LAND UTILIZATION AND DISTRIBUTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 16, 1999
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: February 3, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2062101 !cdAd'RP&Oar0-00809A000500390023-1
CON? IDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT,
COUNTRY China'
SUBJECT Lead Utilization and Distribution
I
PLACE ACQU I RED
(MY SOURC
DATE ACQU I RED
(BY SOURC
N
YWf1 OOCU.1CN? CONTAIN) IN/ONMAT10N AI/ICT IMO THt-Niif1ONAl'OCNjCI
01 .NI UNITtO /TA T11. WITHIN TNI YI.NINO OF TITLI 11, ?1CT10Nl 701
IMO 104. 01 701 U.S. COD[. AS AN[NO[O. ITS TNAN04110210N 08 Sill.
LITION Cl ITS CONT1N01 TO ON N[CCIIT IT an UNAUTN0IIC(0 11810011 11
THIS Is UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
25X1A
NO. OF PAGES', 12
NO. OF ENCLS.
SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
11 China-remains to-day, as in the past, predominently an agricultural society, Despite
the absence of reliable occupational statistics, the consensus of cpinion is that
mist four-"'1..fthe of the population of China depends for its livelihood on the soils
On the ate a-a'd of life of this great army of cultivators, boTh her economic
prosp rit;, and political stability must depend. Any realistic study of modern. China,
thea4' torer may well start from the facts relating to the utilization of farm land
and the distribution of landed property.
2. Area and arable lands The area of China has been estimated at three and. one-third
lion oquaro m ea, more than 300,000 square miles largl'r than continental United
States', of America. This gross figure includes 1,459,000 square miles in the
eighteen provinces of China proper, 40'1,000 square miles in .the three northeastern
provinces of Manchuria, 400,000 square miles in the four provIncos of Inner
Mongolia, 415,000 square miles in the two provinces of Nee,xer Tibet, and 415,000
square miles in the single, far-nortinrestorn province of Sinkiang.
3. The great land mass of China is very rugged, with the topography varying from low
p],aius of few feet above the sea level to high plateaus of over 10,000 feet in
altitude. The general slope of the country runs from the west to the east and from
the north to the south. Taking the country as a whole',, plateaus with elevations
of more than 4500 feat above the sea level account for as much as 56% of the total
area,, and highlands with elevations from 600 to 4500 feet constitute 32'%. Only 12%,
of the toga]. ages to in kalaina, iouad principally in the deltas of the Yangtze and
Hwang Rivera and the ? roll.ng lowland of central Ma huria.
U.s. OffIcial8 Only
CONFOEWP [AL
~ARNY -X NAVY -'x1 =AIR Fel ~~ Oj ~ ,
This report Is for the use within the fT8A of the Intelligence components of the Departments or
Agencies Indicated above. Xt Is not to be transmitted oversewe without the concurrence of the
,ri natiiyi office through the Assistant Director of the Ofnee of Collection and IDlssominatlon. CIA.
Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1
 Approv d For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1 25X1A
CONFIDENTIAL/US OFFICIALS ONLY
-2-
In a countiyl so vast area and so varier, in topography as China, the conditions of
precipitation and climate must also be diversified.. In preoipltati.on, it veri.ec from
a aoau gt3AUa$ i~a1APa21 of lass than 1.6 inch in 00bi Uscaz~t M.o that of over 300
inches at O ei Shanlin Szechuan Province. In temperature, it ranges from torrid heat',
in South and Southeastern China to 'arcti^ vigor in North and Northwestern China. In
the Yangtze Valley of Central. China, rainfall ranges from 40 to 60 inches, and the
growing season is 300 days long. In North'IChina, including the Great Plain, the
Loess Hills and Jehol mountain and extending to the Tsingling Range and the Hwai
River Valley, rainfall averages 25 !, inches but varies widely, and the length of growing
season is 249 days.) In Manchuria, five months have averages below freezing with a
growing season of less than 150 days, and rainfall decreases from 40 inches In east
to 15 inches in the west. In South China covering the Western River Basin and the
coastal regions, the growing season is nearly a year long, and rainfall excelds 80
inches on the exposed mountain slopes. Climatically, China has an artd northwest
with annual rainfall from zero to 6' or 7 inches, a semiarid north with annual
rainfall from 6 q]? 7 inches on the west edge to 25 inches near the coast, and a humid
south with annual rainfall from 40 inches in the upper and western limits to 100
inches along the coast near Canton. Taking the country as a whole, 65% of the total
area has an annual precipitation of leas than 20 inches, and regions with an annual
precipitation of leas than 10 inches amount to as much as 40% of the total area.
Only of the total area of the country has an annual precipitation of 20 inches
or yo
5. At the risk of over simplification,'it may be said that China is divided into a non-
agricultural interior embracing two-thirds of the total area and an agricultural
coast comprising only one-third of the entire country. The latter is known as
"Agricultural China", located between the ocean, the deserts, the plateaus and the
mountains, within which approximately 98% of the Chinas people live. Not all of the
"Agricultural China", however, is arable. With the exception of the Eastern Lowlands,
including the Manchuria Plain, the Hwang River Plain and the Yangtze Delta Plain,
Agricultural Qhina is also rugged, making transportation difficult and livelihood
hard to earn- In Southern Uplands, for instance, level land is nowhere more than a
few miles; hills andlmountains are always in sight. Even in Szechuan Lowland,
hilltops rise from 3000 to 4000 feet with valley bottoms at half the elevations.
