National Land Conference

A conference on thorough agrarian reform. In order to sum up the experience of land reform work after the "May Fourth Instruction" issued by the CPC Central Committee and to promote the development of land reform work in the Liberated Areas, so as to fully mobilize the revolutionary and productive enthusiasm of the vast number of peasants and to obtain a continuous supply of human and material resources to support the developing of Liberation War, the Central Working Committee of the CPC held a National Land Conference from July 17 to September 13, 1947 in Jianping County (now part of Pingshan County), Hebei Province.

The Conference was attended by Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Dong Biwu, Peng Zhen, the main leaders of the Central Committee, and Li Xuefeng, Wang Congwu, Zhang Jiafu, Bo Yibo, the main leaders of the Liberated Areas, as well as most of the local committees in North China and the representatives of the brigades of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army, a total of 107 people. The Conference was presided over by Liu Shaoqi, secretary of the Central Working Committee, and lasted nearly two months.

At the opening ceremony, Liu Shaoqi spoke about the purpose and tasks of the Conference, emphasizing that the land issue is the basic link of all problems in the Liberated Areas, pointing out that the main agenda of the National Land Conference was to carry out a thorough land reform. The Conference consisted of representatives of the Liberated Areas reporting on the land reform, summarizing and exchanging experiences, focusing on the two major issues of land reform and party consolidation, and adopting the "Outline of China’s Land Law", which was officially promulgated and implemented on October 10.

The Outline of China’s Land Law clearly stipulates: “It is necessary, on the basis of the demands of

the peasantry, to wipe out the rural system of feudal and semi-feudal exploitation, and to realize the system of ‘land to the tillers.’” It also stipulates the basic principle of thorough and equal distribution of land, that is, “all land of landlords in the villages, and all public land, shall be taken over by the village peasant association, and together with all other village land, in accordance with the total population of the village, irrespective of male or female, young or old, shall be unifiedly and equally distributed; with regard to the quantity of land, surplus shall be taken to relieve dearth, and with regard to the quality of land, fertile shall be taken to supplement infertile, so that all the village people shall obtain land equally; and it shall be the individual property of each person.” Furthermore, the Outline specifies issues such as village power and its organizational form: “The legal executive organs for the reform of the rural system shall be the village peasants' meetings, and the committees elected by them; the assemblies of the poor peasant leagues and organized and landless and land-poor peasants of villages, and the committees elected by it; district, county, provincial and other levels of peasant congresses, and committees elected by them.”

The National Land Conference summarized the experience of land reform work in a timely manner and further developed the Party's land policy. The "Outline of China's Land Law" adopted at the Conference was the first programmatic document on land system reform publicly promulgated by the CPC after the victory in the Anti-Japanese War, providing a basic program for the elimination of the feudal exploitative land system throughout the country, greatly promoting the land reform movement in the old and new Liberated Areas, and providing strong support for the victorious development of the Liberation War.