Issue 1, 2025  

Where Are Peasant Households Headed?

Contents

▍Editor’s Note  

Promoting Organizational Innovation in Agriculture to Pave New Paths for Modern Agriculture 

▍Overseas

Trump 2.0’s US-China Tech War    Zhang Peng

▍Cover Story: Where Are Peasant Households Heading?

Bridging the Urban-Rural Divide: A New Dawn for China’s Countryside    Xu Jin, Li Wenfei

Modernization is an objective process in human history that proceeds independently of human will. This process inevitably leads to changes in urban-rural relations. The expansion of cities and the decline of rural areas are general patterns of modernization. However, human civilization’s reflexive nature and conscious human action serve as powerful tools to mitigate or even prevent the apparent hardships brought by modernity. China's rural revitalization process follows the general patterns of modernization while also reflecting new changes in the context of the times. Just as rural areas historically nurtured urban development, modernization has entered a new phase where cities contribute to rural advancement. This marks a turning point in what seemed to be an inevitable rural decline.

The End of Small Farmers?    Dong Leiming, Xie Meijie

Chinese Peasant Households in the Dual Revolutions of Agriculture and Information                           Tan Tongxue

When Farmers Step Back: The State’s New Role in China’s Agricultural Transformation                      Fu Wei, Zhang Qianhua

China’s agriculture is undergoing profound transformations. The traditional smallholder farming system, characterized by “over-intensive” reliance on household labor, is transitioning to modern agriculture that increasingly depends on capital and technological inputs. This emerging system not only demands higher capital investment but also exhibits a strong reliance on external operating environments. With the agricultural transformation, the relationship between the state and farmers has also experienced significant changes. To ensure food security, arable land protection and grain cultivation have become critical governance tasks for local governments, leading to enhanced precision management of farmland. Consequently, the state has deeply intervened in agricultural production processes, assuming the role of a “guardian” of grain cultivation. However, the high-input and high-dependency nature of modern agriculture has translated into a governance burden for grassroots governments.

The Future of Peasant Households: Beyond Capitalization      Chen Yiyuan

The agrarian transformation in China occurs within a context of capital surplus, fostering conditions for ‘capital flowing to the countryside’. This transformation has reshaped smallholder production both internally and externally. The establishment of the land transfer market has accelerated rural social differentiation, displacing smallholders from farming. Simultaneously, the growth of the agricultural contracting service industry has marginalized family labor in agriculture, further sidelining smallholders in the distribution of agricultural income. This situation underscores the urgent need to explore an alternative path for agricultural modernization, potentially centered on scaling up through the collective organization of smallholders by rural collectives.

▍Focus

How Financialization Destroyed Boeing      Jiang Ziying, Chang Hao, Feng Kaidong

The agrarian transformation in China occurs within a context of capital surplus, fostering conditions for ‘capital flowing to the countryside’. This transformation has reshaped smallholder production both internally and externally. The establishment of the land transfer market has accelerated rural social differentiation, displacing smallholders from farming. Simultaneously, the growth of the agricultural contracting service industry has marginalized family labor in agriculture, further sidelining smallholders in the distribution of agricultural income. This situation underscores the urgent need to explore an alternative path for agricultural modernization, potentially centered on scaling up through the collective organization of smallholders by rural collectives.

▍Special Issue: China’s Chip Breakthrough

Breaking Free from Moore’s Law: A New Path for the Chinese Semiconductor Industry                 Li Yin, Gao Ke

In the context of global competition in advanced chip manufacturing, policymakers often prioritize technological upgrading according to Moore’s Law. However, this article demonstrates that market access is at least as critical as node advancement for industry success. Through a historical analysis of the Chinese chip industry, we find that while policymakers have focused on technological constraints, limited market access has been the overlooked key challenge. We argue that policies promoting domestic market expansion, coupled with firm-level innovation and the development of a high-income consumer base, are essential for sustainable growth.

Why Does China Need to Create Competitive Advantages on Legacy Chips?                   He Pengyu

In recent years, China’s semiconductor industry has made remarkable progress in the legacy chip sector. However, the significance of these developments has not been thoroughly discussed. From the theoretical perspectives of technological progress and industrial development, this article argues that China’s emerging competitive advantages on legacy chips serve two crucial purposes: they provide a strategic response to the US technological blockade, while functioning as a fundamental component in advancing China's indigenous semiconductor technological capabilities.

▍Trends

I Am Omega — On the Rise of Machine Intelligence and the Crisis of Capitalism’s Succession                     Feng Xiang

▍Re-Recognize the West

The False Concept of Populism and the Challenges for the Left     Vijay Prashad

▍Observation · Society

How Digital Technology Embedded in Rural Areas Chen Feng, Liang Wei
Rebuilding Rural “Proximity”                                 Yang Zixiao

▍Academic Review

“Capital” in the Socialist Market Economy       Feng Zhixuan