Climatically, Agricultural China comprises a semiarid north and humid south with an
uneven distribution of rainfall and'the unreliability of precipitation from year
to year. In the wheat regions of North China, two-thirds of the annual precipitation
falls during summer months and one-twentieth falls during the winter months. The
amounts of rainfall in autumn and spring are squally divided, but they are so small
in quantity aa to make crop-planting extremely difficult at the proper times.
Homan has received 18 inches of rainfall inla single day, while a station in Kwang i
with an anuaal average rainfall of 50 inches once dropped to 8 inches for a period
of 12 months. Mountainous regions exposed to typhoons from the South China Sea
receive Pound 100 inches of rainfall!, a large proportion of which usually comes in a
few days, thus frequently resulting in sudden overflowing of rivers. The variability
of precipitation in percentage from the mean annual figure in No;th China ranges from
25% to 35%. This means that any place with a normal rainfall of'10 inches per year
m%y only receive 6 inches in any year thus giving rise to serious drought and crop
f ailures.
6. Various estimates on the extent of arable land in China have been made. 0 E Baker
ie of the opinion that the land ax?ea,physically suitable to crops in China amounts
to a total of 1700 million acres, or 32.8% of the area of the country (1). Wong
Wen-hao has made a similar optimistic observation (3). He esti.mat?s that the arable
land in China ranges from 670 million acres to 810 million acres, or from 31.4% to
37.5% of the area of t;ae country. After making a careful study of Wong Wen-hao '
estimate, and using the same methodology, Chen Chang-hen arrives at the conclusion
that the arable land is china ranges from 40~ million acres to 450 million acres,
or 18.8% to 21.1% of the area of the ,country (3). All these estimates are admittedly
too high. Cu be basis of Buck's Field study of land ut:..lization in China, a more
realistic estimate of China's ara-,leland may be made. The arable land in Buck 'c
eight agricultural regions of China amounts to 267 million acres (4). The only
other agricultural region of China not inc2.uded in Buck's investigation is the three
northeastern provinces of Manchuria, which have an estimated area of arable lane of
90 million acres (5). T'.ze arable lrsnd in China, therefore cannot be safe).y estimated
at more than 357 million acres, or 16.7% of the area of the country. Even most
CONFIDENTIAL/US Or'FICI&LS ONLY
Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-IDP80-00809A000500390023-1
 Approved For Release 2002/01/031: CIA-RDP80-09809A000500390023-1
E.5 0'' L: ,
opti" Lstically considered, Chin. is' poor in agr.icultu='al resources. The highest
figure of 37.590 as estimated by, Wong Wen-ha.o comp , ares unfavorably with the comparable
portion of the United States of America wh ch i.s 51%.
7. Land der cultivation: Estimate:- of the land under cultivation in China are also at
great variance. 0 E baker puts the' cultivated land in China at 180 million acres (b),
and Chen Chang-hen at 205 million acres (7). Both of them definitely err in the
under-estimation of China's land under cultivation as they do in the over-estimation
of that capable of cultivation.', Other estimates,Ion the cultivated land in China
which may be noted are 263 million acres by the Agricultural Commission in 19J_4 (8a)
and 253 million acres by D K Lieu in 1928 (8). On the basis of field inves*i.gations
conduct Ied in 1929-1933, Buck estimates the cultivated land in his eight agricultural
regions, which' cover a gross area of 1,400,000 square mLles but which exclude the three
northeastern provinces of Manch'uria, at 232 million acres or 27% of the area (9).
With the addition of the estimated cultivated land of 40 million acres for the three
northeastern provinces, ,,,as J?ud acreage under cultivation in China totals 272
million acres or 12,7 a,^res of .the area of the country. The latest official figure
on cultivated land in China, as' compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
in 1946, is 1,397,646,000 Shih Mow, or about 230 250,000 acres (10), which appear
less by 14% than the present estimation on the basis of Buck's field study. It
must beI admitted that official'statistics on cultivated land in China always has
the downward bias. Semple surveys on land by Buck show that the reported official
figure on cultivated la..d is less than the actual by an average of approximately
one-fifth (11).
8. The difference between the estimates acreage of 357 million acres of arable land and
that of 272 million of cultivated land may be taken as the most probable acreage of
arable cultivated land in China. 'Although not lall the land that is cultivable
has been actually put under cultivation, the opinion prevalent in China that the
country has vast areas potentially cultivable islerroneous. Recent studies of the
three northeastern provinces put the unused land capable of cultivation in that
region at approximately 50 million acres (12). ]Iven if this figure could be
increased by a considerable percentage, it would not account for the unwarranted
optimistic opinion of vast areas still available Ifor cultivation. It must also be
regarded as highly Improbable that the eighteen provinces of China proper possess
a larg. area of arable uncultivatedl land. In hia3 study, Buck arrives at a figure
of 35 million acres of arable unoultivated land for the eight agricultural regions,
but guards his conclusion with the reservation that "the limited available data
make itjii'aasible to estimate accurately the potentially arable land of China,
especially if economic production is to be considered. In any consideration of the
quantity of a0--itional land which night be brought under cultivation, it must be
remembered that land is alto continually becoming, unfit for cultivation for one
reason or another, such as erosior. and floods cc-'aring good soil with sand" (13).
