Territoriality and the Modern State: The Case of China's 1962 Land Rules

Establishing new land rules is often a central part of how a modern state is constructed and sustained. In China, a state-led territorial process resulted in a set of land rules in 1962 that demarcated rural land in accordance with the production experience spaces of acquaintance communities and granted these communities key ownership rights over a fixed territory. These rights created structural conditions that encouraged village groups to establish their own operational rules, which in turn incentivized cooperation among group members on collective production and distribution. This system thus generated “quasi-voluntary” compliance, as farmers met their tax obligations in exchange for these land rights. This article explores how the 1962 land rules evolved and their role in producing the PRC's communal-owned land system, which still formally covers almost half of China's territory and population today, and the implications for the range of possible rural land governance arrangements in modern societies.