Rural China Is Booming, Too, Easing Fears of Strife
China -- The economic boom transforming urban China also is bringing prosperity to swaths of the countryside, blunting concerns about rising rural discontent.
The evidence is clear even here in a single district in southwestern China's Guizhou province, one of the country's poorest. While rice farmers in the area may scrape by on $60 a year, Li Peibing and her husband clear $4,700 a year, thanks to a thriving truck-delivery business.
"We want to save some money and buy another truck next year," says Ms. Li, blushing as she talks about her ambitions for the family business. She notes that half the families in her village now own trucks. "A lot of people in the village are developing well, as we are."
The gap between city and countryside worries China's leaders. When economic restructurings began a quarter century ago, the countryside benefited first through policies that broke up agricultural communes and allowed households to sell produce in local markets. Beginning in the late 1980s and into the next decade, growth rates in urban China caught up and then roared ahead. In the past five years, average urban incomes jumped 56%, while in the countryside they rose only 21%. China's leaders have made it clear that helping rural residents is a top priority -- and vital to maintaining social stability.
In reality, many of the roughly 700 million people in the countryside are taking part in China's economic boom, and talk in these places is less about resentment than reinvestment in expanding businesses. Residents of villages with good transport links, good policies or simply good luck are connecting to the market economy in myriad ways. Some sell vegetables at nearby markets or work on construction sites in the cities. Others handle the deliveries and other services that fuel an expanding economy, travel to work in factories or sell land to local developers to build houses, factories and stores as development eats into once-rural areas.
Not all rural Chinese are thriving, though. Despite a rise in agricultural prices in the past two years that has given Chinese farmers a boost across the board, the gap between rich and poor within rural China remains wide. The richest 20% of China's rural population earned 8.8 times as much in 2002 as the poorest 20%, according to a survey of 20,000 rural households by a research center under the Ministry of Agriculture. "The difference between rural households is getting larger, and the difference between regions is getting larger as well," says Cao Liqun, a division director and research fellow at the center.
Still, even in poorer villages, where families eat the crops they till without selling anything, there is progress for many. "Incomes are increasing here, just not as fast as in the coastal areas," says Liu Renhao, the township chief in one of the poorest areas of Huaxi, a largely rural district on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Guiyang.
Much of rural China today isn't even rural as the word is commonly understood. Nationally, 35% of rural income comes from wages earned either at local enterprises or through migrant work. In the wealthy coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, only a third of rural household incomes come from farming, estimates Wu Guobao, a director at the Rural Development Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Instead, wages account for the bulk of incomes.
Huaxi demonstrates rural China's disparities. In Dayunding , 19 miles from the center of Huaxi district, up mountain roads winding through rice fields, development has made few inroads. The village is a cluster of houses connected by muddy paths. Most houses are made of wooden boards with thatched roofs.
Yang Guangyin lives with his wife, two small children and his mother in one such home. Its three rooms are pitch-dark at high noon. The first one houses a brown cow; the other two rooms are for cooking, sleeping and storage of grain. Mr. Yang says he earns $24 a year from selling rice and an additional $36 from sporadic construction work on city sites. His big worry is school fees for his children: "First, I will borrow" is all he can say when asked his plan.
Closer to the urbanized center of Huaxi district, land turned into an unexpected blessing for 62-year-old Wang Juwu. Until 2001, he and his wife grew scallions, celery and Chinese cabbage on less than a fifth of an acre. That year, the government paid $3,600 a person to compensate for taking the bulk of the village land for development. With the money, the Wangs built two adjoining three-story houses, each with freshly painted white walls, shiny linoleum floors and cheerful striped linens on the beds. Mr. Wang's two grown sons and their families live here. The family rents out extra rooms to teachers and students of a nearby university, as well as to people coming here to trade.
Rental income now accounts for more than half the Wangs' annual household income of $2,000, though Mr. Wang still farms vegetables on a remaining patch of land. Sitting in an easy chair beneath a portrait of Mao Tse-tung, the silver-haired patriarch beams, "Now life is much better than before."
Residents of nearby Yangniu Village have found a different path to prosperity. More than half the families own trucks, with which they deliver sand and construction materials, among other things. Among them is Li Peibing, who says she and her husband plan to take on a hired hand when they buy a second truck next year.