In light of his reservation, Buck ie inclined to~place the arable uncultivated land
for the ei ,t agricultural regions far below the ilimit of 35 million acres.
AoccrGing to him, the maximum amount of land that) can we made available for
cultivation in China proper, including the arablel u:lcultivated land as well as the,
cultivated land now lying id-le or not so intensciy exploited, is no more than 25
million aoraa (14).
g. The ratio of cultivated, land to, the total area of China, namely : 12.'7% for the
entire country and 27% for Buck's sight agricultural regions compares with 27.9%
for India, 15.7% for Japan, lg.9% for Korea, 13.3% for Philippines, 13.5% for the
region of Asia and Far East, 22.5% for Great Britain, 22.C. for the United States
of America, 43.8% for Germany and 4+.6% for Italy. A closer examination of the
types of land uses in Chine. from fihe result of Duck's investigation of agricultural
China Meveals a state of development even more in China's disfavor. in the first
place, China is a land practic' ally devoid of pasture farming. Only 4.6% of her
gross area is devoted to this pu:'pose, as compared with 8.7% in Japan, 17.8% in
Philippines, 1'7.4 in Germany, 20'.1 In Italy, 35.1', in the United Status and 56.8%
in Great Bri?cain. in the second place, China is a land without much forestry. Much
of the forest land in earlier times has now disappeared through neglect'or
dostrucbion. The primary reason is economic, as most of the forest land is converted.
into land for arable farming; where it is not fitjfor arable purposes the forest
is re,..'ved for use as timber or fuel. The forest Ian . in China today covers only
CONFIDENTIAL/US OFFICIALS ONLY
Ap roved For Release 2002/61/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1
 Ap
proved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-QO809A0005
CONFTNT-AL/US CFFICIAL8 ONLY
-1-
8.7% of *he gross area,' as compared with 13.1% for India, 54'.5% for Japan, 77.5%
for. Korea, 58.2% for Philippines, 16% for Italy, 27.2%' for Germany and 31.,91 for the
United Stites. Thirdly, the proportion of.the uncultivated land that is not productive
must be considered high in agricultural China. Accorca.ing to~Buck's investigation,
only 52.of the, uncultivated land is used for productive purpo&es, frith percentage
distriion by uses as follows -e forest, 22;8%; trees and bushes, 284%; grass,
23.8%; m, 5.29; pasture, 11.9%; and other. uses, 8.2%. Buck adds : "most of this
land is it for agriculture, but some of it would be better utilized in forest
than in des and bushes". The reanons for the unproductivity of land in the 172
balen nu!veyed by Buck are several. "Such land was reported, by 55% of the hsien as
too eton~y,,by 14% as being caused by presence of Breves, by 8% as tool much sand.,
salt or ~al1cali and the remainder either for other causes or an unknoy . (15).
Unit of cultivation: One salient feature of China's land utilization ie the minute
unit of Ft-ivation. Chinese'farms are extremely small, Ithe~mean size being 3.67
acres, compared with that of 156.9 acres in the United' States. Thy largest farm
in China is found in the average of 11.26 acres fccr the province of S iyuan and the
smallest in the average of 1.94 acres for the province of Kwangtung. rThe degree of
intensitF in land utilization in respect to labor decreaaes from south to north, as
the acreage of cultivated land per farm increasesjateadily in the same direction.
As shown in the table, the size of cultivated land per farm in the provinces in the
northwest, north and northeast, exceeds that in the provinces in the lower Yangtze,
southwest and southeast. This difference in the Scale of i$rming is obviously due to
such more favorable factors in South China as greater rainfall, higher temperature
and longer growing season making it possible for al morsel of land to yield a
subateteuce' living for the cultivator.
Cultivated land in China (16)
Northeast
% of total area
cultivated
Area of cultivate
land per person
d Area
la
of cultivated
nd per farm
(in.acres)
(in acres) -
_
C
1.64 I
8.26
Jehol
8.9
1.65
9.67
Heil
1.86
11.10
Kira
18.4
1.
7.74
Li.aoz i
~ipg
1405
96
5.76
KaneuI
4
5
07
11
5.43
Shansi
.
31.1
1x
21
6.4o
Shensi
16.2
.96 I
5,4?
TYiagsiaa .
0.5
1.09
5.63
Suiyuazi
3.3
2.06
11.26
Chi
i
0.3
1,07
5.4.3
S"
0.5
1.48
7.14
Lower xa
q
An,Uwa
tto
ff
4-7
s
79
4.49
Jr~wan
16 .3
3
+
2,12
Hupei
23.1
T55
2.68
K.1.angs
i
16.7
.44
2.17
~
Ki"es
u
52?0
;56
2.77
North Plain
Hons.n
40.4
.62
3.20
Hope
51.6
.711
4.2')
Shangtung
2:5.4
.50
2.80
col W DE2T1 xAL/U& WFTCIALS ONLY
Ap,pr!Qved For Release 2002/01103: CIA-RDP80-00809A0_Q0-5100390023.1
 Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1
C0NF]DENTIAI,/TJB OFti`IGzIIB ONLY
25X1A
% of total area Area of cultivated
cultivated~ land per parson
(in acres)
Area of cultivated
land per farm
~in acres)
So
utheast
Chekiang
26,7 .48.
