In China, Rural Land Reform Faces Limits

An Aug. 5 directive from the Guangdong provincial government to strengthen rural residents' land ownership rights is the latest in a series of incremental, localized steps forward on one of contemporary China's thorniest social policy issues. The reach of the mandate itself is extremely limited, but it is nonetheless important for two reasons. First, it offers a potential preview of the more substantial reforms Beijing will implement later in 2013. Second, its intentional narrowness shows the immense structural constraints facing major land reform in China. This attempt to improve rural residents' land ownership rights will first require much more fundamental and difficult reform of the way local governments generate revenue.