RURAL REFORM AND NGO ACTIVITIES IN ANHUI PROVINCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHANGHAI 000144 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/11/2033 TAGS: PGOV ECON EAGR SOCI CH SUBJECT: RURAL REFORM AND NGO ACTIVITIES IN ANHUI PROVINCE CLASSIFIED BY: Christopher Beede, Political and Economic Section Chief, U.S. Consulate General Shanghai, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Poloff and political assistant traveled to Anhui Province on April 7-8 to meet with Zhang Deyuan, the deputy director of the China San Nong Problem Research Center at Anhui University in Hefei, and to observe a rural poverty alleviation project in Yuexi County sponsored by the NGO Heifer International. Yuexi, a poor county in Anhui's mountainous southwest, is undergoing a building boom but many of its residents still struggle to fulfill basic daily needs. Heifer's Laibang village project benefits from close cooperation with local officials, who see the NGO's methods as expedient in implementing Central Government initiatives. Deputy Director Zhang, pessimistic about the prospects for resolving rural problems, has noted an increase in the rural-urban gap as well as mismanagement and abuse in rural reform experiments. End summary. -------------- Pigs Raise Incomes in Laibang Village -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Heifer's project in Laibang village, a tea-producing community deep within the mountains of Yuexi County, is a holistic community development effort providing seed funds and training in animal husbandry, agriculture, as well as public health and environmental protection. So far, Heifer has helped 94 households in the village purchase pigs, which has increased household income by about 3000 RMB (USD 428) since the project began in spring 2007. Project Director Chen said higher pork prices have particularly benefited the farmers, with the profit per pig rising from 200 RMB (USD 28) to 500-1000 RMB (USD 70-140). One farmer we spoke with sold her first pig in December and was pleased to report a 1000 RMB profit. She currently owns seven pigs and is looking forward to expanding her operation-- perhaps to 30-- with Heifer's assistance. Her neighbor sold five pigs last year and will use the 3000 RMB profit to build a new house across the valley, closer to the road, later this year. -------------- -------------- Heifer Project Benefits From Government Cooperation -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) Discussions with Project Directors Wang and Chen, the Laibang village committee chief, and Heifer representatives show that Heifer benefits from close cooperation with local officials in Laibang. Project Director Wang from the local Energy Department appreciates Heifer's assistance in promoting the installation of biogas systems. According to Wang, he found it difficult to implement this central initiative prior to adoption of Heifer's development methods and patient work with individual households. The local government fronts 800 RMB of the total 2000 RMB cost, and households can install various portions of the system as they are able to afford them. The systems, when complete, eliminate the need for firewood and improve local water quality and sanitation. Moreover, Project Director Chen and the village committee chief are closely involved in the project's progress, with Chen, from the Yuexi Agricultural Commission, providing training. Heifer's Anhui Regional Program Director Zhang Hong said, however, that Laibang is just one model Heifer is exploring in China and that in other localities Heifer chooses to bypass local authorities and work with farmers directly. In Laibang, Heifer is trying to transmit some community development values and hopes the local government will adopt some of these ideas. ¶4. (C) Comment: The Amity Foundation, a domestic faith-based NGO with whom Poloff met at its Nanjing, Jiangsu Province headquarters on March 28, also benefits from close government support. Because Amity is seen as providing necessary social services, the Nanjing municipal government provides buildings rent-free for Amity's operations, such as its Home of Blessings, a school for children with cognitive disabilities. The Foundation's general secretary, Qin Zhonghui, is a member of the standing committee of the Jiangsu Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Assistant Director She Hongyu noted that while the government is very supportive of Amity's activities due to its long history and respected status, officials are sometimes "cautious" about individual volunteers' background or agenda. End Comment. SHANGHAI 00000144 002 OF 003 -------------- Yuexi's Building Boom -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Yuexi County, one of Anhui's poorest, is undergoing a building boom. Money appears to be pouring into the area, both into individual pockets and government projects. Many farmers in the area are renovating or building new two or three story houses, possibly with the assistance of remittances from the significant outflow of labor in the area. The head of Laibang village reported that about 30 percent of household income comes from remittances. Other projects