2.16
Fukien
.~1.8 .48
2.13
Kwangs i
.8.4 ?37
1.95
Kwangtung
12.4 ?34
1.94
So
uthwest
K'weichow
8.6
.61
3.19
Szechwan
24.0 .65
3.91
Yunnan
4.3 .60
3.12
Sikang
0.1 X39
2.37
Ch
ina
12.7 ?70
3.67
% of total area
cultivated
China (17)
%.of cultivated Crop area Farm population
land irrigated per farm per aq a of
aaro crop area
Ag
(W
ricultural China
ithout lV anohuria)
27% 4776 3.8 1,485
Wh
(w
eat Provinces
ithout Manchuria)
-49%
18% 5.1 1,128
Wr
ote' Wh at?'JGMali~asa
Region
68%
10 5.1 1,165
Win
er Wheat-millet
aogic
22% 10 3.7 1,234
8p3'
ing Wheat Region
18% 13 7.3
Maa
l
}ahurian Soybean-
ffoliang Region
2L
5 8.0 800
Ric
l
e provinces
18A
62 2.8 1, 74.6
Ya
tse Rice-wheat
Region
35%
61 3.5 1, 360
Rice-tea Region
18% 78 2.2 1,788
Sze huan Rice Region
32% 70 3.1 1,61o
Double Cropping Rice
i Region
133 69 2.3 2,072
Southwestern Rice
Region
7% 82 2.0 e,636
11. Ana overwhelming pressure of population on land in China is shown by the extremely low
ratio of cultivated land to people, the average for the country being only 0.7 acre
pert capita. The province of 94iyuanlin Porte China has the highest average per capita
acrQage of cultivated land (2.06 acres), while K*r>ugtuug has the lowest (0.34 acre).
Thuh eight agricultural region. included in 'buck's investigation give an average
donuity of 1485 persons per square mile of crop area. As shown in Table the density
per square wile of crop area for the height agricultural regions varies from the
C0IiFIDZ11TI.AWUB C 'ICIAIg W a
Approved For Release 2002/01/01$ : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1
 Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000$00390023-1
CONFIDENTIAL/US rii1CIAIS ONLY
minimum average of 858 persons in the Spring Wheat Area in the northwest to the
maximum average of 2636 persons in the Southwestern Rice Area in South China.
Indeed, the farm population in China has been squeezed into) the confines c,f every
little valley, up the slopes of every hill where any soil can be found, such as thei
terraced areas in the province of Szechuan, and onto marginal' lands where scanty and
erratic rainfall constitute a constant hazard to the peasant.; It has caused a
greater modification of the terrain than that of any other area of equal size in
the world. From one-fourth to one-fifth of the !land under cultivation in Chirp is
terraced, and a much larger proportion of it islirrigated, some under systems which
have existed fox over two thousand years. In the- Rice Regions of China an average
of 62'6 of the land under cultivation is irrigated, whereas in the Wheat Regions of
North China an average of 18% of the cultivated land is under irrigation which
usually increases the yield by 60% or more. As shown in the Table as much as 78% of
the cultivated land in the Rice-tea Region and 82% of the cultivated land in the
Southwestern Rice Region are under irrigation (18).
12. Fragmentation of cultivation: The small size c"farms in China, clue to pressure of
population on land, is accompanied by another ph'eromenon, namely: fragmentation of
cultivation which owes its origin to different causes but presents also serious
handicaps to the effectiveness of China's land utilization. A ghinese farm does not
lie in a compact block. On the average, there are about six parcels per farm. Each
parcel contains more than one field; the averaged number of fields per farm is about
eleven. In some extreme cases, however, such as in Fowling, Szechuan, the average
number of parcels per farm is fifty-six and the average number of fields per farm
goes as high as seventy.
13. The reasons for the fragmentation of cultivation, in China a e' both social and economic.
First, under the system of private land ownership, there has been no legal restriction
on land partition and land -transfer. Second, in accordance with the custom for
inheritance, the property of a deceased is equally divided among the surviving sons.
With the variation of land quality, good land and inferior land are divided
separately in each case among the heirs in orders to ensure that one may not have all
the best and another all the worst, and that each one of them' may have both wet and
dry land, hilly land for fuel and manure, and level land for crops. The dispersion
of plots thus established in a farm is perpetuated and extended by further division
and re-division through inheritance from generation to generation. Finally, the
uplands of South China and southwestern China in; particular, a farm is composed of
various parcels because of topography. Each parcel of terraced land is partitioned
into minute fields by artificial walla, for the purpose of irrigation or that of main-
taining a sufficiently high water level suitablelfor rice plantation.
