Roy Prosterman's contribution to China's land tenure
Chinese leaders heeded the University of Washington professor's advice that China must grant farmers long-term and stable land rights as a fundamental institutional arrangement.
The following is translated from a post of the WeChat blog Rural Reform Chronicle, of the 中国城乡发展国际交流协会 China Urban-Rural Development International Exchange Association, published on Saturday, March 8th.
The blog post pays tributes to Roy L. Prosterman, who, according to a Washington Post obituary, died Feb. 27 at the age of 89 and was “a lawyer who abandoned a lucrative corporate practice in the 1960s and dedicated the rest of his life to a campaign against global poverty.”
The blog post was written by 崔昕 Cui Xin, a retired Chinese government official.
Cui Xin: Why did Du Runsheng write to Tian Jiyun? — Remembering Professor Prosterman
Recently, the WeChat blog Rural Reform Chronicle, of the 中国城乡发展国际交流协会 China Urban-Rural Development International Exchange Association, published an article titled 杜润生给田纪云同志的信 Du Runsheng’s Letter to Comrade Tian Jiyun, which brought back many memories for me.
Du Runsheng wrote this letter to Tian Jiyun in June 2002. This was on the eve of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s approval of the Land Contract Law in August of that year. The core issue of rural land contract legislation revolved around the duration of land contracts. This letter strongly recommended that the land contract period should not be less than 30 years and that adjustments should not be allowed during this period. It also listed various drawbacks of frequent adjustments to land contract relations.
At the end of the letter, there was a mention of an attached letter from Professor Prosterman of the United States. In fact, most of the content of Du’s letter originated from Prosterman’s letter. At the time, Du was already in his late 80s and would not have written such a long letter by hand. However, he fully agreed with the content and viewpoints expressed in it and was deeply aware of its value and urgency. Otherwise, as a retired senior official who had been away from politics for over a decade, he would not have undertaken such an effort.
Professor Prosterman was Roy Prosterman, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law and the founder of the Rural Development Institute (RDI). The members of this research institute were primarily lawyers focused on studying rural land tenure issues in developing countries. China’s rural reform began with the household responsibility system, which marked a revolutionary shift in rural land tenure. This change greatly intrigued Prosterman and his team. They believed that granting farmers long-term and stable land rights was a fundamental institutional arrangement for improving farmers’ livelihoods and achieving rural modernization in developing countries.
Starting in the mid-1980s, Prosterman led his team, acting as experts for international organizations such as the World Bank, to conduct extensive field research in China’s rural areas. They also engaged in discussions and seminars with Chinese officials and scholars.
In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, I worked in the foreign affairs departments of the 中央农研室 Central Rural Research Office and the 国务院发展研究中心 Development Research Center of the State Council, participating in many related activities. These included arranging meetings between central leadership and foreign experts, organizing discussions between ministerial leaders and experts, and attending two field investigations in Anhui and Jiangxi provinces.
I personally witnessed three meetings between central leadership and Professor Prosterman, which left a deep impression on me.
The first meeting was in mid-September 1994, when Wen Jiabao, then an alternate member of the Politburo and Secretary of the central Secretariat of the Communist Party of China, met with Prosterman in the Jiangsu Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Prior to the meeting, Chen Xiwen had written a briefing note for Wen Jiabao, which I printed and delivered to his office. The meeting lasted over an hour, and I recall that their discussion was quite detailed. Wen Jiabao listened attentively, nodding occasionally, and responded to Prosterman’s questions one by one. Chen Xiwen was also present.
Wen Jiabao was very approachable. He arrived at the Jiangsu Hall ahead of time, entered alone without any staff welcoming him at the door, and greeted us staff members before the meeting. Before the discussion began, he warmly shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with the foreign guests, even inviting us staff members to take a group photo with him and the visitors.
【Zichen’s note: Wen Jiabao went on to serve as China’s premier from 2003 to 2013.】
In the autumn of 1996, Jiang Chunyun, then Vice Premier of the State Council, met with Professor Prosterman at Wucheng Hall in Zhongnanhai, located behind Ziguang Pavilion. The meeting lasted about an hour, with Chinese officials including Chen Xiwen accompanying. Afterward, I compiled Prosterman’s key discussion points, which were approved for publication in the State Council Development Research Center’s research report 《择要》 Selected Summaries. About a week later, the confidential documents office summoned me to review a document—it was a copy of Selected Summaries, with Jiang Chunyun’s handwritten comment on the first page: “It seems that land tenure issues are very important. Please… review and study.” This was the first time a report bearing my name received a central leader’s written instruction, giving me a sense of achievement.
In the spring of 1998, Tian Jiyun, then a member of the CPC Politburo and Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress, met with Prosterman again in a hall near the northwest gate of the Great Hall of the People, likely the Jiangsu Hall.
