From collectives to co-operatives

This charts the fall and rise of rural collectives, starting with the pre-reform period when agriculture and rural society were organised along collectivist lines. The legacy of this system is discussed, introducing the logic underpinning the re-emergence of collectivist thinking in the post-reform period. The revival of collectivisation has primarily been associated with the growth of co-operatives. These are dealt with in turn, attempting to show how they are linked to efforts to increase agricultural production by introducing mechanisation, other purchased inputs and new methods. Community co-operatives were established in the mid 1980s to help provide village services, though with limited success, partly due to the complexity of different types that could be created, including supply and marketing co-operatives, and rural credit co-operatives. In the 2000s, different forms emerged, including co-operatives of shareholding economy (CSE) and shareholding land co-operatives (SLCs). The first decade of the millennium also saw the growth of farmers’ professional co-operatives and specialised co-operatives, which were intended to help overcome limitations to agricultural production imposed by poor farm structure. The differences between the various co-operatives are discussed, focusing on their fluctuating fortunes. Rural credit co-operatives (RCCs) are part of a long tradition of co-operative finance in rural China, extending back to the 17th century. The RCCs were first introduced in China in the 1950s. They played a key role in helping to finance township and village enterprises (TVEs) in the 1980s and 1990s.These were market-oriented public enterprises that provided employment for surplus agricultural labour, and helped advance rural industrialisation before encountering fierce competition from other businesses in the later 1990s, after which there was a slowing in the growth of the numbers of TVEs. The RCCs were reformed at this time, to focus primarily on agricultural ventures and merging with rural credit foundations (RCFs), transforming into commercial banks as rural co-operative banks (RCBs). The chapter ends by presenting an overview of the various co-operative formations and assessing their role in diversifying the rural economy.