Outline Land Law of China

(September 13, 1947)

Article 1 The land system of feudal and semi-feudal exploitation shall be abolished and the land system of land to the tiller shall be put into effect.

Article 2 The land ownership of all landlords shall be abolished.

Article 3 The land ownership of all ancestral temples, monasteries, temples, schools, institutions, and organizations shall be abolished.

Article 4 All debts in the countryside contracted prior to the reform of the land system shall be abolished. (Note by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: The debts to be abolished as referred to in this Article denote the usurious debts owed by the working people to landlords and rich peasants who were usurers prior to the land reform.)

Article 5 The village peasants' congresses and the committees elected by them, the poor peasant league congresses organized by the peasants in the countryside who have no land or little land and the committees elected by them, and the peasants' congresses at the district, county, and province levels and the committees elected by them shall be the lawful executive organs for reforming the land system.

Article 6 Except as provided in Item B of Article 9 of this Law, the land of all landlords in the countryside and public land shall be taken over by the village peasant associations, and together with all other land in the countryside, shall be uniformly and equitably distributed according to the total population of the village, irrespective of sex or age, taking from those who have more to supplement those who have less in terms of land quantity, and taking from those who have fertile land to supplement those who have poor land in terms of quality, so that the entire population of the village shall obtain equal land, which shall be owned by each individual. (Note by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: During the equal distribution of land, attention should be paid to the opinions of the middle peasants. If the middle peasants do not agree, concessions should be made to them, and they shall be allowed to retain a landholding that is higher than the average level of land owned by the ordinary poor peasants. When equally distributing land in old and semi-old liberated areas, it shall be carried out in accordance with the directive of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on February 22, 1948, concerning the work of land reform and Party consolidation in old and semi-old liberated areas.)

Article 7 Land distribution shall be carried out with the township or the administrative village equivalent to a township as the unit, but the district or county peasant associations may make certain necessary adjustments among the various townships or administrative villages equivalent to townships. In areas with vast territory and sparse population, for the convenience of cultivation, land may be distributed in smaller units below the township level.

Article 8 Village peasant associations shall take over the livestock, farm implements, houses, grain, and other property of landlords, and shall expropriate the surplus portion of the above-mentioned property of rich peasants, and distribute them to peasants and other poor people who lack such property, and shall also distribute an equal share to landlords. The property distributed to each person shall be owned by the individual, so that the entire population of the village shall obtain appropriate means of production and means of subsistence.

Article 9 The measures for handling certain special lands and properties are stipulated as follows:

(A) Mountain forests, water conservancy facilities, reed lands, orchards, ponds, wastelands, and other distributable lands shall be distributed according to the standards for ordinary land.

(B) Large forests, large water conservancy projects, large mines, large pastures, large tracts of wasteland, and lakes and marshes shall be placed under government administration.

(C) Scenic spots and historical sites shall be properly protected. Special books, antiquities, art objects, etc., of historical or academic value that have been taken over shall be inventoried and submitted to the local higher-level governments for handling.

(D) Munitions and weapons, as well as large quantities of currency, materials, grain, and other items remaining after satisfying the needs of the peasants, shall be inventoried and submitted to the local higher-level governments for handling.

Article 10 The measures for handling certain special problems in land distribution are stipulated as follows:

(A) Poor peasants with only one or two family members may, at the discretion of the village peasants' congress, be allotted land equivalent to that for two or three persons.

(B) Ordinary rural workers, professionals, and their families shall be allotted land equal to that of peasants, but those whose professions are sufficient to regularly cover all or most of their living expenses shall not be allotted land, or shall be allotted a portion of land, to be handled at the discretion of the village peasants' congress and its committee.

(C) All personnel of the People's Liberation Army, democratic governments, and people's organizations whose families reside in the countryside shall, themselves and their families, be allotted land and property equal to that of peasants.

(D) Landlords and their families shall be allotted land and property equal to that of peasants.

(E) Officers and soldiers of the Kuomintang army, officials of the Kuomintang government, members of the Kuomintang Party, and other enemy personnel whose families reside in the countryside shall have their families allotted land and property equal to that of peasants.

(F) Traitors to the Chinese nation, collaborators, and civil war criminals shall basically not be allotted land or property. Those whose families reside in the countryside, who have not participated in criminal acts, and who are willing to cultivate the land themselves shall be allotted land and property equal to that of peasants.

Article 11 Land distributed to the people shall be issued land ownership certificates by the government, and their rights to free management, sale, and lease under specific conditions shall be recognized. Land contracts and debt agreements made prior to the reform of the land system shall all be surrendered and cancelled.

Article 12 The property of industrial and commercial operators and their lawful business operations shall be protected from infringement.

Article 13 To ensure the implementation of the land reform, people's tribunals shall be organized to try and punish all criminals who resist or undermine this Law. The people's tribunals shall be composed of personnel elected by the peasants' congress or the peasants' representative congress and personnel appointed by the government.

Article 14 During the period of land system reform, in order to maintain order in the land reform and protect the wealth of the people, the village peasants' congress or its committee shall designate personnel, through certain procedures, to take necessary measures, and be responsible for receiving, registering, inventorying, and safeguarding all transferred land and property, preventing destruction, loss, waste, and malpractice. Peasant associations shall prohibit any person from arbitrarily slaughtering livestock, felling trees, destroying farm implements, water conservancy facilities, buildings, crops, or other items, and from engaging in theft, forcible seizure, private gifting, concealment, burying, dispersal, or sale of these items for the purpose of obstructing equitable distribution. Violators shall be subject to trial and punishment by the people's tribunals.

Article 15 To ensure that all measures in the land reform conform to the interests and will of the overwhelming majority of the people, the government is responsible for effectively guaranteeing the democratic rights of the people, ensuring that peasants and their representatives have full power to freely criticize and impeach all cadres at all levels and in all quarters at various meetings, and have full power to freely remove and elect all cadres in the government and peasant organizations at various appropriate meetings. Those who infringe upon the above-mentioned democratic rights of the people shall be subject to trial and punishment by the people's tribunals.

Article 16 In areas where land has already been equally distributed prior to the promulgation of this Law, if the peasants do not demand redistribution, redistribution may not be carried out.