China’s official news agency Xinhua has said that the country’s peasants will benefit from the policies finalized at the Central Economic Work Conference and the Central Conference on Rural Affairsin 2004. It said the policies will help increase peasants’ incomes, make grain production more profitable, make it easier for peasants to work in cities, reduce their burdens, and create moreeducation opportunities. The following is the text of the article entitled: “The eight major forms of benefits the 800 million peasants will enjoy in 2004 – explaining the central authorities ‘sannong’ policies”, carried by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)
Beijing, 28 December: A new year will soon begin. With the implementation of the string of “san nong” policies [policies for agriculture, rural areas, and peasants] finalized by the Central Economic Work Conference and the Central Conference on Rural Affairs in 2004, the 800 million Chinese peasants will benefited at least eight areas.
Peasants’ per capita net income is expected to increase by 128 yuan
Background: In recent years Chinese peasants’ per capita income has been increasing between 2 and 4 per cent annually; and the total income of peasants, who account for 62.7 per cent of the population, accounts for less than 20 per cent of the total national income.
The policy to be followed will be the one drawn up by the Central Economic Work Conference, which provides, “We must consolidate and strengthen the role of agriculture being the foundation of the national economy and do everything possible to increase peasants’ income.”
Real benefits: In 2004 the state will step up its efforts in marketing agricultural products in an effort to help peasants increase the prices of their products. The state will also earmark 30 per cent of the hedge fund against grain production and use the money for direct subsidies for the peasants. After three years, the direct subsidies used in principal grain producing areas will grow to one-half of the hedge fund and the production of 70 per cent of commercial grain will be subsidized.
Chinese peasants’ average per capita income in 2003 is 2,574 yuan. Based on the 5 per cent-increase, Chinese peasants’ per capita income will increase by 128.7 yuan next year.
Grain production will become more profitable
Background: Chinese peasants’ enthusiasm in growing grain has been low in recent years. Grain prices, which remained low for six years in a row, picked up again this year. Grain prices grew 10.8 per cent in November.
The policy to be followed will be the one drawn up by the Central Economic Work Conference, which provides, “We must attach importance to the interests of major grain producing areas and grain producers” and “we must turn the indirect subsidies in the distribution process into direct subsidies for the grain producers.”
Benefits: Financial institutions in the rural areas will liberalize the security terms and the length of their small loans for grain producers, and peasants will not find it so difficult to borrow money from these institutions as they do now. Banks for supporting agricultural development will be permitted to support the grain procuring businesses to purchase peasants’ surplus grain and so peasants who want to sell their grain will have more choices. The state will use a certain percentage of the money made from land transfers on capital farmland construction of higher standards. To improve the comparative benefits, the state will help peasants bring in good seed strains of products that can sell higher prices and seed strains of products in high demand. Thus, peasants will be able to make more profits from growing grain.
Peasants will find it easier to work in cities
Background: China’s rural areas today have 485 million labourers and have 150 million surplus labourers even after more than 98 million peasants have gone to work in cities.
Policies to be followed will be the policy of the Central Economic Work Conference, which provides, “We must actively guide the surplus labour force in the agricultural sector to relocate in an orderly manner”; and also the policy of the Central Conference on Rural Affairs, which provides, “We must kindly treat the peasants- turned workers and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.”
Benefits: Some 100 million labourers will be relocated from the rural areas in 2004. The government will provide those peasants who want to work in cities with more guidance information. In cities and towns, those peasants with steady occupations and abodes will be able to have their households registered according to regulations in the locations where they work and reside; and they will enjoy the same rights as the local residents. The state will abolish the regulations that restrict the kind of work peasants can do and will screen the discriminatory policies against peasants and the unwarranted levies collected from them. The protection of these peasants-turned workers’ legitimate rights and interests, such as their labour and their children’s schooling, will become an issue that the local authorities will address with earnestness in 2004.
Peasants will bear lighter burden in many ways
Background: Peasants began to bear lighter burden after the state conducted pilot tax and fee reform projects in 30 provinces in 2003. The peasants’ burden is still high, however. In one way or another, this relative high burden has weakened their capacity for expanding their production.
Policies to be followed will be the policy of the Central Economic Work Conference, which provides, “We must accelerate the pilot tax-for-fee reform projects conducted in the rural areas”; and the policy which provides, “We must gradually reduce agricultural taxes and fees”; and also the policy of the Central Conference on Rural Affairs, which provides, “We must strengthen the supervision and management of peasants’ burden.”