are also apparent: a government "development zone" outside of Yuexi, spaces for small street-side businesses, land cleared for unknown development, and road construction and repairs. ¶6. (SBU) Laibang village is a one and a half hour drive over rough and treacherous mountain roads from the nearest highway, but the province is in the process of constructing a massive highway, cutting boldly through the mountains with tall bridges across the fields below. The village head said the highway project will be completed in September 2009 and expects it will improve Laibang's market access for its economic crops. Consequently, he hopes the village will move into silk and organic vegetable production, as well as expand its tea cultivation. -------------- No Way Out of "San Nong" Problem -------------- ¶7. (C) In a meeting with Poloff on April 8 in Hefei, rural researcher Zhang Deyuan of the China San Nong Problem Research Center was pessimistic about Beijing's efforts to resolve the "three rural" problems (san nong: agriculture, peasants, and countryside),saying that the best China can do is release some of the social tension in the countryside. Zhang is particularly jaded about the effectiveness of deepening market reforms in the countryside and believes this will only intensify the rural-urban divide, mentioning that his statistics show the gap is increasing in Anhui. Zhang paints himself as the leading member of a "Central China" faction (huazhong pai) in rural reform research, who tend to be less optimistic due to their experience living and working in China's interior. Zhang draws a comparison between his group and an "overseas returnees" faction (haigui pai),staunch proponents of market reform as the solution to China's rural problems, exemplified in Zhang's view by economist Lin Yifu. ¶8. (C) Zhang granted that the "new socialist countryside" initiative has been effective in improving life in rural areas in some respects, most noticeably in public health and education; however, he also identified some major problems with the overall policy approach. First, Zhang said that centralized decisionmaking and fiscal allocation results in inefficient use of resources. The federal system in the United States, Zhang argued, allows states to wield resources and direct policy according to their own needs. Provinces in China, on the other hand, lack this power and may end up having to use centrally-allocated special funds to build roads when the locality would prefer to use the money to improve schools. Second, this centralization also results in dispersion of financial resources through a number of ministries and departments and a number of levels, which is inefficient and invites various actors to skim or divert funds. Third, Zhang described the new countryside policy overall as a continual process of "blood transfusion" where the countryside is wholly dependent on the center for resource support, lacking independent means to develop itself. ¶9. (C) Zhang's research center provides reports on pilot reform projects in the province for provincial, and sometimes central, leaders. One recent report for the Anhui leadership, dated March 20, 2008, positively evaluated a "land transfer business cooperative" (tudi liuzhuan jingying hezuoshe) pilot established in Mulan village, Sanhe township, Feixi County in October 2006 (ref: www.snzg.com.cn/readnews.asp?newsid=2516). In this arrangement, farmers can turn their land over to the cooperative, which acts as a non-profit agent to sub-rent their land to "capitalists," in Zhang's description, who are interested in conducting large-scale commercial agriculture. In return, the farmers-- many of whom have gone to the cities to work-- receive rental fees and a portion of the renter's profits. The cooperative is overseen by a board elected by the village committee. According to Zhang, the government supports this arrangement, as it has a number of benefits. The pooling of farmland into larger fields is more efficient and results in greater yields, and provides a vehicle to incorporate land left SHANGHAI 00000144 003 OF 003 fallow or under-worked by absent migrant workers and their families. The consolidation of small family plots creates an opening for large-scale commercial agriculture, which may more easily weather rising equipment prices. There is also the economic benefit to farmers or migrants who participate in the scheme. ¶10. (C) Zhang expects, however, that this experiment will run into problems similar to Anhui's micro-credit projects. The Grameen-style micro-credit experiment in Feixi County has received the approval of Anhui's leaders and has been welcomed by the farmers involved, but Zhang cautions that after two years the experiment is starting to show some signs of trouble. In the latter half of 2007, Zhang discovered that democratic decisionmaking declined as the fund's managers stopped obeying democratic principles, while transparency also deteriorated, with farmers finding it difficult to get information. Zhang marks the problems up to mismanagement, as well as straying of purpose and mistaken understanding as the project ages and supervision by project sponsors (Hong Kong Oxfam) wanes. JARRETT