Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1626-W1185

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1626-W1185

Release Date: December 26, 2023

发布日：2023年12月26日

Topic: Talking about Chinese Peasants and the Countryside Problems in the New Year -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：新年谈农民和农村问题 -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

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Talking about Chinese Peasants and the Countryside Problems in the New Year

-- Wei Jingsheng

Today is December 26, 2023. This day is Mao Zedong's birthday. Mao Zedong's greatest achievement in his life was to deceive China's peasants and realize his dream of imperial power. In this big deception, the biggest accomplice was a bunch of so-called intellectuals who are neither Chinese nor Western styled. They themselves destroyed the social foundation on which they existed, and then complained that others did not value them. So far few of these people have self-reflected on this disaster.

For more than two thousand years, Chinese peasants had been free citizens, with a status even higher than any other freelancers. To be qualified to attend the national exam of the intellectuals, (the famous Poet) Li Bai’s family had to abandon the commercial trade rank and become peasants. It can be seen that the social status of peasants in ancient Chinese society was not low. But what about now? Chinese peasants have become the lowest class of citizens in the current society. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has redressed and re-classed the capitalists, the landlords, and even the intellectuals. Only the peasants are still at the bottom, suffering from various unequal treatments. This is the biggest social problem in China now.

Are today's Chinese peasants still the peasants they were for more than two thousand years? Not anymore. In the 1950s, Mao Zedong led the CCP and gradually turned peasants into serfs. Before coming to power, the CCP promised to let peasants own their own land, which was Sun Yat-sen's call – the peasants shall have their land. The peasants supported them in seizing power.

Just a few years after seizing power, the CCP took back all the land by forcing people to join cooperatives. All peasants became serfs of the CCP, farming under the command of the lords. The decline in production enthusiasm and blind leadership led to tens of millions of Chinese peasants starving to death. Therefore, all Chinese peasants hope to have an urban household registration so that they can enjoy the same commercial food as urban residents; at least they will not be starved to death.

As a result, city residents and Chinese peasants formed two distinct classes. Even if they live in cities for a long time, peasants are still not the working class, but instead the migrant peasant working class that are subject to all kinds of overt and covert discrimination. Now that the Chinese economy is in recession, migrant peasant workers have returned to the countryside. Many people may not return to the cities to work again. How do they survive?

Go back and take back the contracted land that belongs to you? This is the beginning of a new wave of conflict in rural areas, and the organizers who instigate the masses to fight against the masses can once again show their talents and abilities. The unstable state of China's agricultural production scale expansion over the past three decades will be damaged even more. Agricultural production efficiency will decline. Group incidents in rural areas will also increase significantly. The stability of rural society will no longer exist.

The first measure to solve these problems is to restore the equal legal status of peasants and urban residents in China. In traditional Chinese society, everyone was an equal citizen: wherever you lived and worked, you were a resident there. Various discriminatory laws and policies in the Chinese cities now should be abolished, so that the term migrant peasant worker disappears and this legal exploitation and discrimination becomes a thing of the past.

The second important measure is to abolish the so-called contract system and return legal land ownership to the Chinese peasants, which they can buy and sell freely. First of all, this was once their legal property, but was illegally and forcibly lost and now just returned to them. Secondly, this ownership will be conducive to annexing land on a voluntary and legal basis and thus will enable the expansion of the production scale, which is the basic condition for modern agriculture.

The third measure is that, under the premise of equal status and property ownership, unemployed peasants could start new businesses and start a new life without having conflict over uncertain contract rights (defined by the CCP government). People should not always complain about the low quality of peasants. When you divide your family property and fight against each other, your performance is no better than that of Chinese peasants of "low quality".

In the current situation of social development, still clinging to the dogmas of communist serfdom is the rhythm of the government forcing the people to rebel. Especially for Chinese peasants, decades of serfdom have harmed all classes and are the basic conditions of the tyranny of the CCP. Without starting to solve the problem from the perspective of private property rights, most other measures are just scratching the surface.

China's intellectuals must pay more attention to the people at the bottom in order to be worthy of the respect and trust of the people. A person who can read, yet only sees the expressions of his superiors and thinks only of making money to buy Louis Vuitton handbags for his wife does not deserve to be called an intellectual. At best he is just a shameless literate person.

(This English version is translated by Ciping HUANG, without any compensation. Wei Jingsheng and the Wei Jingsheng Foundation appreciate her decades of contribution, especially for allowing the use and distribution of her translations of these commentaries.)

