An Analysis of the Social Security Situation of Land-deprived Peasants In China:

Case Studies of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou

Abstract

  Since the adoption of reform and opening up policies, China has seen rapid economic and political development as a result of the introduction of a market economy. This has been especially the case since 2000, years in which large-scale urban exploitation led to the expropriation of arable land and collective farms. This, in turn, saw an increase in the number of land-deprived peasants. As an adequate social security system was not in place, the problem of land-deprived peasants became a significant social issue. In order to understand the social security conditions of urbanites, ordinary peasants and land-deprived peasants, this research compares and analyses the social security system in China. While there was a social security system for urbanites, land was seen as performing that function for peasants. However, once the peasants lost their land, there was no social security system to replace it. Therefore, local governments attempted to implement their own social security system based on the economic development of their region. In this study, we focus on the social security situation of land-deprived peasants, as administered by local governments in the heavily urbanised BSG (Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou), and we describe the difficulties that they face.