14. Fragmentation of land in a Chinese farm, which reminds one ofi the strip system in
Europe before the Agricultural Revolution in the sixteenth century, places many
difficulties in the way of agricultural progress and of fuller use f China's limited
land resour.:_ie. In particular, it uses up land in boundaries, give; rise to
difficulties *,.n irrigation, limits the application of machinery, increases the cost
of operation, and reduces labor efficiency in cultivation. ~A'feasible program of
land consolidation is obviously an essential prerequisite for China's agricultural
15. Misuse of land: There have been misuses of land in China, due primarily to custom
and economic necessity, which have had grave consequences on the farm economy of the
country. In China the custom has been for each family to have its own burial grounds,
and the graves may be l.icat30. _ndividually or in family graveyards. Usually the
geomiancer locates the grave site on the basis of the feng shui, the supposed meginal
wind and water influences which might bring prosperity to the' posterity. Graves
are oftentimes placed in the fields of farms, in spots determined as desirable or
lucky by the geomancer, regardless of their occupation of arable land or their
hindrance to farm operation. Buck's survey sbow? that 6L% of the grave land is in
cultivated fields; 15% in arable uncultivated land and 21% innon-arable land. Over
four-fifths of the grave law) in North China is in cultivated fields, as compared with
less than one-half in South China. The area of farm land occupied by graves
constitutes almost e^'6 of all farm land in China. 'T'his means a total area of 2,552,000
acres for the eight agricultrral regions included in' Buck's study which could support
over 4+00,000 farm fai.ilies (20).
reconstruction.
CONF3DENTIAL,/US OFF IALS ONLY
Approved For Release 2002/01/03: CIA-RDP801-00809A000500390023-1
 Ap
roved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A00050 390 -
CONFIQrNTIAL/US n I~ ICIALS ONLY
_7
16. While much comme' .*.t..ioi, should be gat--. to Chinest- farmers for the maintenance of the
productivity of the land in the co:.n:;~y through .any centuries,' there are extensive
areas sub,lect to serious eroeion that have declined in productivity or have gone out
of cultivration. Much of the soil erosion found in China is essentially a form of
modification by man with the assistance of nature. By dire economic necessity,
peasants a.ve cut the forests sr broken grasslands for fuel, partly consumed by
thexaselves and partly carried irtc the nearest market town for sale. Land that
should be utilized in forest is being used for grass and bushes which are annually
shaved bare it autumn for the same reason. The consequence of all this is that
the~soil thus exposed is being slowly washed away. One needs only to observe the
sealof guleys in the loessial highlands of the northwest and the heavily laden
muddy waters of the rivers extending far out into the sea, or tb note the rate with
which thel Yangtze River is building up the coast of the province of Kiangsu, to
realize that the upland soils of China are being slowly and continuously damaged or
destroyed. Soil erosion which results from a kind o? misuse of land in China should
merit a most careful study to protect the limited land resource of the country for
future generations-
Land distribution
17. Observers frequently tend to overlook the importance of the que tion of land
dietribut on in China. Although a it of cui.tivation and a u t of ownership are
two!totalLy different conceptions, writers on Chinese land prob..ems have interest
in the former, to the neglect of the latter. Imprenaed by the seriousness of the
problem presented by the multitude of minute holdings for cult,.vation, inequalities
of the distribution of landed property have been regarded as a phenomenon of minor
significance. While it is true that large land estates in the European sense of the
term are (seldom found in China, we must nevertheless recognize that inequal.'_ties of
lan3 distribution are of increasing gravity. The system of lanld ownership, which
is the institutional fabric of Chinese agriculture, constitutce the foundation of
China's national economy at the present stage of its development.
18. Form and size of land ownership: It has been estimated that about three and a half
centuries) ago only ha.' of the total acreage of cultivated land in China was in
private ownership, the other half of it being distributed into: royal. estate and
state land, 27.2%; temple and ancestral land, 13.6% and land for military
colonization, 9.4 (21). Owing to a process of alienation of public and semi-public
domains during the Ch'ing Dynasty, and to the progressive d.isintig.ation of collective
ownership in temple, ancestral and school land since the Republic Era, practically
all farm land in China is now privately owned. Late in 1865 in the Ch'ing Dynasty,
it was reported that 92.7% of the cultivated land in China belonged to private
ownership and 7.3% of it was of such categories as Manchurian EIstate, state land,
temple and ancestral land (22). According to a sample survey conducted by the
Ministry of Interior of the Nationalist Government in 1934 and covering 24,408,244
land-owning families in seventeen provinces of China, as :mach e 97.39 of the
cultivated land is today in private ownership and only 2.7% of it remains as
"public".I The prevalence of collective ownership in temple and ancestral land in
south ('tiI ins accounts for the comparatively larger proportion of "public land" in
Kwangvi, Hunan, Yunnan and Chekiang than in the other provinces included in the
survey. It should. b3 added that temple and ancestral land in China is usually
under the management and control of individuals as "directors"lor "managers"
who', treat it almost as private in ito administration or disposal as well as
in its social-economic relationship to the cultivators.
