China's Historic Land Reform

While the decision does not actually privatize agricultural land, which remains collective property, "it marks a huge improvement in tenure security for farmers.." says Li Ping, a lawyer with the Seattle-based Rural Development Institute, which advocates wider land rights for peasants.

"Building on experiments around the country, like the one Mr. Zheng is supervising, the new decision sets a policy framework to 'establish and improve a market for the transfer of land-use rights ... and allow farmers to transfer their rights by subcontracting, leasing, swapping, or using them to form a joint-stock company.'"