Whose land? Whose corn? Chaos in Chinese fields

A video circulating in China last week may be the latest example of emboldened rural officials clearing aging villagers off collectively owned farmland. These enclosures with Chinese characteristics can be motivated by the need to increase productivity, lucrative opportunities to grow ornamental shrubs, or just plain corruption. The only power villagers have to assert their interests is their sheer numbers...and that's exactly what communist leaders are most afraid of.

The video appeared to show dozens of villagers stealing corn from a large field in Henan Province. A corn combine unable to complete its harvest sat idle as elderly villagers scooped up ears of corn into bags and loaded them into motorized carts parked in the field. Sirens sounded as police showed up but there were too many people to arrest. The operator of an idled corn combine unable to complete his harvesting work took a video of villagers fighting over a bag of corn in the field. While the videos circulating online were shot during the day, another video showed people in the fields at night gathering corn by flashlight. 

A literal "free-for-all" as villagers gathered corn
from a field in China's Henan Province.

No one seems to know what exactly was happening. Some accuse the people of stealing unharvested corn. Others say it was a common practice of gleaning leftover corn from fields that got out of control. 

Reports seem to agree that the field had been rented out to a company to grow corn.  county agriculture bureau issued a statement saying that a farming company that rented 400 mu (about 66 acres) had been able to complete the harvest of its corn after village officials had cleared people from the field. A netizen criticized the statement for trying to downplay the incident.

One source reported that village officials announced this year that farmers' land use rights would be contracted out to the farming company for 5 years with annual payments to villagers of 1000 yuan. Although participation was said to be voluntary, it was actually mandatory. After harvesting their winter wheat crop this summer, villagers had to turn over their land to the company to plant corn for fall harvest. Elderly farmers unable to work in cities had nothing else to do and came to the corn field to gather up as much grain as they could. It turned into a frenzy when so many people showed up.

An example of forced land transfer elsewhere in Henan was reported 2 years ago in an investigation of 'out of control' land transfer. In that case village committees gave farmers a verbal notice to give up their land, promised them rent and "grain for green" subsidies for planting landscaping trees, and gave them a blank agreement to sign. Many farmers were opposed but "ideological work" made them afraid to decline. Later, when villagers went to complain about rent not being paid they saw that the paper they had signed was a "forestry business contract" and the subsidies had been misappropriated by local officials. 

It's possible farmers in last week's video had been angered by a similar dispute. They may have been collecting the corn in lieu of unpaid rent or some other problem. 

The real explanation has not been revealed but the incident does reflect the chaos that can ensue when property rights are vaguely defined and officials with political power become the de facto owners.