ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how the state and the peasantry view each other in the post-Mao period, and the behavioral consequences of their opinions and attitudes. However, a succinct review of the peasant-state relationship under Mao Mao is also necessary because many of the problems in agriculture, such as marginalization and pauperization, resulted from Mao’s policies. Under the planned economic system, the state’s view of farmers was mainly to request grain and cotton from them, while the farmers, based on their own needs, wanted to increase their income. This contradiction existed for a long time. The relationship between the Chinese state and the peasantry has been essentially conflictive whether in Mao’s or Deng Xiaoping’s time. During the period of political revolution, the Maoist state and the Chinese peasantry seemed to be running on two tracks. Between the two, peasants were the realists and Mao the idealist.