Original link of this commentary:

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-12262023093323.html

To hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's related commentary, please visit:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2023/WeiJS231225onChinesePeasants.mp3

Related screenshot of Wei Jingsheng’s commentary on RFA website:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/pic/newsletters/newsletters2023/newsletters2023-4/WeiJSonChinesePeasants231226RFApage.jpg

(Written on December 24 and recorded on December 25, 2023. Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia on December 26, 2023.)

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中文版

Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1626-W1185

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1626-W1185

Release Date: December 26, 2023

发布日：2023年12月26日

Topic: Talking about Chinese Peasants and the Countryside Problems in the New Year -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：新年谈农民和农村问题 -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问：

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2023/report2023-12/WeiJS231226onChinesePeasantsA1626-W1185.htm

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新年谈农民和农村问题

-- 魏京生

今天是2023年12月26日。这个日子是毛泽东的生日。毛泽东一生最大的成就，是忽悠了中国的农民，成就了他的皇权梦。在这场大忽悠之中，最大的帮凶就是一帮不中不西的所谓知识分子。他们自己消灭了自己赖以存在的社会基础，然后喊冤说人家不重视他们。至今很少有人自省。

两千多年来，中国农民都是自由民，地位甚至高于任何其它自由职业者。李白要考功名还得依靠他们家弃商务农变成农民。可见古代社会中农民的社会地位不低。可如今呢？农民成了当前社会最低等的国民。资本家平反了，地主平反了，知识分子们也牛叉了。只有农民反而是最下层，遭受着种种不平等的待遇。这是现在中国最大的社会问题。

现在的中国农民还是两千多年来的农民吗？早就不是了。五十年代毛泽东领导着中共，一步一步地把农民变成了农奴。上台前他们许诺让农民拥有自己的土地，也就是孙中山的纲领，耕者有其田。农民支持他们夺取了政权。

夺权后仅仅几年，中共就用强迫加入合作社的方法，收回了全部土地。所有农民都成了党组织的农奴，在领主们的指挥下种地。生产积极性的下降和瞎指挥，导致了几千万农民被饿死。于是所有农民都希望有一个城市户口，可以享受和城里人一样的商品粮，至少不会被饿死。

于是城市人和农民就形成了两个泾渭分明的阶级。即使现在长期住在城市里，农民也不是什么工人阶级，而是农民工阶级，受到各种各样明的暗的歧视。现在遇到了经济大退潮，农民工们返回了乡下。很多人可能不会再回到城市里打工了。他们怎么生存下去呢？

回去收回自己的承包土地？这就是农村新一波矛盾的开始，挑动群众斗群众的组织者们，又可以大显身手了。三十多年来中国农业生产规模扩大的不稳定状态，将会加剧被破坏。农业生产效率将会下降。农村的群体事件也会大幅度增加。农村社会的稳定将不复存在。

解决这些问题的第一条措施，就是恢复农民和城市居民同等的法律地位。和传统的中国社会一样，所有人都是平等的国民：你在哪儿生活工作，就是那儿的居民。应该取消现在城市里的各种歧视性法律和政策，让农民工这种称呼消失，让这种合法的剥削和歧视成为历史。

第二条重要的措施，就是取消所谓的承包制，还给农民合法的土地所有权，并且可以自由地买卖。首先这曾经是他们的合法财产，曾经被非法强迫丢失的财产，现在只是还给他们。其次这有利于在自愿合法的前提下兼并土地，扩大生产规模，是现代化农业的基础条件。

再其次，在身份平等拥有财产的前提下，失业的农民可以开始经营新的生意，开始新的生活，不必为了那个不确定的承包权而产生矛盾。不要老埋怨农民素质低，你们自己分家产打得头破血流的时候，表现不比“素质低”的农民好到哪儿去。

在社会发展到如今的形势下，还死抱着共产主义农奴制的那些教条，是官逼民反的节奏。特别是对农民，几十年来的农奴制害苦了所有各阶级，是中共暴政的基本条件。不从私人财产权上开始解决问题，其它的多数措施都不过是隔靴搔痒，隔山打牛。

中国的知识分子们要更多地关心底层人民，才配得上人民的尊敬和信赖。眼睛只看见上级的脸色，心里只想着赚钱给老婆买驴包的识字分子，不配管自己叫知识分子。最多不过是无耻文人而已。

(本评论的英文版本由黄慈萍翻译。魏京生和魏京生基金会感谢她数十年来相关的无偿贡献，特别是使用和发布此译文的许可。)

评论的原始链接：

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-12262023093323.html