Land Reform

Long before the Land Reform Law was promulgated on 30 June 1950, the CCP had been experimenting with measures to return the land to the vast numbers of peasants. These experiments, which had taken place wherever the party had been able to maintain a stronghold, including the Jiangxi Soviet and Yan'an, had known various radical aspects, but boiled down to the abolishment of landownership by the landlord class and the introduction of peasant landownership. A new element that was introduced in 1950 was the provision that the development of agricultural production resulting from this would pave the way for the industrialization of China. As a result, many peasant households held the deed for their piece of land for the first time ever.