CONF IDE'.VTIAL/ US OFD' ICIALS ONLY
Apliroved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A00050d390023-1
 Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP40-00809A000500390023-1
CONE IDENTICAL/!JS OFT iC" iS ONLY
-8-
Form and size of land ownership in China (23)
Private land
Kiangsu
families
96 land
Anwhe. i I
% families
% land
Hupeh
% families
% land
Hunan
% families
% land
Shantung
% families
% land
Shansi
% families
% land
Honan
% families
% land
Hopoh
% families
% land
Shensi
% families
% land 11
Chekiang
% families
1 land
Kwangtung
% families
% land
K'wangs i
iamilied
% land
Yunnan
1u families
land
Kannu _
% families
% land
Chinghai
% families
% land
Chahar
% families
% land
Suiyuan
% fam,.1ies
% land
Average
% families
% land
over 100 51-100 31-50 10-30
below All
10 row private
1.47
5.36
10.90
24.88
57.39
100.00
15.80
19.07
23.02
23.07
17.29 98.25
.75
100.00
1.76
5.23
8.82
18.75
65.44
100.00
15.63
21.81
21.79
18.15
20.12 97.50
.50
100.00
1.10
3.26
7.33
20.8.1
67.50
1.00.00
13.97
16.16
20.86
23.78
24.06 98,83 i
.17
100.00
0.66
2.50
5.50
17.9o
73,.44
100.00
9.56
13.07
19.21
26.60
26.15 914.59
100.00
0.94
3.90
10.54
27.27
57.35
100.00
11.12
16.93
24.97
27.25
19.12 99-39
100.00
3.78
11.12
17.69
30.34
37.07
1.00.00
22.02
26.667
23.54
19.16
7.91 99.30
1.70
100.00
1.63
5.02
11.96
26.38
55.01
100.00
15.67
19.17
24.74
24.32
15.18 99.08
1.92
100.00
1.68
5.80
12.68
28.44
51.40
100.00
15.12
20.26
24.64
25.03
14.61 99.66
4.34
100.00
2.49
11.73
15.91
22.33
47.54
18.81
31.03
22.70
17.02
8.92 98.48
.52
100.00
0.62
2.21
5.32
15.43
76.42
100.00
18.27
11.59
16.99
21.74
28 J.5 96.74
.26
100.00
2.02
3.66
6.12
17.46
70.74
3.n0.oo
20.85
16.93
15.66
18.67
.23.76 95.87
013.
100.00
0.65
2.37
7.21
21.45
68.32
34.85
8.77
3.3.41
17.60
12.81 87.44 1
0-56
100.00
1.11
2.45
7.01
17.08
72.35
100.00
24.12
11,76
18.06
19.23
21.04 94.31
69
100.00
6.47
12.83
18.03
27.07
35.60
30.74
27.12
19.94
13.74
7.81- 99.38
~ . i:2
100.00
11.10
15.99
22.60
24.79
25 2
100.00
64.22
15.44
9.45
6.11,
2.02 97.27
?7,3
100.00
7.36
13.68
18.57
26.66
33.51
100.00
42.32
23.17
17.23
11.52
4.77 99.01
.99
'00.00
19.26
21.26
23.65
20.63
26.16
21.42
13.11
6.34
3 .48 98.51
p..'e9
100.00
3.77
7.61
12.34
22.82 53.46
25.28
18.82
19.37
18.79 15.02 97.28
p.72
100.00
COi'JF 3DENT IA.L/US OFF IC 3 ALS ONLY
Approved For, Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP8O-00809A000500390023-1
 Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1
CONFIDENT1i\L/US OFFICIALS ONLY
19. Private land ownership is mostly in very small holdings. As revealed by the survey of
the Ministry of interior table above, almost nine-tenths of the land owners possess an
acreage of less than 50 mow or less than 8 acres each and over half of them less than
10 mow or less than one acre and a half each. The size of land ownership varies from
region to region. On the whole it may be said that land holdings are relatively
larger in North China than in South China. For instance, in the province of Suiyuan,
593 of the land owners possess an acreage of 50 mow each, but 41% of them more than
50 mow each and nearly 20% of them over 3.00 mow each. In the province of Chekiang,
however, as many as 96% of the land c ners possess an acreage of 50 mow each and
more than three-fourths of them lees than 10 mow each, but only 0.62% of them over 100
mow each. The difference in the size of land ownership is due primarily to the greater
productivity and, hence, higher value of farmland in South'Chin.. than in North China.
20. Inequality of land distribution: While China possesses no landed aristocracy or a
dominant class of "Junkers" or "squires", grave inequalities of land holdings
nevertheless exist in the distribution of landed property. The survey of the
Ministry of Interior shows that land owners of over 100 mow each, who constitute
only 3.77% of the total farming population, own as much ap one-fourth of t~-
cultivated land, while those of less than 10 mow each, comprising 53.46% of the total
Farming population possess but 15% of the cultivated land. In some extreme cases,
such as in the province of Kwangsi, land owners of over 100 mow each, forming only
0.65% of the total farming population, own as much as 34.85% of the cultivated land,
while those of 10 mow each, amounting to 68.32% of the total farming population,
possess only 12.81% of the cultivated land. Another sampid of 1,545 landlord
families selected at random in eleven provinces by the National Land Commission in
1934 gives an average ownership per family of 2030 mow (about 320 acres) which,
although it appears small by western standards, is over one hundred fold larger than
the average ownership per family of 16.2 mow (about 2.5 acres) of 572,865 occupying
peasant famil?,es chosen in the same regions and during the same puriod (24).
