Cai Jiming: Many scholars don’t really think about these issues, but the moment you mention the privatization of land, they protest that it will beget large-scale land annexation and the concentration of land.

The Economic Observer: Economies of scale would bring increased production efficiency, but the next problem that worries people is, with China’s massive labor force, what would happen to all of those whose jobs were lost?

Cai Jiming: This is the root of the problem. Right now, China has about 300 million acres of arable land, and each farming household has a little over one acre. The Ministry of Agriculture has said that China’s planting of sustenance crops is not as good as planting cash crops, which itself is not as good as using the land for industrial and commercial purposes. So then how can we let farmers plant on their land? To keep them there, we have to at least double their plots to two acres, only then can they make as much money as they would as migrant workers. This simple exercise shows us that out of the 700 million rural peasants, half will leave.

The Economic Observer: Will such a reform facilitate China’s economic development? Will it readily solve many of China’s current problems?

Cai Jiming: To solve the “three agricultural problems”, urbanization, and modernization, the rural land rights system must be changed.

The Economic Observer: Have you put forward this proposal before?

Cai Jiming: I put forward a similar one before, based on a diverse land rights system, one-part privatization, one-part state-owned. China’s reform process has been step by step, and this reform must be equally tempered. In our research, we went all the way, but when you bring this to the policy level, you have to take it one step at a time; you can’t shake society or introduce too much of a clashing ideology. You definitely want a gradual process.

"Minor Property Rights" Houses

The Economic Observer: Are minor property right houses covered in the proposal?

Cai Jiming: Yes, the proposal will include that. We have set up a research team for that issue just a month ago. The members come from our economic institute, and are doctoral students. We want to turn this into a focal issue.

The Economic Observer: What’s your research direction and scope?