Opinion | Why villages and rural governments are being erased across China
- Villages that once fostered China’s economic vibrancy are being merged into urban communities and village governments are disappearing
- While such compulsory urbanisation does not always improve the standard of living, it does boost revenue for local governments
Village governments were once a dynamic force in China. Back in the early days of economic reform, when policy was guided by pragmatism, pilot projects were tested out in villages, which are at the lowest level of the Chinese government hierarchy.
Breakthrough reforms, such as land reform and democratic elections, were all implemented in this vast experimental field.
Such pilot schemes launched in villages between the late 1970s and the 2000s are perhaps best encapsulated in the saying “crossing the river by feeling the stones”.
However, the glory days of rural governments are long gone. Researching and tracing the steps of village governments, I found that the overall number of these governments fell by more than 10 per cent in the last decade. More than 58,000 village-level governments have disappeared.
The findings are more surprising if we scrutinise their geographic distribution. The decline of rural governments is mainly seen in a few provinces, such as Hunan, Shaanxi, Shandong and Zhejiang.
Provinces in China’s central region seem to be endeavouring to break free from the shackles of villages – but why?