21. In addition to quantitative inequality of land distribution, there is also the
inequality of land distribution in a qualitative sense. Good land has a greater
marketability than poor land. Landlords or. rich peasants usually have more of the
good land in their possession than the poor peasants. A sample survey in Pu-yu
Dlotrlot 1c Kwmngtmung in 1933 reveal.e that tk1e' lied poseemelon of Ia .ors rwilidb
claim is ].wx+ger proportion of fields of the file,1 ter quaality, whereas that of the poor
peasant families has a larger proportion of fields of poorer quality. Of the land
owned by landlord families three-fifths in acreage is irrigated land and, hence,
more ortilo. Of the land owned by poor peasant families only 37% is irrigated
while the remainder non-irrigated (25).
22. Tendeau toward concentration: Statistics collected by the National Bureau of
Agricu.tur Research fthe Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on the extent of
tenancy brings forth evidence of a definite trend toward concentration of private
land ownership in China since the first decade of the prasent century. In 1911,
49% of the peasants were occupying owners, 28% tenants and 23% owned part of their
farm land while renting the remainder. In the decades which have elapsed since the
Republican Revolution, occupying ownership has lost ground and tenancy advanced.
The proportion which occupying ownership forms of the total farming population dropped
to 46% in 1931, 35% in 193c3, and 37% in 1941, whereas that of tenants rose to 31%
in 1931, 38% in 1938 and 36% in 1941 (26). The causes for the transfer of land into
fewer hands are both political and economic. 'tar and famine., excessive taxation by
the government and exploitation by the money-lender, political disorder and economic
instability - these and other factors have all their ruinous effect on the small
occupying owners and contribute their share to the phenomenon of land concentration.
23. The degree of land concentration is more marked in South China than In North China,,
and more so in the neighborhood of great cities than in regions in the interior. In
1941 the distribution of the farming population in 8zechuan of Southwestern China
and Kwangtunb of South China is 48% and 4696 for tenants, 23% and 33% fo. part-tenants,
and 29% and 21% for occupying owners respectively. On the other hand, the
distribution of the farming population in Ronan of North China and Ningsia of
Northwestern China in 1941 is 20% and 15% for tenants, 21% and 1lyo for part-tenants
and 59'; and 74% for occ'ipying owners respectively (27). In the delta reCion of the
Yangtze River near Shanghai and that of Pearl River near Canton, from 70% to 90% of
the land holdings are said. to be rented. In such wealthy silk districts as Wusih,
CONP'IDENTIAIVUS ClF'FICIAIS ONLY
Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1
 25X1A
Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390 -
CONF' TL N'T'IAI./US OFF ICIAI.S ONLY
im=
Soochow and aCe,R. hang along the Nanking-Shanghai-ha,ng.rhow Railway, there are landlords
with holdings of over 10,000 mow each. In the provinces of Szechwan and Anwhei, in
particular, where "official', capital" finds its outlet principally in land purchase,
slometimes through methods of doubtful. propriety, the holdings of landlords not
infrequently exceed 50,000 mow or even 100,000 now each (28).
24. Land acquisition: Land acquisition through inheritance in China accounts for much
more of the land owned by individuals than that through purchase. In Shing-tsei
District of Hopeh, the ownership of land averages 28 mow per family of which 64%
islacquired through inheritance and only 3696 through purchase (29). In Ping-hu
District of Chekiang, as much as 8&. of tae land owned by individuals owes its origin
to'inheritance (30). In traditional China, all sons inherit equally, though sometimes
al somewhat larger share goes to the eldest one in accordance with the custom of
.eremonial primogeniture". The institutionalization of equal inheritance by all the
sons which, as have noted in the above, constitutes one of the reasons for the
prevalence of fragmentation !of cultivation, may also partly explain the predominence
of small holdings in the ownership of land in China.
25. In traditional China individual ownership of land is never complete in the modern
sense of the term. For one thing, an individual landowner in China must have the
consent of the''mportant members of his family or clan before he can sell or even
mortgage his land; nor can he sell or mortgage his land to an outsider unless none
of his fem'ly or clan members is willing or able to purchase it. in some cases, a
sale of land remains incomplete even after the transaction. There is, for instance,
anlinstitution called "Dead.i,Head and Living Tail", by which the original landowner
has the right to negotiate with the new landowner for the redemption of the land
after the ec,Aapletion of the transaction of sale. The existence of such customary
practice is obviously due to the immobility of and limited market for land in a
static economy. For another, an individual landowner has a restricted freedom in
the disposal or use of his land. In some regions, for instance, there is a dual
property right of land, namely: bottom right, or the right of rent-collection which
belongs to the landlord, and surface right, or the right of cultivation which
belongs to the permanent tenant. Both bottom right and surface right are independent
of each other, and can be freely sold, bought, or transmitted by inheritance. The
holder of the bottom right of land can not cultivate the land himself so long as the
permanent tenant pays his .re_nt. In recent decades, however, there has been a definite
tendency toward an increasing completeness in landownership and a unification of
property rights, thus undermining permanent tenancy and facilitating land transa-tion
and concentration.
