农村土地制度在拖中国发展的后腿

choi

Ian Johnson, 农村土地制度在拖中国发展的后腿. 纽约时报中文网, Oct 15, 2014
cn.nytimes.com/china/20141015/c15chinarural/


, which is translated from

Ian Johnson, China Attempts to Shift Its Agricultural Burden; A reform gives farmers rights, but not ownership. New York Times, Oct 13, 2014.

Quote:

"Exactly why rental prices [in China] are so high is open to debate. In some parts of China, rents are even higher than in Yangling, topping $1,200 per acre. By contrast, the average acre of farmland in the United States rented for $136 in 2013, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

"Government planners hope that more farmers will be moved to the cities so the countryside gradually depopulates and ever-larger-scale farming takes over. For farmers with a job already lined up in the city, this system is attractive. But for people still wanting to work the land, like Zhou Yuansheng, 66, it is an example of how little say he has. 'The big decisions are made by the government,' he said. 'No one asked me what I wanted to do with my land.'

Note: "YANGLING, China — For about 4,000 years, farming in this region has been a touchstone of Chinese civilization. It was here that the mythic hero Hou Ji is said to have taught Chinese how to grow grain, and the area’s rich harvests underpinned China’s first dynasties, feeding officials and soldiers in the nearby imperial capital."
(a) Yangling  杨凌农业高新技术产业示范区
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%A8%E5%87%8C%E5%86%9C%E4%B8%9A%E9%AB%98%E6%96%B0%E6%8A%80%E6%9C%AF%E4%BA%A7%E4%B8%9A%E7%A4%BA%E8%8C%83%E5%8C%BA
(中国唯一的农业高新技术产业示范区，1997年7月29日在咸阳市杨陵区成立，由陕西省直辖; 杨凌被认为是中华农耕文明的发祥地。传说，是中国历史上最早的农官——后稷主要活动的地方)
(b) capital 都城 (西周: 镐京 (present-day 西安市); 秦朝: 咸阳市; 西汉: 长安)
(c) Taiwanese like me knows nothing depicted in this paragraph.