Xi Jinping turns to Mao Zedong-era system to lift millions of China’s rural poor out of poverty
- President Xi Jinping has pledged to lift millions of rural poor out of poverty and he is hoping a revitalised Mao-era system will do the trick
- More than 10,000 primary supply and marketing cooperatives have been set up in the past six years and funding for them is growing fast
Beijing is rebooting an old state-run cooperative system to help boost the rural economy, but after years of reform some analysts are sceptical about how effective it can be in helping the country’s millions of impoverished farmers.
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, the central government has rebuilt more than 10,000 primary supply and marketing cooperatives (SMC), taking the total across the country to nearly 32,000. About 95 per cent of towns and villages now have them, compared to just 50 per cent six years ago.
Unlike in other countries, where cooperatives are characterised by their democratic management and profit-sharing systems, in rural China – after years of dormancy and unsuccessful reform – they operate more like state-owned businesses.
While in the 1950s they served an important political role in controlling the supply and price of agri-food and consumer goods, their primary objective today is helping farmers find customers and strengthen their position in the marketplace.
According to official figures, at the end of last year China’s 32,000 cooperatives had more than 340,000 subdivisions offering all manner of services from buying fruit and vegetables, to selling seeds and fertiliser.
