Who Owns China's Land? Policies, Property Rights and Deliberate Institutional Ambiguity

Abstract

In many cases land leases are issued by the administrative village, while the land belonged to the natural village in the past. It is like the ownership rights to land have been silently stolen from the natural village and vested in a level higher. […] Yet, to date there are not many conflicts, because farmers are not well imbued with the idea of “property.” But problems are sure to arise in the future …Sheng Li, oral communication, 1999. Sheng Li is a senior official within the Bureau of Law and Policy System Reform of the Ministry of Agriculture.