanding and treatment of China's peasant class), Shehui kexue yanjiu, 5, pp. 103–108; Zhang, Rui (2012), ‘Gaige kaifang yilai guo nei xuezhe you guan nongmin jieceng fenhua yanjiu de zongshu’ (A summary of domestic scholars research on stratification of the peasantry since reform and opening up), Nongye jingji, 6, pp. 60–62.

6 Yan, Hairong and Chen Yiyuan (2013), ‘Debating the rural cooperative movement in China, the past and the present’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 40 (6), pp. 955–981.

7 Qin, Hui (2003), ‘Dividing the big family assets: On liberty and justice’, in Wang Chaohua (ed.), One China, Many Paths, London: Verso, p. 150.

8 Bernstein, Henry (2010), Class Dynamics of Agrarian Change, Sterling, VA: Fernwood Press, p. 150.

9 Kerkvliet, Ben J. Tria (2009), ‘Everyday politics in peasant societies (and ours)‘, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 36 (1), 231–232.

10 Shanin, Teodor (1971), ‘Introduction’, in Teodor Shanin (ed.), Peasants and Peasant Societies, Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. 11-15; Akram-Lodhi, A. Haroon, and Christobal Kay (2009), ‘Peasant livelihoods and the agrarian question’, in Akram-Lodhi and Kay (eds), Peasants and Globalization: Political Economy, Rural Transformation and the Agrarian Question, Abingdon: Routledge, p. 3. According to Barrington Moore, modern peasants' reliance on family labour, weak community solidarity and institutionalized ties with exploitative dominant classes renders the peasantry socially conservative and politically subordinate. Moore, Barrington (1966), Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World, Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. 468-483.

11 Zhang, Qian Forrest, and John Donaldson (2010), ‘From peasants to farmers: Peasant differentiation, labour regimes and land-rights institutions in China's agrarian transition’, Politics and Society, 38 (4), pp. 460-461.

12 Zhang & Donaldson (2010), p. 462.

13 Ploeg, Jan Douwe van der (2012), ‘The peasant mode of production revisited’ (accessed 19 December 2013).

14 century China's farmers (and country-dwellers) usually were referred to as nongfu, nongren, nongjia and zhuanghu; Ch'u, T'ung-tsu (1957), ‘Chinese class structure and its ideology’, in John K. Fairbank (ed.), Chinese Thought and Institutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

15 Williams, Raymond (1976), Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, London: Fontana, p. 232; Kipnis, Andrew B. (1995), ‘Within and against pleasantness: Backwardness and filiality in rural China’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 37 (1), pp. 110–135.

16 Selden, Mark (1993), The Political Economy of Chinese Development, New York: M. E. Sharpe, p. 151.

17 Gao, Mobo (1999), Gao Village: Rural Life in Modern China, London: Hurst and company, p. 29.

18 Selden, Mark (1979), The People's Republic of China: A Documentary History of Social Change, New York: Monthly Review, pp. 218-221; Huang, Philip C. (1995), ‘Rural class struggle in the Chinese revolution: Representational and objective realities from the land reform to the cultural revolution’, Modern China, 21 (1), p. 112.

19 Huang, Philip C. (1995)pp. 105–143.

20 Ibid, p. 119.

21 Ibid, p. 111.

22 Selden (1993), p. 86.

23 Wang (1990), pp. 103-104.

24 Almost all urban land was nationalized between 1950 and 1956.

25 Li, Huaiyin (2009), Village China under Socialism and Reform: A Micro-History, 1948–2008, Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 55-72.

26 See, eg, pp. 9-41 in Frolic, B. Michael (1980), Mao's People: Sixteen Portraits of Life in Revolutionary China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)

27 Selden (1993), p. 155.

28 Unger, Jonathan (1984). ‘The class system in rural China: A case study’, in James Watson (ed.), Class and Social Stratification in Post-Revolution China, New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 125; Sargeson, Sally and Song Yu (2010), ‘Land expropriation and the gender politics of citizenship in the urban frontier’, The China Journal, 64, 19–45.

29 Gao (1999), p. 94.

30 Li (2009), p. 116.

31 Unger (1984), p. 124.

32 Selden (1993), p. 314-322.

33 Zheng, Yongnian (2010), The Chinese Communist Party as Organizational Emperor: Culture, Reproduction and Transformation, London: Routledge.

34 Unger (1984).

35 Communist Party of China (1981), Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, pp. 41-53.

36 Wang (1990); Yao Ting and Zeng, Yiwu (2013), ‘Wo guo nongmin jieceng fenhua de tedian ji qi fazhan qushi’ (Characteristics and evolving trends in the stratification of China's peasantry), Jingji yu guanli, 27 (4), 30–35; Lu, Xueyi and Zhang Houyi (1990), ‘Nongmin de fenhua, wenti jiqi duice’ (Peasants' differentiation, problems and counter measure), Nongye jingji wenti, 1, 16–21.