26. Chinese landlordism: Landlords in China, unlike those of the Prussian pattern in the
paa-c, do not carry on any direct cultivation of great estates, nor do they have large
leasehold farms of the English type. They lease out their land in very small farms
to individual peasant cultivators and collect, rent from them directly or through
agents. Moat of them are resident-land.lords who, ws parties with the tenant in a
busianesa contract, not = nfreq eau'tly are VW JA tq a%4x1C"ii a 'a*dial. ,rela-tionehip with
their partners for mutual benefit: Tith, iri~."x'~fpBi'a 28rtR ,C ,h utr&tt n, ~,
there has arisen a class of absentee landldfidS.who are both parasitic and oppressive.
According to a study by the National Agricultural Promotion Commission in 1941,
271,496 of the landlords in China are absente"s (31), In some districts such as Kunsan
near Shanghai, two-thirds of the landlordaarsire abscutees. In Pi Hsien near Chengtu,
7 of the landowners were absentee landlords. These absentee landlords completely
detach themselves from the land and its.. p 1t~i.y~px Qz}, tako all they can from it
through their agents, but put very little into it in,return.
27. Landlords in China, both resident and absentee, are multilateral in character.
Chinese landlords are landlord-usurers, or landlord-usurer-merchants, or landlord-
merchant -b'n'eaucrats, and very few of them are pure and simple rent-collectors. At
the'', same time, merchants and', politicians would ultimately become landlords. in
the spring of 1930, the Kiangeu Provincial Bureau of Civil Affairs made a study of
5i14. big landlords in the province. Of the total number of big landloivuo =der study,
3714. had their principal professions definitely kn rn. x.1+4% of them were military
arc, civil officers, 34.5% were pawnsZ p any. sgonay shop owners, .i7.9% were traders,
and' only 3.2% were industrial shareholders (32). ELeevhere In China, too, landlords
rarely invent in Industries; '!they practice usury almost universally, and. some engage
iI
CONFIPRN'r`IaU /UB C'FFICW.g ONLY
e 1 r elea a 2002/01/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000'500390023-1
 Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A00050039
CONFIDENTIAL/US OFFICIALS ONLY
-11-
in bustress or act as administrative officers of one kind or mother. It is this
multilateral character of Ohineee landlordism, rather than the landlord ai a pure
and simple rent-collector alone, that demands immediate rectification.
Footnote RefeEences
1. Baker, OE, "Land utilization in China," in Problems of the Pacific. Iniv of
Chicago frees 1928'.
2. The estimate of Dr,Wong Wen-huo is quoted in "Statistics of Land of China",
compiled by the Directorate of Statistics of the Nationalist Governma t, Nanking
1946.
3. Chen Chang-ban's estimate Is also quoted in Statistics of Land of Chi a.-
4. Buck, J L "Land utilization in China". 1937
5. Far eastern Year Book. 1940-41.
6. Baker, 0 B, op cit
7. Chen Chang-hen. op, cit
Ea. Report of Agricultural Commission, 1$:1-4.
8. Lieu, DK. "Statistics of farm land. of China". Chinese Economic Jour 1,
March 1928.
9. Buck, J L op cit
10. Chung-hua Year Book 1948.
11. Buck, J L op cit P,163
3.2. Par Eastern Year Book 1940-41
13. Buck, J L, op cit p 169
14. Ibid. p 10
15. Buck, J L op cit p180-181
16. Adapted from the Statistics collected by the Department of Agricultural
Economics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Nationalist
Government. 1946.
17. Buck, J L op oit. The estimate for Manchurian soybeeM-kaoliang region is
made by George B Creesey in his "Asia's land and people pp 192-193-
18. Buck, J L op cit
19. Buck, J L op cit
20. Buck, J L op cit
21. Huang Li-chow. Studies on land system, Part II, in Ming Yi Tat Fang u
22. Hsiao I-san, the History of the Ching Dynasty. pp 440-44.
23. Adapted from scatiatics collected by the Ministry of Interior in 1934 published
in the Year Book of the ?Finiatry of Interior in 1935, Vol III pp 420-~25..
24. National Land Commission Report on land 1n:es?rigation In China. Nark mg, 1936.
CONFIDENTIAWUS OFFICIALS ONLY
Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1
 Approved For Rellease 2002/01/03 CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1
C0 l !lIAL~lfi3 Q'8?m?Am Ow
-12-
25. Chen. Han-Doug. "Agrarian. problems in eoutne'rn rat China" 1936.
26. Statistics collected by the National Bureau of Agricultural Research quoted in
"Statistic in land tenure," compiled by the Directorate of Statistics of the
Nationalist Government 1946, - 6-7. Also quoted in the Chines= Year Book, 1948,
Vol II, pp 122--1241.
27. Ibid
28. Kuo Han-zing And Hung Jui-chien. "Land distribution and land tenure in Anwhei",
1936.
29. Hung Ho-fan. So Ice materials in Chinese Agricultural Economy Revised.
30. Central Political Institute. "Land Economics in Ping-ha".
31. National Agricultural Promotion Commission Report. Special aeries No II1 1942.
PP 10-11.
32. Chen Ban-song. "The present agrarian problem in China". China Institute of
Pacific Relations; 1933? & 19-
721.1 IL/C 723.2 81L
722.5 IL/C 723.2 41L
621.01 It-1C 723.2 3;L
723.21 )c 721.3: IL/C
723.2 211. 721.31 IL/C
CONFIDENTIAL/US OFFICIALS ONLY
Approved For Release 2002/01/03 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500390023-1