There is perhaps no issue affecting China’s prospects for continuing economic success and long-term social stability more than rural land rights. For although Chinese cities are growing, the majority of Chinese still live in the countryside. And they lag behind urban Chinese on almost every socio-economic indicator. The key to changing this is understanding their relationship and rights to their land, which determines their income, security, and empowerment.
Following an agreement by the top leadership of China, the World Bank has embarked on a massive study to research and analyze key policy challenges and necessary reforms for China to achieve high-income status. To carry out this research, the World Bank is relying on Landesa’s unique expertise on land rights and specifically our understanding on how China can improve the efficiency and equity of land use in general and rural-urban integration in particular.
In May 2011, Keliang Zhu, a Landesa staff attorney, briefed the World Bank China Office on securing farmers’ land rights and the implications for China’s continuing economic growth and social stability.
In early June, Li Ping, a senior attorney with Landesa, was commissioned by the World Bank to complete a study of selected international experiences and best practices from developed and high income countries on rural-urban integration and issues of farmland conversion. The results of the study will be used by the World Bank in its high level policy work, titled China 2030, which seeks to advise the Chinese government on how China can grow to high income status over the next twenty years.
In mid-June, Landesa advised the World Bank on how China’s current Law on Land Administration should be revised to better protect the land rights of farmers. Participants included senior officials from China’s legislative institutions and ministries in charge of land administration and agricultural development.
These are key opportunities for Landesa to advise on pro-poor land reform at the highest levels of the institutions that make and implement land rights policy.
Read More: Landesa in China Fact Sheet
Results from Landesa’s 17-Province Survey on Rural China Land Rights – 2010.
Link to Landesa’s research on China.