37 Huang, Philip C. C., Gao Yuan and Yusheng Peng (2012), ‘Capitalization without proletarianization in China's Agricultural Development’, Modern China, 38 (2), pp. 139–173.

38 See, e.g, Chen, Chih-jou Jay (2004) Transforming Rural China; How Local Institutions Shape Property Rights in China (London: RoutledgeCurzon); Sargeson, Sally and Zhang, Jian (1999), ‘Reassessing the role of the local state: a case of local government interventions in property rights reform in a Hangzhou district.‘ The China Journal, 42, 77-99.

39 China National Bureau of Statistics (2015), Zhongguo tongji nianjian (Statistical Yearbook of China), Beijing: Zhongguo tongji chubanshe, pp. 111.

40 Ibid, p. 34; Chan, Kam Wing (2013), ‘China: Internal migration’, in Immanuel Ness (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, Hoboken, N.J.: Blackwell, p. 5 (accessed 3 January 2014); Li, Qiang, Jikun Huang, Renfu Luo and Chengfang Liu (2013), ‘China's labour transition and the future of China's rural wages and employment’, China and the World Economy, 21 (3), p. 10.

41 Li, Huang, Luo & Liu (2013), p. 16

42 Liang, Zai, Li, Zhen and Ma, Zhongdong (2014), ‘Changing patterns of the floating population in China, 2000-2010‘, Population and Development Review 40(4):709-711.

43 China National Bureau of Statistics (2012), Zhongguo tongji nianjian (Statistical Yearbook of China), Beijing: Zhongguo tongji chubanshe, p. 474.

44 Huang, Yuan & Peng (2012).

45 Yan, Hairong and Chen Yiyuan (2015) ‘Agrarian capitalization without capitalism? Capitalist dynamics from above and below in China’. Journal of Agrarian Change 15 (3), pp. 366-391; Zhang, Qian Forrest (2015) ‘Class differentiation in rural China: Dynamics of accumulation, commodification and state intervention’, Journal of Agrarian Change 15 (3), pp. 338-365; Zhang & Donaldson (2010).

46 China, Ministry of Agriculture (2014) ‘Development of family farms and solving the problem of who to farm’, 28 February. Accessed 16 May 2016.

47 1 yuan = 10 mao

48 See Trappel, René (2016) China's Agrarian Transition: Peasants, Property and Politics, Lanham: Lexington Books pp. 64-78119-154; Zhang (2015).

49 Yan & Chen (2015), p. 374.

50 Hoken, Hisatoshi (2012), ‘Development of and rental market and its effect on household farming in rural China: an empirical study in Zhejiang province’, China: Institute of Developing Economies Discussion Paper no. 323.

51 1 hectare = 15 mu.

52 Sargeson, Sally (2012), ‘Villains, victims and aspiring proprietors: Framing “land-losing villagers” in China's strategies of accumulation’, Journal of Contemporary China, 21 (77), pp. 757–777; Sargeson, Sally (2013), ‘Violence as development: land expropriation and China's urbanization’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 40 (6), pp. 1063–85.

53 Yan & Chen (2013)

54 Turvey, Calum, Guangwen He, Rong Kong, Jiujie Ma and Patrick Meagher (2011), ‘The 7 Cs of rural credit in China’, Journal of Agribusiness and Emerging Economies, 1 (2), pp. 100–33; Li, Xia, Christopher Gan and Baiding Hu (2011), ‘Accessibility to microcredit by Chinese rural households’, Journal of Asian Economics, 22, pp. 235–246.

55 Yan & Chen (2015)

56 Zhang, Qian Forrest and Zi Pan (2013), ‘The transformation of urban vegetable retail in China: Wet markets, supermarkets and informal markets in Shanghai’, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 43 (3), pp. 497–518.

57 China National Bureau of Statistics (2013), Zhongguo tongji nianjian (Statistical Yearbook of China), Beijing: Zhongguo tongji chubanshe, p. 376.

58 Chang, Hongqin, Dong Xiaoyuan and MacPhail, Fiona (2011), ‘Labor migration and time use patterns of the left-behind children and elderly in rural China’, World Development 39 (12), pp. 2199-2210.

59 He, Congzhi and Ye Jingzhong, (2014) ‘Lonely sunsets: impacts of rural-urban migration on the left-behind elderly in rural China’, Population, Space and Place, 20, pp. 352-369.

60 Xinhua 2013b, ‘Coverage of social insurance widened in China’ (accessed 22 April 2014).

61 Liu, Junqiang, Liu, K. and Huang, Y. (2016) ‘Transferring from the poor to the rich: examining regressive redistribution in Chinese social insurance programmes’, International Journal of Social Welfare 25, p. 202.

