CHINA/REBALANCING: RURAL LAND POLICY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 002805 SIPDIS SENSITIVE COMMERCE FOR ALBERT HSU TREASURY FOR OIA CWINSHIP AND TTYANG NSC FOR LOI USDA/OSEC FOR MMICHENER USDA/FAS FOR OGA/HOUSE FAS FOR OCRA/RADLER/SHEPPARD FAS FOR OFSO/WAINIO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EAGR SOCI CH SUBJECT: CHINA/REBALANCING: RURAL LAND POLICY REFORMS MOVING SLOWLY AS FOOD SECURITY AND JOB CONCERNS LINGER REFS: A) 08 Beijing 4100 B) 08 Beijing 4102 BEIJING 00002805 001.2 OF 003 C)http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/c hen gdu/archives/southwest_china_302.html; http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/che ngdu/ar chives/southwest_china_293.html; http://www.caijing.com.cn/2009-04-10/11013651 5.html D) Beijing 1097 E) Beijing 693 F) Shanghai 380 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: China has made only incremental progress on rural land policy reforms needed to restructure China's rural economy and increase rural consumption. Transfers of land use rights have increased gradually in recent years, but the overall amount of rural land that has been transferred into larger, more efficient plots is small. Land consolidation in many areas is inhibited by the lack of market linkages needed to make large-scale commercial operations viable, and authorities are cautious due to concerns about migrant employment and the loss of agricultural land. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) This cable summarizes the status of rural land policy reforms highlighted during Econoff trips to Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in May and August 2009, Henan Province in July 2009, and northern Hebei's Changwei County and Chengde City in August 2009, as well as recent meetings with rural policy experts in Beijing. -------------- -- More Land Transfers, But No New Official Policies -------------- -- ¶3. (SBU) Provincial officials and rural experts who spoke with Econoff cited gradual progress expanding the scope of rural land transfers. (Note: Land transfers involve transferring land use rights and can take the form of renting, informal exchanges, formally transferring contract rights (zhuanbao), and exchanging land for equity in a cooperative or "land bank" that then transfers consolidated tracts of land to a company or large-scale farmer. End Note.) Land transfers, according to contacts, have picked up in recent years as factories have sprung up in peri-urban areas, as rural residents leave to work outside, and as commercialized aquaculture, animal husbandry, and agriculture operations that require larger, consolidated land holdings have become more prevalent. ¶4. (SBU) The pace of land transfers has picked up since 2007. The October 2008 Third Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party 17th Central Committee ("Third Plenum", see refs A, B) gave high-level approval to proceed with land transfers and encouraged continued growth of this practice, but according to one local agriculture official it did not bring about new policies. In southern Ningxia's Guyuan City, local officials said the Third Plenum and other recent land-policy announcements were only "government guidance" and no new impetus was in place; local transfers are still conducted according to existing law and the willingness of parties to conduct a transaction. -------------- And Growth is Limited by Local Conditions -------------- ¶5. (SBU) According to a Henan agriculture official, about 4.8 percent of farmland in Henan has been transferred. In Ningxia, land transfers constituted BEIJING 00002805 002.2 OF 003 5.9 percent of household agricultural land and involved 9.9 percent of rural households. In Hebei's Chengde City, according to an agriculture official, approximately 20 percent of agricultural land has undergone a transfer. (Note: According to results from a nationwide survey recently published by the U.S.-based Rural Development Institute, currently about 15 percent of Chinese farmers are transferring their land in some way. End Note.) ¶6. (SBU) Land transfers are occurring most frequently in areas close to urban markets and where agriculture is highly commercialized. Land transfers in remote areas are less common, according to the officials and scholars in Ningxia, because there are no large scale farmers or companies interested in using the land for large-scale production. The rural land being transferred in Henan is much less than in other provinces, according to officials, because urbanization in Henan is limited, and the province focuses on grain production rather than vegetables and other higher value crops. In Hebei, an official explained that the number of land transfers is relatively low despite significant numbers of migrant workers because enterprises that want to consolidate land and upgrade production techniques want irrigated, fertile land, not the marginal land found in much of northern Hebei. Officials in Henan and Hebei also explained that many older residents want to maintain the safety net of farming their own land, even if they are not profiting. -------------- -------------- Comment: Slow Land Policy Reforms Limit Rural Contribution to Rebalancing -------------- -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Instead of making dramatic steps to privatize rural land at the Third Plenum in late 2008 as some observers hoped, China reemphasized maintaining the amount of land under cultivation, increasing land transfers, and solidify rural land rights. News reports highlight local experiments to mortgage land and allow transfer of village non- farming land for non-farming purposes (Ref C),but these practices are not widespread. As Chinese concerns about food security and the impact of the global financial crisis on the rural workforce and rural incomes grew over the last year, officials such as State Council rural expert Chen Xiwen cautioned against mortgaging farmland and other land policy reforms that could leave rural residents without the safety net of having their own land to cultivate. ¶8. (SBU) Barriers to increasing land transfers and land consolidation hinder the shift to higher-value farming, the transition of farm labor to higher paying non-farm jobs, and farmers' ability to sell or mortgage their land to start businesses. This adds to difficulties maintaining per capita farmers' net income growth, which a Ministry of Agriculture official recently predicted will increase less than 6 percent this year. (Note: The 2004-2008 rural net income average annual growth rate is over 8 percent. End Note.) According to the official, if this growth rate continues, China will have difficulty achieving the 2008 Third Plenum Communist Party goal of doubling rural incomes by 2020. Despite moves to increase rural social safety net spending and other transfers (Ref D),as long as farmers own few real assets (e.g., land) and their incomes remain low, they will be unable to consume more and contribute to rebalancing China's economy to rely less on BEIJING 00002805 003.2 OF 003 HUNTSMAN