Ms. Li still grows rice and vegetables on their half-acre of land, while her husband runs the trucking business. During the busy season, the couple typically hires a half-dozen people to help work the land. They aren't hard to find, Ms. Li says: "They come from poorer places." 中国经济将繁荣带给农村
中国经济的蓬勃发展给城市地区带来了巨大变化，现在这股劲风正在吹向农村地区，这减弱了有关农村地区不满情绪可能日益高涨的担忧。
即使是在中国最穷的一个省份、地处西南的贵州省，花溪区的经济发展也很明显。尽管那里种水稻的农民每年仍或许只有 60 美元的收入，但开卡车跑运输、生意不错的李培平 ( 音 ) 和她的丈夫每年能净挣 4,700 美元。
“我们想省些钱，明年再买一台卡车，”李培平在谈到她的家庭事业梦想时还有些羞涩的脸红了。据她称，她所在村子有一半的家庭现在都买了卡车，“村里许多人现在都发展得不错，和我们一样。”
城乡差别是中国领导层的一个担忧。当经济改革于四分之一个世纪前开始时，解散农村公社、允许农户在本地市场出售农产品等新政策的推出，使农村最先成为受益者。但从 80 年代末开始到整个 90 年代，中国城市地区的增长赶上了农村，并以大幅度领先。过去 5 年，城市平均收入增长了 56% ，而农村的收入增幅仅有 21% 。中国领导层已明确表示，帮助农村居民（脱贫）是当务之急，这对保持社会稳定至关重要。
但事实上，农村 7 亿人口中的许多人已经投身中国经济蓬勃发展的洪流，农村人的言谈中也少了些愤愤不平，而多了些如何为扩大业务而追加投资。有了好的交通、好的政策或仅仅就是好运的农村居民正在通过各种方式参与到市场经济中来。一些人在住地附近的市场卖菜或在城市的建筑工地上干活。其他人则从事货运等服务行业，或到工厂做工，或将土地卖给开发商建造住房、工厂和商店。随著经济发展，城市的边缘日益向农村推进。
并非中国农村所有的人都过上了好日子。过去两年农产品价格的明显上涨的确给中国农民带来了好处，但农村地区的贫富差距依然巨大。根据中国农业部农村经济研究中心对 2 万户农村家庭进行的一项调查显示， 2002 年中国农村人口中最富 20% 的收入是最穷 20% 的 8.8 倍。该研究中心的研究员曹力群表示：“农村家庭间的收入差距正在扩大，地区差距也在拉大。”
但即使是在更穷一些的农村地区，每年没有可出售的富余农产品，许多家庭的状况也有了改善。“收入增加了，只是没有沿海地区那么快，”花溪区最贫穷的一个镇的镇长刘仁好 ( 音 ) 表示。花溪是贵州省会城市贵阳辖下的基本以农耕为主的一个区。
中国不少农村地区已失去了农村这个词的一般意义。从全国来看，农民收入的 35% 来自在当地企业或出门打工挣得的工资。中国社会科学院农村发展研究所的吴国保 ( 音 ) 估计，在富裕的沿海省份浙江省和江苏省，农民收入只有三分之一来自农业，工资才是主要收入来源。
花溪区恰好是中国农村地区贫富差距的缩影。该区人均年净收入 300 美元，略低于 317 美元这一全国农村的平均水平。但这个数据掩盖了巨大的差距：花溪区有些乡村发展很快，而有些乡村足可冠以“贫困村”的帽子，享受政府补助。
在距离花溪区中心 30 公里远的大云顶 (Dayunding) 村仅以山路与外界相连，但即使这样，经济发展之潮也已抵达那里。这个村的道路仍是泥路，有少数几家是铺瓦砖房，显示著家道的殷实。但大多数人家的房子还是茅草屋顶的木板房。
杨光荫 ( 音 ) 和他的妻子、两个孩子以及母亲就住在茅草屋顶的房子里。即使是正午，他家的三间屋子也是黑漆漆的。第一间屋子里养了一头黄牛，其他两间用来做饭、睡觉和储藏谷物。杨光荫说，他每年卖米可挣 24 美元，在城市工地上做零工可再挣 36 美元。他最大的担忧是两个孩子的学费 ，当问到他有什么打算时，“先要借到钱”是他全部的答案。
虽然村里也有一些人致富，比如一个人的木匠生意不错，还有一个是屠户，但许多人和杨光荫一样基本上都是依赖土地为生。由于相对地多人少，许多人必须留在家里耕做。
但即使是这样，也仍有改变。以杨光荫为例， 3 年前他开始去建筑工地找活，而之前他的收入还要低。他的一户邻居，也是村里最穷的一家，有一个成年的儿子在遥远的河北省打工，小儿子在家耕种两兄弟的土地。
在接近花溪区市中心的地方，土地为 62 岁的王举武 ( 音 ) 带来了意想不到的财富。直到 2001 年，他和妻子还在不到 1/10 公顷的土地上种著洋葱、青菜和白菜。 2001 年，政府向每个人支付了 3,600 美元，为占用耕地开发作补偿。拿了这些钱，王举武一家盖了两栋三层楼房，每栋都有新刷的白粉墙，光闪闪的亚麻地板以及令人眼前一亮的床铺。王举武两个成年的儿子和他们的小家庭就住在里面。他们家还将多余的房间租给了附近一所大学的老师和学生，以及生意人。
租金收入现在构成了王举武一家年收入 2,000 美元的一半，虽然王举武仍在剩余的土地上和妻子一起种菜。已然白发的王举武老人坐在毛泽东画像下的一个躺椅上喜笑颜开 ，乐呵呵地说：“现在生活比以前好多了。”
附近一个村的居民致富道路就截然不同了。那里有一半以上的家庭都拥有卡车，他们用卡车装载沙子、建筑材料等。其中就有李培平，她说，她和她的丈夫计划明年买第二辆卡车后，就雇一个人。
现在李培平仍在自己的小块土地上种著水稻和蔬菜，跑运输都是她的丈夫来做。在农忙季节，夫妻两人通常会雇上 6 个人去地里帮忙。帮手不难找到，李培平说，“他们来自更穷的地区。”