62 China Daily (2012), ‘Rural kids’ education' (accessed 29 January 2014).

63 Murphy, Rachel (2004), ‘Turning peasants into modern Chinese citizens: “Population quality” discourse, demographic transition and primary education’, The China Quarterly, 177, pp. 1–20; Yiu, Lisa and Adams, Jennifer (2013), ‘Reforming rural education in China: Understanding teacher expectations for rural youth’, The China Quarterly, 216, pp. 993–1017.

64 Zhang (2015), p. 349; Trappel (2016) pp.111-130.

66 Cheng, Y. and Ngo, T. (2014). ‘The heterodoxy of governance under decentralisation: rent-seeking politics in China's tobacco growing areas’, Journal of Contemporary Asia 44 (2), pp. 221-240.

67 South China Morning Post (2014), ‘Toxic soil pollution report sparks new fears over safety of mainland's home-grown food’, available at (accessed 22 April 2014).

68 Xu, Ming (2016), ‘More “middle class” CPC tries to recruit workers, farmers’, Global Times 28 June 2016 (accessed 29 June 2016); See also Gore, Lance L. P. (2010), The Chinese Communist Party and China's Capitalist Revolution: The Political Impact of the Market, Milton Park, Abingdon: Routledge, p. 19; Xinhua 2013a, ‘China focus: China's Communist Party membership exceeds 85 million’ (accessed 6 January 2014); Author's note: These figures on the composition of the Communist Party include peasants serving in the military. Official data on the National People's Congresses similarly show that the percentage of delegates categorised as peasants dropped from more than 20 per cent in 1978 to less than 8 per cent in the 2000s, but Qian (2009) and Cabestan (2006) note that many so-called peasant delegates actually were local cadres, businesspeople or members of the military; Qian, Jing (2009), Corporatist Legislature: Authoritarianism, Representation and Local People's Congresses in Zhejiang, University of Victoria: LLM Thesis. pp. 94, 108-109; Cabestan, Jean-Pierre (2006), ‘More power to the People's Congresses? Parliaments and parliamentarianism in the People's Republic of China’, ASIEN, 99, p. 51.

69 Li, Changping (2003), ‘The crisis in the countryside’, in Wang Chaohua (ed.), One China, Many Paths, London: Verso, p. 213.

70 Yan and Chen (2015), p. 379.

71 Day, Alexander F. (2013), The Peasant in Postsocialist China: History, Politics and Capitalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 188.

72 Semi-proletarianized nongmin are herein defined as those who retain rural land-use rights (and whose household members might still engage in petty commodity production), but who must sell their labour in return for wages from commercial farmers, industries and businesses in the tertiary sector, c.f. Zhang and Donaldson (2010)

73 China Daily (2014), ‘Promote efficient, inclusive and sustainable urbanization’ (accessed 22 April 2014).

74 Li, Keqiang (2012), ‘Promoting coordinated urbanization – an important strategic choice for achieving modernization’, p. 9 (accessed 23 January 2014).

75 Li, Huang, Luo & Liu (2013) p. 19-21.

76 Li, Chenggui (2007a), ‘Woguo fazhan xiandaihua nongye mianlin de zhuyao wenti he zhengce xuanze’ (Important issues and policy choices confronting China's development of modern agriculture), Xuexi yu tansuo, 4, p. 123; Yang, Xiaokai (2001), ‘Wei shenme chengxiang tudi zhidu binggui shi dangwu zhiji’ (Why the merger of urban and rural land systems is a matter of urgency), Cankao wenxuan, 20, p. 6–8.

77 Qin (2003) p. 145.

78 Li, Chenggui (2007a); Li, Chenggui (2007b), ‘Zhongguo nongcun tudi zhidu gaige de san bu qu’ (A three step dance for reforming China's rural land system), Xuexi shibao, 7 August (accessed 17 March 2008).

79 Day, (2013), p. 121.

80 Yang, Wenliang (2004), ‘Guanyu wending nongmin diquan de faxue sikao’ (Legal reflections on stabilizing villager's land rights), p. 390, in Gaige fazhan yanjiuyuan (ed.), Nongmin quanyi baohu, Beijing: Zhongguo jingji chubanshe; Day, (2013), p. 64-68.

81 Huang, Ping (2003), ‘China: Rural unrest under uneven development in recent years’ (accessed 3 June 2003).

82 Day, (2013), p. 97; Yan & Chen (2015), p. 367.

83 Wen, Tiejun, Lau Kinchi, Cheng Cunwang, He Huili and Qiu Jiansheng (2012), ‘Ecological civilization, indigenous culture and rural reconstruction in China’, Monthly Review, 63 (9), pp. 29–35.

84 Day, (2013).

85 Yan & Chen (2015).