Agriculture Archives - Friends of Socialist China

Cooperatives in China: current status and prospects for significant growth

The following article by Ali Al-Assam explores the issue of cooperatives in China, drawing on insights from the recent Friends of Socialist China delegation.

Ali – who is Managing Director of the NewsSocial Cooperative, as well as being a lifelong activist in the communist, anti-imperialist and progressive movements in both Britain and Iraq – describes the delegates’ visit to the Lu Wei Agricultural Machinery Farmers’ Professional Cooperative in Jilin, “a voluntary collective that now oversees 667 hectares, commanding 90 percent of the village’s farmable area.” Ali observes that the cooperative has allowed for greater mechanisation of agriculture, and has led to a 20 percent increase in income for participating families. The cooperative runs in a highly democratic manner, with profit-sharing decided collectively and major decisions made at general meetings. Ali observes that the cooperative “embodies a microcosm of efficiency, offering end-to-end services from ploughing to grain processing.”

The Chinese government is encouraging such cooperatives by providing subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery. The number of agricultural cooperatives is on the rise in China, and “the Chinese leadership has made exceptional efforts to nurture these cooperatives, advocating for the adoption of cutting-edge technology and sustainable farming practices… President Xi Jinping has underscored the significance of steering small-scale farmers towards modern agriculture to safeguard food security, a move he deems foundational for the nation’s modern socialist aspirations.”

This article was first published in English on NewsSocial and in Arabic on Mushtarek.

During my recent visit to China from April 14th to 24th, 2024, I had the opportunity to engage with seasoned members of the cooperative movement, among whom were British nationals who live in China. A highlight of my trip was spending a substantial part of a day, together with colleagues from ‘Friends of Socialist China’, exploring an agricultural cooperative in the north-eastern Jilin province.

The law on Specialised Farmer Cooperatives was passed by the National People’s Congress, coming into effect on July 1 2007. As stated by Tim Zachernuk In his excellent study of cooperatives in China: “The law acknowledges international cooperative experience as codified in the cooperative principles formulated by the International Cooperative Alliance. The law states that cooperatives are independent and autonomous organisations, should be democratically managed, and that their primary aim is to serve the interests of their members. There are no contradictions between the ICA principles and the Chinese law. A cooperative adhering to ICA principles would be perfectly legitimate under the cooperative law.” Tim Zachernuk pointed to some difficulties in applying the law which seems to have been resolved to some degree since 2015.

The Chinese government, particularly since 2020, has increasingly championed the cooperative model as an engine for employment enhancement, income growth for workers, and the stabilisation of rural and urban economies. These initiatives often dovetail with broader reforms aimed at reforming both privately owned and state-owned enterprises and bolstering employee ownership and governance participation.

China’s cooperative landscape is experiencing robust growth and enjoying strong government support. This growth is not only vast but also offers a multitude of learning and partnership opportunities. A notable advancement likely to further solidify democratic practices within cooperatives is the enactment of the Revised Company Law, set to take effect on July 1, 2024. This law is pioneering at the national level in that it establishes the employee representative assembly as the fundamental mechanism of corporate governance. For an in-depth understanding, refer to Dr. Guank Li’s comprehensive analysis of the law.

Insights into China’s Cooperative Landscape

The latest data offers a snapshot of the scope and impact of cooperatives across China:

How China strengthened food security and fought poverty with state-funded cooperatives

We are republishing this important and informative article by Joe Scholten, originally published on the Multipolarista website.

Joe explains that, due to a number of factors, the world is facing a chronic rise in food prices and mounting fear of famine. However, “Beijing has shown how to strengthen food sovereignty, and simultaneously fight poverty with a multi-pronged approach that combines state-funded agricultural cooperatives, stockpiling of nonperishable staples, a crackdown on waste, and government investment in new technologies.”

China’s agriculture, he notes, “is still significantly organized on the basis of cooperative farming. Nearly half of farms are agricultural cooperatives.” Between 2013-2019, the Chinese government rebuilt more than 10,000 primary supply and marketing cooperatives. By 2019 they were present in 95% of the country’s towns – up from just 50% in 2013. This policy, he argues, was crucial to the success of the anti-poverty campaign, as were such key elements of China’s socialist construction as state ownership of land and five-year plans.

Other features of the Chinese experience cited in the article include the system of ‘Two Assurances and Three Guarantees’, ensuring adequate food reserves, the introduction of penalties for commercial food waste, the development of such innovative technologies as salt water-tolerant rice crops, and further strengthening the rights and interests of the working class by, for example, extending unionisation to new sectors of the economy, such as delivery workers for popular apps.

The Covid-19 pandemic, the ensuing supply-chain crisis, and high rates of inflation around the world have led to rising food prices and fears of famine.

These cascading and interlocking problems have pushed governments to prioritize economic self-sufficiency and food security.

China is leading the way in this struggle. Beijing has shown how to strengthen food sovereignty, and simultaneously fight poverty, with a multi-pronged approach that combines state-funded agricultural cooperatives, stockpiling of nonperishable staples, a crackdown on waste, and government investment in new technologies.

While the United Nations warns of “the specter of a global food shortage,” the Chinese government has provided countries with an alternative model to meet the needs of their people.

Video about Isabel Crook: She saw history in the making

This short biographical video from CGTN tells the story of Isabel Crook. Isabel and her husband David were prominent supporters of the Chinese Revolution from its early days, witnessing and reporting on how the CPC organised land reform in the village of Ten Mile Inn, Hebei, in 1947 (two years before the founding of the People’s Republic). They continued to live in China and to be friends of its ongoing revolution. Isabel is now 105 years old, and still lives in China.