Tian Jiyun’s schedule was packed, and this meeting nearly did not happen. After much effort, it was arranged to begin at 8:30 AM and end by 9:00 AM, as there was a National People’s Congress meeting immediately afterward—possibly the session that passed the Land Administration Law. Attendees included Wang Mengkui, then Director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, as well as 章含之 Zhang Hanzhi and 李桐连 Li Tonglian, who led the International Cooperation Bureau. Prosterman had flown in from Seattle the previous day specifically for this meeting.
Before the meeting, Tian Jiyun chatted casually with Wang Mengkui. At the time, Wang had recently been transferred from the State Council Research Office to lead the State COuncil Development Research Center. This event was likely the first foreign affairs activity arranged for him by the International Cooperation Bureau. Tian Jiyun said to him: “Mengkui, the Development Research Center is a great place. You can take your time to study issues seriously. You can also work here for several more years.” (Later, Wang Mengkui remained in this position until he retired at 69.)
The meeting ran over time, lasting 45 minutes instead of 30. When the doors opened, over a dozen NPC and Great Hall staff were waiting outside. As Tian Jiyun walked out, he told Wang Mengkui: “This professor understands our rural situation very well, and his views are very important. He came all the way to China just to meet me. You all should take good care of him.” Wang Mengkui replied: “We have already made arrangements.”
That evening, Wang Mengkui hosted a dinner for Prosterman at a small dining room on the fourth floor of the Great Hall’s north gate. Zhang Hanzhi, Li Tonglian, and I attended. Zhang and Li, both senior translators, took turns interpreting for Wang and Prosterman, making the atmosphere lively.
【Zichen’s note: Zhang Hanzhi was Mao Zedong’s English tutor.】
During this meeting with Tian Jiyun, Prosterman proposed extending land contracts to 70 years to allow for inheritance within families. In hindsight, the No. 1 Central Document explicitly extended land contracts for another 30 years after two contract cycles, far surpassing 70 years. (Xinhua News Agency sent text and photo journalists to all three meetings, and the People’s Daily published news reporting, but I have no records—I rely entirely on memory.)
【Zichen’s note: No.1 Central Document refers to the 1st document issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China every year.】
Professor Prosterman was not a famous figure, nor had he published any particularly renowned works. His research institute at the University of Washington was small. At that time, it was extremely rare for three vice-national-level leaders of the central government to meet separately with an ordinary scholar like him, and each meeting was conducted in a small, private setting. If it were today, such meetings would be impossible to arrange. This is because high-level foreign affairs arrangements now take many more factors into consideration. For instance, if the visitor is a government official, their rank must be evaluated; if they are a scholar, their level of recognition matters—whether they are a Nobel Prize winner or have served as an economic advisor to a president; if they are a businessperson, whether they are the head of a Fortune 500 company, and so on.
When drafting the requests for these meetings and communicating with various levels of leadership and departments, I had similar concerns. If any leader, at any level, had simply given a perfunctory response like, “The central leadership is very busy; do not disturb their work,” the whole effort would have been shut down immediately. The discussions were strictly limited to land tenure issues within China’s rural reform. If it were today, people might question, “Can an American really understand China better than we do?” With further speculation, not only would the meetings have been impossible, but even attempting them might have carried some risks for us.
Fortunately, these concerns did not materialize. Instead, the proposal received support at all levels, moving forward without obstruction. The central leaders who met with him were all quite satisfied with the meetings.
Looking back now, many factors contributed to the success of these high-level meetings, but the most crucial were:
1. The central leadership’s deep commitment to rural reform, especially the emphasis on using legal measures to consolidate its achievements. As a legal scholar, Prosterman’s perspective was somewhat different from that of economists and politicians, which made his suggestions particularly valuable.
2. The highly open environment for policy research in the 1990s, during which the central leadership was willing to hear international perspectives on China’s reforms.
3. The willingness of us ordinary staff members to take action and contribute to policy research. We demonstrated a strong sense of initiative in facilitating these efforts.
I was fortunate to participate in and witness these historic moments in my 30s. It is something I take pride in and cherish.
The last time I saw Prosterman was after 2010. We had dinner at Huaiyangfu near the China Development Research Foundation, joined by old friends like Xu Xiaoqing. By then, his Parkinson’s disease had worsened; he struggled to pick up food, and speaking was difficult for him.
In late January this year [2025], just before the Spring Festival, I met his assistant Li Ping in Chengdu. Li told me that Prosterman had been in a nursing home for some time and had recently fallen, leaving him bedridden. After the Spring Festival, Li called to say Prosterman had entered hospice care. A few days later, he called from Shanghai Pudong Airport: “Prosterman passed away two days ago, aged 89.” He was boarding a flight to Seattle.
The man is gone. This article is my tribute to Professor Prosterman, who made an invaluable contribution to China’s rural land reform.
(March 2025)
(Author: Cui Xin, Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Urban-Rural Development International Exchange Association, former cadre of the International Division of the Central Rural Policy Research Office, former Director of the International Cooperation Bureau at the Development Research Center of the State Council, former Deputy Secretary-General of the China Development Research Foundation, and former Director of the General Affairs Service Center at the Development Research Center of the State Council.)