In the spirit of radical liberalism: a historical review of land reforms in China from the 1970s to today

Focusing on the policy-driven land reforms in the People’s Republic of China, this article discusses the relationship between government intervention and economic growth, through the lens of economic anthropology. Inspired by Karl Polanyi’s insights into market economies, this article undertakes a historical review on the attempts made by Chinese central authority to boost the economy at the expense of rural lands, the results of these attempts and their future implications. The findings indicate that, first, the ‘socialist’ characteristics of China’s market economy imply above all the State’s strong intervention to facilitate, rather than restrict, as suggested by Polanyi, the free circulation of land in the market. This contributes greatly to China’s economic ascent, but also to severe environmental and social problems. Second, compared to the West, the democratic procedure that buffers the impacts and eases the speed of urbanisation is missing in the Chinese context.