Benefits: The central treasury will step up its efforts in transferring payments for tax and fee reforms. It will continue to tighten its efforts in this respect on the basis of this year’s payments of 30.5bn yuan. It is estimated that 70 per cent of the transferred payments will be used directly on reducing peasants’ burden. Nationwide, each peasant will have a lighter burden to bear by at least 23 yuan. The refund of agricultural taxes and fees to each household and peasant will also reduce the peasants’ burden. Take the major agricultural county of Xiping in Henan, for example. Because of the reduction of the local agricultural tax rate from 7 to 6 per cent, the peasants will pay 10 yuan less for each mu [1 mu = 0.6667 hectare] of land they till.
There will be more opportunities for peasants to receive good education
Background: Compared with city residents, peasants today are underprivileged in terms of their opportunities to receive a quality education and to compete.
Policies to be taken will be the policy adopted at the Central Economic Work Conference, which provides that “the state’s additional public expenditures for public health and education will be primarily used in the rural areas”; and also the policy adopted at the Central Conference on Rural Affairs, which provides, “We must regard the training of peasants-turned workers as an important and real assignment to accomplish.”
Benefits: The state will energetically carry out the project of rebuilding the unsafe middle and primary school buildings in central and western China, in promoting compulsory education in the poverty- stricken areas, and in launching long-range education projects in the rural areas of central and western China; and will basically eliminate the seriously unsafe school buildings in central and western China within three years to create better conditions and more opportunities for the 160 million middle and primary school students in the rural areas. The state will also build in the rural areas 1,000 libraries with books on science and technology and will provide the rural areas with books and compact disks on agricultural of science and technology free of charge. By the year 2007, compulsory education will have been implemented across at least 85 per cent of the areas in western China and illiteracy among young people and adults in the prime of their life will be below 5 per cent.
The situation of medical services will be better
Background: Since the adoption of the reform and opening up policy, medical and health services in rural areas have improved noticeably. However, problems such as inadequate investments, outmoded medical facilities and shortage of technical personnel remain serious. The phenomena of peasants becoming sick – or becoming sick again after recovery – because of poverty are still an outstanding problem.
The policy to be taken will be the one adopted at the Central Conference on Rural Affairs, which provides, “We must intensify the efforts in building rural areas’ public medical and health facilities and contingents of public health personnel, accelerate the process of building a new and improved form of cooperative medical system in the rural areas, and actively explore effective measures for providing poor families in the rural areas with medical assistance.”
Benefits: The state will reclassify the township-class health clinics, and public treasuries will increase their financial support for the village-level clinics. In accordance with peasants’ actual needs and what they want, the state will establish various types of cooperative medical services at various levels. The government will increase investments to be used in the rural areas’ social support and gradually establish the minimum living support system, beginning with the economically developed areas. The situation where peasants have problems seeing doctors and receiving medications will improve.
Poverty-stricken groups will receive greater care
Background: In China, there are still 20 million people who have basic food and clothing problems. Most of these people live in remote areas where they have problems shaking off poverty because of the harsh natural environments there.
The policy to be taken will be that of the Central Economic Work Conference, which provides, “We must continue with the development projects for poverty relief and increase poverty relief funds through various channels.”
Benefits: Poverty relief funds will be delivered to villages and rural households so that they will have more income. The priority recipients will be the ethnic minority areas in central and western China, the old revolutionary regions and frontier areas. The money will first be used for addressing these areas’ housing, drinking water and electricity problems. Poverty-stricken people in areas where the ecological environments are fragile and in areas that lack the basic conditions for subsistence will be resettled in a well- planned manner. To show greater care for those people in areas stricken by natural disasters, they will have their taxes for agricultural production and animal husbandry reduced or exempted according to their actual situations.
Peasants will be able to enjoy even more well-conceived public services
Background: Over the past five years, the state has invested 407.7bn yuan – including 42.8 per cent of the money raised from floating national bonds – on various services in the rural areas. Public services in the rural areas, however, are still inadequate.
The policies to be followed include the policy adopted by the Central Economic Work Conference, which provides, “The central treasury must continue to earmark more funds for supporting agricultural production and for building the agricultural infrastructure and the policy that the use of money raised from floating national bonds should be tilted towards agriculture and the rural areas”; and also the policy adopted by the Central Conference on Rural Affairs, which provides, “The government must firmly improve the management of public services in the rural areas.”
Benefits: In 2004, the pace for building the “six small projects”, including drinking water for people and livestock and construction of rural roads, will accelerate significantly. The projects will also be more diverse and practical. While investing more money in priority public services in the areas to improve peasants’ living stardards, there will be more local job opportunities available for the peasants. Improvements of the rural areas’ infrastructure will primarily be those for ensuring harmonious development between man and nature and for integrating urban and rural areas to improve the peasants’ living quality.
