ABSTRACT
As early as 1987, the magazine Liaowang wrote of the "rebellious psychology" (xinli zaofan) among peasants, a characterization reiterated in a Ministry of Agriculture report in 1990. 1 Six major sources of discontent can be identified:
High taxes. The "peasants' burdens" (nongmin de fudan) takes pride of place as the source of discontent. Apart from paying taxes to the state, peasants have financial obligations to the village and the township (santi wutong) designed to fund collective and governmental activities. These payments are not supposed to exceed 5 percent of net per capita incomes but have often done so. Additional "above-quota" fees, fines, and apportionments, the sanluan or "three chaotics" imposed by local officials and higher-level bureaucratic agencies, are an even greater source of grievance. These exactions are arbitrary, unpredictable, and open ended. They are easily manipulated by officials. Numerous peasant households have been ruined by the various exactions. The Central authorities have long recognized the threat to stability posed by excessive burdens and have made vigorous efforts to bring them under control, but they have always "rebounded" (fantan). The underlying problem is not simply corruption or malfeasance, but the fiscal stringency under which China's bloated administrative apparatus operates and the intense pressure to achieve rapid modernization.
The burden problem is greatest in "agricultural China" (i.e., those parts of the countryside, mainly in the central and western provinces that lack flourishing township and village industries [TVE], most of which are concentrated in the eastern belt of provinces). Some TVE profits have long been used to fund collective, welfare, and social services, particularly education. In contrast, when peasant payments to the village and township constitute the major source of revenue, officials are more likely to squeeze the peasants for money.
Low grain prices. Ever since the state lowered procurement prices in 1985, which, together with inflation, made it increasingly unprofitable to farm, procurement of grain and cotton has been a second major source of discontent. Farmers not only complain about the price scissors but especially about payments in IOUs (baitiao) rather than cash, often the result of official diversion of state procurement funds to more profitable, sometimes speculative investments. IOUs, together with the burdens, were the major cause of a series of peasant riots that swept through rural China in 1992—1993, causing alarm and even panic among Central leaders. The regime sought vigorously to eliminate IOUs and it also periodically raised procurement prices, but problems on this front have persisted. 2
Taking peasant land. Rural industrialization requires land. Capacity to provide cheap land is a major factor in a locality's ability to attract outside investors. Often, as in numerous cases reported from Guangdong or in suburban villages of major cities in the interior, such as Zhengzhou in Honan, peasants have rioted against officials who paid little or no compensation for requisitioned land or who failed to provide dispossessed families with jobs in the new industries. 3
Pollution. Unrestrained rural industrialization has led to contamination of the water supply, poisoning of fields, and illness among TVE workers. In the absence of adequate enforcement of environmental statutes, enterprises, both collective and state, often fail to pay compensation or to eliminate the source of pollution, provoking confrontations, including riots. 4
Cultural and social conflicts. The regime seeks to suppress the spread of unapproved religious sects, fearing that as in the past, heterodox religious sects can become the basis for rebellion. (An immense nineteenth century rebellion, the Taipings, was started, it is worth noting by someone who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ.) The regime's tolerance for revived clan and lineage activities is also limited. Government intervention has led to conflicts. The policy of requiring cremation of the dead—designed to conserve scarce arable land—which runs counter to ancient customs, also causes conflict. The most important source of conflict is over enforcement of birth control rules, particularly when cadres unfairly allocate birth quotas. 5
Abusive officials. Grievances can be caused by Central policy (e.g., in the case of procurement prices or birth control, or by local policies and practices), as in the case of burdens or IOUs. Regardless of the source, it is the process of implementation that enormously aggravates discontent.
Relations between peasants and local officials, mainly township officials but also including village cadres have greatly deteriorated in the past decade. The sources are corruption, "use of power for private gain," and the use of brute force by local officials and police. Some of the abuses can be explained by the difficulties of enforcing unpopular policies, which rose with decollectivization and the increased possibilities for evasion that it offered, but also by the extreme pressures under which local officials labor to meet quantitative goals imposed by the higher levels. 6
